DIRECT EFFECTS

The direct effects of our actions are often more potent than the effects on us of other people’s treatment of us, and in fact, as we have seen, our own behavior plays a major role in determining how we interpret other people’s behavior. Not just direct effects but vantage-point effects are usually significant in cases like this last one. It is often helpful to separate the different effects on us of our actions. The eventual influence on us of nearly any act may be a combination of two of the effects mentioned, or all of them. Vantage-point effects stop us from discovering evidence that might lead us to change our beliefs. However, the place where we have intensified a belief, direct effects have nearly always played a more prominent role.