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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 41
... thoughts in words, to craft tools, to plan and to lie. Unfortunately or not, the gradual changes in brain structure that eventually produced the modern mind did not endow us with much ability to understand ourselves. Self-understanding ...
... thought that unconscious thoughts are expressed in something like a verbal code, and that the narrative images found in ordinary conversations can manifestly convey one set of meanings while covertly expressing quite another. This makes ...
... thoughts that we bar from conscious awareness. I know that this will sound outrageous to some readers. Surely, they will object, you cannot mix up science with poetry! My response is not only that we can, but also that we must if we are ...
... thought to be at best confused and at worst insane. Evolutionary psychology opposes this cozy mythology. Lying is not exceptional; it is normal, and more often spontaneous and unconscious than cynical and coldly analytical. Our minds ...
... thoughts, hopes, dreams, fears, and fantasies. Freud argued that the brain contains a number of modules, functional systems that carry out specific activities. Most controversially, he proposed that the part of the brain that thinks is ...
Contents
The Evolution of Machiavelli | |
The Architecture of the Machiavellian Mind | |
Social Poker | |
Hot Gossip | |
Machiavelli on the Couch | |
Conspiratorial Whispers and Covert Operations | |
Praise for Why We | |
Psychological Biases and Defense | |
Index | |
Other editions - View all
Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind David Livingstone Smith No preview available - 2004 |