I googles about self-deception and found many articles about it. It is a thing reseachers in psychology have studied.
Here is a quote from an article that describes it. And it is interesting because of so many ideas about how to understand the Bible. It is good to have in mind the danger of self- deception when we form our beliefs.
https://www.123helpme.com/essay/Self-Deception-and-Absurdity-217557
"Self-deception is described as a strong urge and desire to maintain or defend a belief or idea that one regards to be the truth even while there is strong evidence that the contrary is actually the truth (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Self-deception is “a way we justify false beliefs” and these rationalizations “may even produce it themselves” (Skeptic’s Dictionary; Perspectives, 117). Some views of self-deception suggest that it is an egoistic act, while others do not believe that this is necessarily true. There is also controversy over whether or not the deceiver is conscious of this incidence. That is, the dispute is over whether the deception is intentionally self-induced. Another debate examines whether or not this tendency is an everyday human occurrence. Self-deception must first be defined before arriving at the conclusion that it is an everyday occurrence because, according to one possible definition, self-deception is argued not to even exist. The process of defining this phenomenon can be very difficult and quarrelsome because of diverging views and opinions of the definition. Some may even argue that there are different categories of ‘self-deception’ that only loosely apply to actual self-deception and that this is why it is hard to come to conclusions on the subject (Van Leeuwen). The process of defining self-deception implicates a moral and social definition and understanding as well—questions such as, “Is self-deception immoral?” and, “Does society play a role in self-deception?” must be answered...."