But what if the cumulative lack of rigor, of critical self-deprecation, turns into systemic publication bias?

FORBES: The Wrongs Of Righteous Research

Unlike most polemicists, Lanier has a disarming tendency to conclude forceful assertions with a moment of cheerful self-deprecation.

NEWYORKER: The Visionary

A. in creative writing (he teaches composition and literature), and he writes in the style of mordant self-deprecation that is the approved M.

NEWYORKER: Live and Learn

"I didn't have my first conversation until I was in graduate school, " said Mr. Lutz, whose self-consciousness and half-joking self-deprecation made Woody Allen seem like Albert Brooks.

WSJ: Celebrating a Decade of the Believer

The plaiting of fiction and personal documentary by now a classic mode of indie modernism lends extra poignancy and self-deprecation to the low-key romantic agonies and financial struggles of ambitious yet uncertain bohemians.

NEWYORKER: Open Five

The ironic self-deprecation makes MGO feel trustworthy and approachable.

FORBES: Brutally Honest Accountants Confess To Being Boring

What, though, explains Mr Blunkett's unusual self-deprecation?

ECONOMIST: Crime: Don't panic | The