Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind [Anglais] [Relié]

"Deceit is the Cinderella of human nature; essential to our humanity but disowned by its perpetrators at every turn. It is normal, natural, and pervasive. It 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 the weight of too much honesty." (p 2)

David Livingstone Smith has written a stunning book with four aims in view. First, he explains deception and self-deception from an evolutionary perspective, how lying to ourselves soothes the stresses of life and in the process helps us lie efficiently to others. But in order to deceive ourselves, we had to evolve an unconscious region of the brain where truth can be effectively obscured. This ties with the second aim of the book, in which Smith attempts a controversial reconnection between cognitive psychology and the kinds of questions Freud once tried (unsuccessfully) to answer. Like it or not, the unconscious is a reality which must be addressed. Freud may have left us a legacy of crackpot pseudo-science, but some of his findings can be legitimately applied in scientific investigation. Smith gets us started on doing exactly this, and hopefully some of his ideas will be pursued at more length -- and more empirically -- by the scientific community. He uses examples from modern living in describing (the third goal of the book) adaptive functions of the unconscious mind implied by self-deception, showing (even if without the level of empirical proof demanded by scientific inquiry) that we are all natural psychologists, albeit unconscious ones, carefully monitoring one another's behavior, constantly deceiving others and ourselves. This may sound like a wild idea, but it's not. For the author demonstrates (the fourth objective) that our conscious and unconscious perceptions of others are disguised in the gossip, lies, deceptions, and veiled meanings in everyday conversations.

One emerges from this book feeling almost like a paranoid schizophrenic. If indeed we tell three lies for every ten minutes of conversation; if indeed we are constantly, and often unconsciously, aiming hidden missiles at people with coded transcripts and veiled meanings; if indeed we are natural born liars with "bodies that secrete deceit"; then the conclusion presses in the opposite direction of received wisdom. Psychiatric professionals teach us that mentally ill and depressed people are self-deceived and out of touch with reality, but evolutionary biology corrects this mythology. Depressives have a better grasp on reality than then most people, because they suffer from a deficit in self-deception. Smith wryly remarks that self-knowledge isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Smith concludes that we know far less about ourselves, and far more about others, then we are aware of knowing. While acknowledging that we can hardly be taught not to deceive ourselves -- even if we could, it would only result in unhappiness -- we can at least work to rid ourselves of surplus self-deception. But that's easier said than done. In any case, this book is one hell of an eye-opener, and a delight to read. It should be mandatory reading for gnostic-thinkers, who will hate it.

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.

The first reviewer said it right: "Every once in a while a new book appears which lifts the veil off one's eyes." This book amazes me.

Why did our brains evolve a split between our conscious mind and subconscious mind? David Livingstone Smith has a hypothesis that makes sense in an astonishing way. Our brains evolved to maximize our survival potential in prehistoric ages. By far the most important survival factor to primitive humans were their relationships to other humans. Most of our brain power evolved for the purpose of getting along in (primitive) society. Man's capacity for deception evolved in response to reciprocal altruism. Reciprocal altruism improved the life of primitive man, so long as the relationships were reciprocal. However, some individuals would cheat. They would find a way to accept the benefits of reciprocal altruism without reciprocating. Anyone who could cheat successfully had a better chance of passing on their genes. In order to cheat successfully, cheaters had to excel at deception. The genes for deceptive ability spread through the gene pool because that survived the best. With widespread deception and cheating, the ability to detect deception also became an important survival factor. Evolution of the human brain became an arms race between the ability to deceive and the ability to detect deception. As deception became more advanced and subtle, so did the detection of it. Neither side, deception nor detection, could keep the upper hand in the arms race. At some point, deception could no longer be conducted effectively enough by conscious lying. When we lie consciously, we give ourselves away by telltale signs and nervousness. The next step in the arms race was self-deception - to split the mind into a conscious and unconscious. The conscious mind could remain innocent of deception, leaving the unconscious mind free to excel at it. This separation of the mind into a conscious and unconscious, though necessary for successful deception, came at a high cost. The conscious part of our minds became deliberately dumbed down. With the conscious mind being dumbed down, the detection of deception also had to move underground, to be handled by the same "Machiavellian module" that engaged in deception. This unconscious portion of the brain is an expert psychologist, highly capable at reading other people's motivations and at manipulating them. Its high intelligence is unavailable to the conscious mind, except what it selectively allows through. This explanation of a deliberately dumbed down conscious mind accompanied by an intelligent self-deceptive subconscious makes sense. Before reading this book I couldn't see why people (including myself) are like that, but it fits. It is observationally true.

Another important revelation in this book is the survival role of gossip and idle chit chat. As mentioned, detecting cheaters in primitive society had high survival value. Gossip served the vital role of communicating reputation information. However, gossip was dangerous and could be used for mis-information as easily as for sharing reputation information. Gossip could cause the gossiper to be ostracized by friends of the subject, which was fatal in primitive society. To counter this danger, the Machiavellian module developed the ability to communicate in hidden code. Instead of gossiping directly about someone, the Machiavellian module brings up topics of conversation that seem unrelated, but which contain hidden messages. On the surface, it appears to be idle chit chat about nothing. Below the surface, people's Machiavellian modules understand the hidden messages, and have a coded conversation with each other, the meaning of which remains hidden even from their conscious minds. I used to wonder why people waste time in idle chit chat about nothing. After reading this book, my way of listening to people will be forever changed.

This book goes on my most highly recommended list of "must read" books.