The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life

Overview

A New York Times Notable Book of 2012
Whether it’s in a cockpit at takeoff or the planning of an offensive war, a romantic relationship or a dispute at the office, there are many opportunities to lie and self-deceive—but deceit and self-deception carry the costs of being alienated from reality and can lead to disaster. So why does deception play such a prominent role in our everyday lives? In short, why do we deceive?
In his bold new work, ...

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The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life

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More About This Book

Overview

A New York Times Notable Book of 2012
Whether it’s in a cockpit at takeoff or the planning of an offensive war, a romantic relationship or a dispute at the office, there are many opportunities to lie and self-deceive—but deceit and self-deception carry the costs of being alienated from reality and can lead to disaster. So why does deception play such a prominent role in our everyday lives? In short, why do we deceive?
In his bold new work, prominent biological theorist Robert Trivers unflinchingly argues that self-deception evolved in the service of deceit—the better to fool others. We do it for biological reasons—in order to help us survive and procreate. From viruses mimicking host behavior to humans misremembering (sometimes intentionally) the details of a quarrel, science has proven that the deceptive one can always outwit the masses. But we undertake this deception at our own peril.

Trivers has written an ambitious investigation into the evolutionary logic of lying and the costs of leaving it unchecked.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

According to evolutionary theorist Robert Trivers, pulling the wool over our eyes isn't just an acquired weakness; it's wired into our systems. Whether we're lying to ourselves about illnesses, confessing to crimes we didn't commit, or planning unnecessary offensive wars, humans embrace falsehood for biological reasons. We lie, Trivers tells us, to help us survive as a species. This bold, often counterintuitive book holds our attention because its examples and lessons are so instantly recognizable. Fixing the cards in liar's poker.

John Horgan
Trivers is not an elegant stylist like Dawkins, Wilson or Pinker…But [his] blunt, unpolished manner…makes me trust him more than some slicker writers. The Folly of Fools reminds me other irreducibly odd classics by scientific iconoclasts like The Fractal Geometry of Nature, by the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, and The Society of Mind,by the artificial-intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky…May his new book give him the attention [Trivers] so richly deserves.
—The New York Times Book Review
Publishers Weekly
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. (Nov.)
Library Journal
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
Kirkus Reviews

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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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780465085972
  • Publisher: Basic Books
  • Publication date: 11/12/2013
  • Edition description: First Trade Paper Edition
  • Pages: 416
  • Sales rank: 1,017,315

Meet the Author

Robert L. Trivers is a Professor of Anthropology and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University. He won the Crafoord Prize in Biosciences in 2007 for his fundamental analysis of social evolution, conflict, and cooperation. He lives in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

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