September 26, 2011
Are there biological advantages to the practice of deceiving oneself and each other? The two are related, says noted Rutgers biologist Trivers in a spirited, provocative exploration of the evolutionary logic of deceit and self-deception: “we deceive ourselves the better to deceive others.” The self-deception Trivers is concerned with is unconscious, not planned. Deception, whether in family relations, in religion, sex or historical accounts, occurs at every level of life: parasite and host, predator and prey, plant and animal, male and female, neighbor and neighbor, parent and offspring. Even though our senses show us the truth of the world around us, our conscious minds often distort it: we project onto others traits that in fact characterize us; we repress painful memories, rationalize immoral behavior, and act repeatedly to boost self-opinion. But the costs of self-deception include the misapprehension of reality, especially social reality, and the possibility of making ourselves immune to the needs of others and ourselves. For example, airline pilots sometimes commit deadly errors out of self-deception that arises from overconfidence in their skills and lack of awareness of the dangers posed by a certain situation. Stimulating but also challenging for lay readers, Trivers’s study provides an energetic exploration of a perplexing human trait.
September 15, 2011
Renowned evolutionary biologist Trivers (Rutgers Univ.) has spent 40 years studying the purpose of bias, distortion, and self-deception in human evolution as traits that would seem to undermine the species' success. Examining the evolutionary logic of self-deception in nature, neuroscience, immunology, and social psychology, Trivers concludes that it arose to allow humans to lie better. While he admits that deception can be a critical evolutionary leg up, he argues that it is ultimately perilous for human survival. Looking at self-deception in broader areas like war, religion, false historical narratives, and even plane crashes, Trivers presents a convincing argument for why this type of dishonesty is as harmful to the individual as it is to society as a whole. He concludes with thoughts on how readers can resist self-deception in themselves. VERDICT This provocative book examines an often unexamined subject, but one with which all readers are familiar. Recommended for professional social scientists as well as readers of popular science.--Gloria Maxwell, Metropolitan Community Coll., Penn Valley, Kansas City, MO
Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from September 15, 2011
Trivers (Anthropology and Biological Sciences/Rutgers Univ.) searches for the evolutionary biology behind why "we are thoroughgoing liars, even to ourselves."
Self-deception has long been a dark, opaque side of our behavior, but the author brings a bright flashlight to his investigation of why we alter information to reach a falsehood. Because Trivers approaches the questions from the standpoint of evolutionary costs and advantages, his functional answer is that we lie to ourselves the better to lie to others, that through self-deception we hide reality from our conscious minds to make a better job of our often self-glorifying, self-justifying, self-forgiving deceptions. But through his research, the author has found self-deception to be a two-edged sword, with positive effects on our survival and reproduction, but negative effects on the immune system. He tenders evidence of self-deceit on all levels—gene, cell, individual and group—from the neurophysiological to parental subterfuge (and the child's subterfuge back) to sex (an absolute snake-pit of deceit and self-deception). Trivers examines our biases and rationalizations, denials and projections, misrepresentation and manipulations, and his writing is comfortable and suasive, resulting from his familiarity and command of the subject's broad application and investigative history. At the same time, the author is disarmingly intimate about his own self-deceptive weakness: "I have noticed that 'inadvertent' touching of women (that is, unconscious prior to the action) occurs exclusively with my left hand."
A gripping inquiry. Trivers is informal but highly knowledgeable, provocative, brightly humorous and inviting.
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