Review of new book The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life by Robert Trivers (via Q3D)
This fundamental insight frames Trivers' wide-ranging exploration of deceit and self-deception in the human and animal worlds. He discusses everything from fish whose body markings make it appear as though their heads are at their tail ends (the better to dart away from predators unexpectedly) to the well-established tendency of men to be more active, and less successful, stock traders than women (men's greater estimation of their abilities leads them to buy and sell more frequently).
Trivers argues that deception, self- and otherwise, has had an unappreciated importance in the evolution of human intelligence. Like the unceasing battle against spam that has led to both better spam filters and cleverer spammers, "deception spawns the mental ability to detect it ... These improved intellectual abilities select for more subtle means of deception, which, in turn, select for greater abilities to detect the deception. In short, deception continually selects for mental ability in the deceived."
I also wish Trivers had spent a bit more time on those circumstances in which self-deception can have positive effects. Telling yourself that you can beat the odds against surviving cancer might spur you to try more aggressive therapies. Believing you can achieve some goal — climbing a mountain, getting a new job, rebuilding an engine — can give you the incentive to actually work at it. The trick, of course, is to not slide into overconfidence or blithely deny unpleasant facts — behaviors which, as Trivers shows time and time again, almost always precede disaster.
This fundamental insight frames Trivers' wide-ranging exploration of deceit and self-deception in the human and animal worlds. He discusses everything from fish whose body markings make it appear as though their heads are at their tail ends (the better to dart away from predators unexpectedly) to the well-established tendency of men to be more active, and less successful, stock traders than women (men's greater estimation of their abilities leads them to buy and sell more frequently).
Trivers argues that deception, self- and otherwise, has had an unappreciated importance in the evolution of human intelligence. Like the unceasing battle against spam that has led to both better spam filters and cleverer spammers, "deception spawns the mental ability to detect it ... These improved intellectual abilities select for more subtle means of deception, which, in turn, select for greater abilities to detect the deception. In short, deception continually selects for mental ability in the deceived."
I also wish Trivers had spent a bit more time on those circumstances in which self-deception can have positive effects. Telling yourself that you can beat the odds against surviving cancer might spur you to try more aggressive therapies. Believing you can achieve some goal — climbing a mountain, getting a new job, rebuilding an engine — can give you the incentive to actually work at it. The trick, of course, is to not slide into overconfidence or blithely deny unpleasant facts — behaviors which, as Trivers shows time and time again, almost always precede disaster.
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