agnostic - interesting question about sex/race differences in self-deception. I'd say it would take a bit of work to define exactly what it is we're talking about. E.g., I can't vouch for the quality of the research, but the only thing I've ever seen written about sex differences in the example you give - blame placing - claimed that females were more likely to place the blame for screw-ups on themselves, and males more likely to attribute their failings to external factors. But even if this were so, how much does this particular trait indicate "self-deception" in total?  
 
At any rate, I'd assert that habits of blame-placing have little to do with sex and a great deal to do with culture. Whether it's a race thing, I don't know, and I'm hard put to see much correlation among religiosity, blame-placing and self-deception. If, as according to your hypothesis, religion, self-deception, and external blame-placing are correlated, and if males and East Asians should have or do less of all of the above, that would leave unexplained for me all the impatient Westeners I've seen driven to apoplexy by what has been described as a more "feminine" style of social relations among, at least, some Asians - obseesion with tact and maintaining social harmony, avoiding displays of anger, endless amounts of emotional energy poured into diffusing and deflecting blame - and the inability, from the perspective of the less male-brained, ostensibly more religious Westerner, to just bloody well put personal feelings aside and get down to business in a nice, proper, impersonal fashion. 
 
If we could get a handle on "self-deception", though, the depression/suicide/self-esteem angle is interesting.

Godd heavens, Razib, what are you doing reading Harper's? 
 
In a way this reminds me of the Baptist kids who would earnestly inform me that Roman Catholics were not Christians. And I did not, as a matter of fact, know my Bible. The "tradition", however, I had a better grasp of. (Still can recite the Nicene Creed. The Ten Commandments I only remember via a mnemonic jingle learned in 2nd grade.)

Couple of things:  
 
1. Perhaps "wisdom of regugnance" arguments get muddy (or are poorly argued from the get-go) because people conflate what I suspect are distinct emotions. Do all the types of unease we describe with the word "disgust" have the same source? (Obviously they do for some people in some cases - e.g., gays are icky! - but they sure don't all feel the same to me.) 
 
2. Disgust and niche-porn: uh, for some of that stuff, isn't the turn-on because of the existence of disgust, not a lack of it?