Puzzling Evidence

Science has unearthed many quirks of human behavior that do not align well with our traditional self understandings.

Conscious thought is just one small aspect of the mind, and seems better suited to explanation and persuasion than to rational deliberation.
People have many cognitive Biases, situations where we fail to live up to proposed standards of rational behavior.
In particular, people have Positive Illusions; they believe they are more competent and virtuous than they are, that they have more control over events than they do, and that misfortune and failure are less likely than they are. Within limits, this unreasonable optimism is associated with health, happiness and success—a conflict with the ideal of rational decision-making.
Moral behavior doesn't work the way it's supposed to. People act in highly context-dependent ways, taking into account many things they claim not to have considered, and that moral rules declare to be irrelevant. See situationalism.

See also:

Arguments for an Argumentative Theory	consciousness, evolution, bias, puzzling, stub
Attitude Behavior Gap	behavior, motivation, story, puzzling
Biases	bias, puzzling, unpredictability, judgment
Heritability Controversy	nurture, genetic, puzzling, rough
Is there a Universal Need for Positive Self-Regard?	puzzling, social, happiness, community, nurture, psychology
Phantoms in the Brain	neuro, puzzling, story, unconscious, perception, confabulation
Predictably Irrational	psychology, economics, judgment, bias, puzzling
Stumbling on Happiness	psychology, happiness, puzzling, unpredictability, bias, rationalization
The Black Swan	rough, unpredictability, chaos, story, puzzling, judgment, economics
The Hidden Cost of Education Fever	education, social, puzzling
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat	neuro, puzzling, stub
Tom Shadyac: I Am	spiritual, striving, level confusion, puzzling

The Human Condition