Why We Lie

awesome turn around time!!

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.

The book is certainly interesting, yet it seems very far-fetched, like the author points out quite a few times himself.The books starts out by telling the reader how natural deceit is and the many forms it can be found in nature, then proceeds to tell us how it can be useful on humans and why it was hardwired into our brains through natural selection. But then it starts getting messy.David Smith will tell us that, basically, the unconscious can, literally, read another person's mind and communicate with the same without our own (conscious) knowledge. It all seems a bit sketchy and far-fetched, yet I am no expert.The idea is very interesting and for the ignorants (like myself), sounds almost plausible at some points, yet highly unlikely at others. The beginning, where it explains, literally, why we lie was incredibly well done. The rest was, as I said before, far-fetched, yet interesting.Worth the read, very interesting, yet highly speculative.

Love my book ,very interesting to read

Deceit is not, “as popular opinion would have it, reducible to mental illness or moral failure. Human society is a network of lies and deceptions that would collapse under too much honesty.” Furthermore, evolutionary psychology has found that “self-deception is the handmaiden of deceit; in hiding the truth from ourselves, we are able to hide it more fully from others. Therefore, like deceit, self-deception lies at the core of our humanity. Far from being a sign of emotional disturbance…it is probably vital for psychological equilibrium.” So says director of the Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology at the University of New England, David Livingstone Smith, in his Why We Lie. For non-professional liars (we know who that is), this equilibrium is maintained by the fact we don’t even know we’re lying, implying a major evolutionary development of the human brain: “In order to hide the truth about ourselves from ourselves, we needed to evolve an unconscious mind… There is a side of ourselves that we were evolved not to know.”“Our minds, no less than our bodies,” writes Smith, “are products of the forces of nature operating on time frames of millions of years.” But when that mind evolved, humans lived in a very different world. With our present brain size fixed by about 150,000 years ago, we emerged from that environment “equipped with an array of passions, skills, and mental abilities specifically adapted to life in that primeval habitat.” And that hasn’t changed in fifteen hundred centuries. “The mind you and I possess is, in its essentials, a Stone Age mind.” No wonder we’re so screwed up, stuck in traffic, choking on smog, crammed into crowded cities built for cars and buildings that just happen to contain humans.Smith provides a great case for the notion that lies underpin all life on the planet. From deceiving host immune systems by a virus, to mirror orchids that “produce insect pornography” with a flower that looks like a fertile female wasp to the Portia spider that knows the species-specific vibration codes of other prey spiders on their particular webs. Given the portia has excellent eyesight, while other spiders are almost blind, the portia taps out the proper code on the silk of target spiders, and they come running. But the portia is small, its prey often large. If the portia decides it picked the wrong dude, it taps out the message for “leaf in the wind—never mind.” At the top of this deception pyramid are humans. We are more like Homo fallax (deceptive man) than Home sapiens (wise man), says Smith. “The biosphere teams with mendacity… With this lineage behind us, it is hardly surprising that human society is in large measure a densely woven fabric of trickery and dissimulation.”A thrilling read, providing great insights as to why we’re such liars.A thrilling read, and great insights as to why we’re such liars.

This was for college curriculum. It worked out well.

" Why We Lie ? " With a title like that you would think this book would be glued to your hands once opened. This is so not the case. It starts off ok going into a sociological perspective of liying and deception. I totally got into that....THEN all of a sudden it gets into " doctor talk" and experiments that have nothing to do with day to day people wanting to read about the topic of ***DECEPTION.:) Lots of hot air and big words and " grand " ideas but too bad you lose readers.I finished the book. I saw it as a challenge and not to waste money on paper but it took effort and it wasn't fun.

El producto es tal y como se muestra en la publicación. De muy buena calidad y hasta el momento el costo-beneficio es muy bueno con respecto al valor de mercado. En general, excelente compra y sin ningún problema.

I really liked this book, because it explains the reasons that we need to lie to survive in our society

Ce livre est absolument remarquable car il présente sa thèse de manière parfaitement documentée et illustrée. En revanche le livre broché est imprimé à la demande et la qualité n'est pas du tout au rendez-vous.

A fascinating account of the evolutionary role of deceit in primates and humans. Our minds are anticipatory engines equipped by natural selection to handle the pressures of complex social life and act with automatic agility and speed to maximise our chances of survival or reproductive success. Self deception took root in the human mind because it allows us to be better deceivers by protecting us from clever mind readers who might guess our true intentions.The author describes how lying and self deception surreptitiously penetrate many of our unconscious attitudes and utterances to disguise our reactions and intentions. A great number of his assertions are derived from scientific empirical research as opposed to the unfounded “ Freudian”speculations about the role of the unconscious. The author concludes that “ sustained conscious insight hinders rather than contributes to our reproductive success, natural selection has disfavoured conscious knowledge of motivation as a social strategy. For our species all roads lead to self deception, and thus to unconscious communication”. A rather pessimistic conclusion but all too real!Social rules and regulations that control our interactions and protect us from abuse by others drive self serving motives underground. He describes what he calls “the Machiavellian module “ that encompasses these various strategies to manage deceit and counter deceit, ultimately a form of social poker. At the end of the book he lists a number of self deceptive cognitive bias or defence mechanisms, for instance the self serving bias and self centred bias that magnify our self belief in our own achievements and blame external factors for failure. One of the interesting conclusions he reaches is that we know far less about ourselves and are far better at judging the real worth of other people. Depression sufferers far from being deluded and irrational are more in tune with reality and are in fact suffering from a deficit in self deception! I suspect narcissism, which is the other pole of depression, witnessed in full action in Western political discourse recently, must be the apex of self deception. Wishful thinking strikes a cord with self deceiving voters by helping them to conceal their deep grounded sense of impotence with beliefs of superiority , exceptionality and national grandiosity. Highly recommended read!

This is an amazing, fantastic book . Looking directly into the heart of such a crucial yet taboo subject of honesty and dishonesty, its findings are staggering.It's literally a book and a half: there's a related substantial subtext regarding the evidence for the ubiquity of the subconcious in thinking, perceiving, responding, creating, and problem solving. Only a small fraction of this activity shows up on the `computer monitor' of our conscious mind.This prefaces the main item : the pervasive nature of deceitfulness. Endemic in nature's survival equipment, why should man be an exception? Among the `modules' of our subconcious mind, the `Machiavellian' one whirrs away, generating manipulative stategy. Why subconcious? Partly because, to misrepresent and trick our competitiors effectively, it's best to deceive ourselves first.Smith gives a couple of examples of the module in action.Firstly, 85% of our conversation is, not explicit transaction, but gossip. Recounting stories about others, subtly aggrandising ourselves, while we form strategic subconcious bonds and alliances with our audience.Secondly, he suggests, beware moral proclamations. What better way of manipulating the rest of the group than by hypocrisy - proclaiming allegiance to the group morality while - even self-deceptively - following our own selfish motives outside the professed rules.He makes two pleas.Firstly, as individuals, how can we follow the aphorism to 'know thyself'? Smith urges that we seek the opinions of others, who can detect what we hide from ourselves.Secondly, as a species, let us beware most our self-deluding illusions, capable of committing us to join warring in-group / out-group contests of global proportions. Can we search into our souls for the truth in time to prevent Armageddon?