Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious MindDeceit, 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. |
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... brain structure that eventually produced the modern mind did not endow us with much ability to understand ourselves. Self-understanding does not come naturally to human beings, like eating, drinking, and having sex. Pursuing the reasons ...
... brain attained its present form about one hundred fifty thousand years ago. We lived in an environment very different from that of all but a very few human populations today, eventually emerging from prehistory equipped with an array of.
... brain that called the Cartesian conception of the mind into question. He realized that the mind must be identical to the brain, and that the slimy ball of nerve tissue inside our skulls is somehow responsible for the totality of our ...
... brain. Introspection does not provide insight into the workings of the neural machinery that generates it any more than the display on a computer monitor provides a picture of the processes taking place within the processing unit ...
... brains, intense sociality, and behavioral flexibility imply that we should be capable of deceptive feats that are far more intricate and devious than anything that can be observed in the repertoire of non-human species. With this ...
Contents
9 | |
29 | |
The Evolution of Machiavelli | 50 |
The Architecture of the Machiavellian Mind | 79 |
Social Poker | 104 |
Hot Gossip | 122 |
Machiavelli on the Couch | 148 |
Conspiratorial Whispers and Covert Operations | 168 |
Descartess Demon | 195 |
Index | 233 |
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Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind David Livingstone Smith No preview available - 2004 |