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Deceit, lying, and falsehoods lie at the very heart of our cultural heritage. Even the founding myth of the Judeo-Christian tradition, the story of Adam and Eve, revolves around a lie. We have been talking, writing and singing about deception ever since Eve told God, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Our seemingly insatiable appetite for stories of deception spans the extremes of culture from King Lear to Little Red Riding Hood, retaining a grip on our imaginations despite endless repetition. These tales of deception are so enthralling because they speak to something fundamental in the human condition. The ever-present possibility of deceit is a crucial dimension of all human relationships, even the most central: our relationships with our very own selves.
Now, for the first time, philosopher and evolutionary psychologist David Livingstone Smith elucidates the essential role that deception and self-deception have played in human--and animal--evolution and shows that the very structure of our minds has been shaped from our earliest beginnings by the need to deceive. Smith shows us that by examining the stories we tell, the falsehoods we weave, and the unconscious signals we send out, we can learn much about ourselves and how our minds work.
Readers of Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker will find much to intrigue them in this fascinating book, which declares that our extraordinary ability to deceive others--and even our own selves--"lies" at the heart of our humanity.
- Sales Rank: #363534 in Books
- Published on: 2004-07-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .97" w x 5.76" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 256 pages
From Publishers Weekly
According to Smith, deception lies so deeply at the heart of our existence that we often cannot distinguish truth from lies in our everyday lives. Deception, he writes, is pervasive as we manage how others perceive us, from using cosmetics to lying on a job application; it is "more often spontaneous and unconscious than cynical and coldly analytical." In this superficial investigation of the biology and psychology of lying, Smith, a professor of philosophy and cofounder and director of the Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology at the University of New England, tries to demonstrate that humans are hardwired to deceive: we do so just as frogs and lizards engage in mimicry, to insure the survival of the species. Unlike other animals, however, we have the capacity to deceive ourselves as well as others, since our mendacity is embedded not only in our evolutionary past but also in our unconscious. Smith tells us nothing that hasn't been covered by other writers in sociobiology and evolutionary psychology. Moreover, his study is really two books—one on evolutionary biology and the other on psychology and the unconscious—and the lack of transition makes it hard to tell what one really has to do with the other.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
The brain, especially the unconscious mind, is the ultimate challenge for scientists and philosophers. Following the lead of Antonio Damasio and Diane Ackerman, Smith focuses on a particularly baffling trait, our proclivity for deception, not only our habit of lying to others but also, and far more mysteriously, the way we deceive ourselves. To show that lying is as natural as breathing, Smith presents a lively survey of the many forms of deception practiced by plants, insects, and animals. He then turns to Homo sapiens and offers cogent and provocative analysis of the link between increasingly complex societies, the evolution of the brain, and the need for "social lies" in the interest of civility. This leads to eyebrow-raising speculation regarding the source of our habitual mendacity and psyche-protecting self-deception (the extent of which is truly astonishing), a facet of the unconscious that Smith calls "Machiavellian intelligence," and a convincing theory as to why it functions "beyond the reach of introspection." With an "aha!" moment on every page, Smith's inquiry is stimulating and unsettling. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Why We Lie is written with snap, panache, and the sort of insights that stop you in your tracks. Its subject--deception, trickery, pulling a fast one, conning other humans and conning ourselves--is critical to understanding the evolution of the human mind. Getting a handle on deception is crucial to understanding the self with which you and I live from second to second every minute of our conscious and our dreaming lives."
- Howard Bloom, author of Global Brain and The Lucifer Principle
"David Smith has pulled off a beaut. Freud, Darwin, Machiavelli (and, oh yes, Liz Smith) meet around the poker table of life. Why We Lie is a wonderfully blended cluster of arguments to support the painful truth that we are a species whose skills at deceiving others is matched only by our ability to deceive ourselves."
- Arthur S. Reber, author of The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology and The New Gambler's Bible
"Self-deception is one of the most powerful ideas in psychology, indeed, in human affairs, and David Smith's Why We Lie is an excellent synthesis of this crucial topic. The biology is up-to-date and accurate, the psychological implications are clearly worked out, and the writing is inviting and accessible."
- Steven Pinker, bestselling author of The Blank Slate and The Language Instinct
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Four Stars
By The Commandments of CoCo
Very enlightening read.
9 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Are there hidden truths within this book?
By Dr. Lee D. Carlson
The best thing about this book is that the author realizes that his assertions are very difficult to substantiate scientifically. However he believes that they should at least be put down in print, in order that they might motivate more thorough scientific investigation. There are many places in the book that are very interesting, but there are also places where the author's assertions seem difficult to accept, even from an intuitive and philosophical point of view. It is a welcome addition to the literature though, since it touches on a topic that has not traditionally been the subject of much research (although this is changing, especially in the field of neuroscience). The author's background is in psychoanalysis, and he is aware of the extreme skepticism about this field in contemporary psychology. He asks the reader though to consider what he has to say, and gives fairly provocative food for thought in this regard.
Interestingly, many readers will perhaps find that the author's theses are self-evident, namely the assertion that a truthful life, i.e. a life where a particular individual has chosen to not engage in deception, would be very burdensome both for the individual and those around him. Of course, the author's view of deception is much broader than mere verbal expression. Any kind of manipulation, whether intended or not, (and subconscious motivations play an even greater role) constitutes a lie in the opinion of the author. For example, if a middle-age man dyes his gray hair black in order to appear younger at a job interview, this would be lying according to the author. Even more radical is the assertion that one can be lying without even intending to. The author's central thesis is that the elaborate mechanism of the unconscious has evolved in order that the individual does not have knowledge of his deception. Awareness of deception will result in a dead give away to those around you, since they will be able to spot the deception using their superb lie detection abilities (which have also evolved).
Indeed, the author takes lying to be the normal state for all humans, with truth telling actually anomalous and forming a definite statistical outlier. "Our minds and bodies secrete deceit", he says. This is an acceptable statement to make as a working hypothesis, for again, the author wants to instigate research that will justify it. But of course, the reader will wonder why the author himself has been excused from the evolutionary pressures that force humans into a global minimum of deception. This book, and the content within it, is supposed to be an honest assessment of the author's intentions to finding, well, the "truth". He is curious (evidently) about whether his beliefs will be verified by scientific research and the meticulous data collection that this entails. Does he expect those who carry out this research to be honest, or does he expect them to lie? If there is a propensity to lie, i.e. if humans are all "natural-born liars," then how can he expect researchers to go through the motions of collecting data and reporting it truthfully?
Several questions arise when reading this book, the answers of which would be fascinating and very important. For example, what are the energy costs associated with lying as compared with truth-telling? Why is lying the more optimal strategy in this regard? Why is truth telling considered naive and ineffective in social interactions, especially in interactions between representatives of different nations? Is there any evidence, even anecdotal, to suggest that a life of truth telling is not as enjoyable as one devoted to lying? Could it not be just as plausible to believe that humans are instead "natural-born truth tellers?" Research in neuroscience has shown what areas in the brain are activated when lies are told. Is this activation healthy or detrimental to the individual? What if further research indicates that lying actually damages the brain, resulting in emotional and intellectual disintegration, i.e. in a cynical mal-adapted individual? Given the enormous amounts of energy that has been expended by humans throughout history in pursuing the objects of their curiosity, i.e. technological inventions and scientific research, it would seem plausible to believe that further research in neuroscience will indicate that truth telling results in a healthy brain and enhances the general well-being of the individual.
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Brilliant!!!
By Elaine Stewart
Every once in a while a new book appears which lifts the veil off one's eyes. This is just such a book. Smith addresses one the most important issues of our time. Why do we tell lies? Further, why are we so good at telling them? The author tells us that "the evolutionary roots of deception and the unconscious mind"(the subheading of the book) accounts for our ease with lying.
The book addresses some of the fundamental aspects of lying - that we are indeed natural born liars, that not only is lying found throughout nature, but that organisms that lie well are successful. In addition, Smith describes the role of unconscious cognition. His use of the term "social poker" illustrates what takes place in communication.
Smith goes where no `self-respecting' psychologists these days are willing to go, by discussing `Freudian' ideas. This was refreshing amidst the climate of overwhelming objection to Freud's ideas in psychology. Smith's knowledge of the various areas addressed in the book is profound. His ability to express Darwinian concepts in a clear and reasoned manner is superb.
Indeed this book is a `must read' for the scholar, the student, or even the general reader who is interested in human nature. I highly recommend it, and believe that those who read it will find it fascinating and compelling.
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