Book Announcement - Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind

[David Smith]

Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind

David Livingstone Smith
St. Martin's Press
256 pages
Size: 5-1/2 x 8-1/4
$24.95
Hardcover

Pub Date: 07/2004
ISBN: 0-312-31039-0

Deceit, 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.

David Livingstone Smith elucidates the essential role that deception and
self-deception have played in human--and non-human--evolution and shows
that the very structure of our minds has been shaped from our earliest
beginnings by the need to deceive. Smith shows us that by examining the
stories we tell, the falsehoods we weave, and the unconscious signals we
send out, we can learn much about ourselves and how our minds work.

"Smith combines philosophy, psychology and biology to argue for the
importance of deception to our identity as human beings."
-- Scientists' Bookshelf Monthly

"Intriguing" - Psychology Today

"Smith presents a lively survey of the many forms of deception practiced
by plants, insects, and animals. He then turns to Homo sapiens and
offers cogent and provocative analysis of the link between increasingly
complex societies, the evolution of the brain, and the need for 'social
lies' in the interest of civility...With an 'aha!' moment on every page,
Smith's inquiry is stimulating and unsettling"
-- Booklist

"Smith draws on Darwin's theory of natural selection, kin altruism, and
the basics of sociobiology....Presenting an intriguing theory with skill
and imagination"
-- Library Journal

"David Livingstone Smith unearths the roots of self-deception." - Seed

"A leap beyond mainstream science proposes how the unconscious mind
could drive our everyday mastery of the art of deceit, both of others
and ourselves. . . . Deliciously tantalizing, with morality as the
Grandest Deceit of them all."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Self-deception is one of the most powerful ideas in psychology, indeed,
in human affairs, and David Smith's Why We Lie is an excellent synthesis
of this crucial topic. The biology is up-to-date and accurate, the
psychological implications are clearly worked out, and the writing is
inviting and accessible."
--Steven Pinker author of The Blank Slate and The Language Instinct

"David Smith has thoroughly documented and analyzed the ubiquitous human
characteristics of deception and self-deception, drawing from the fields
of evolutionary biology, ethology, social psychology and cognitive
science and bringing the Freudian concept of the unconscious into the
behavioral science of the 21st century. This is an engaging, erudite and
powerful book, comprehensible to the layperson as well as the academic,
and requisite reading for anyone with a serious interest in human
nature."
-- Irwin Silverman, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Senior
Scholar, York University, Toronto, Canada

"David Smith has pulled off a beaut. Freud, Darwin, Machiavelli (and, oh
yes, Liz Smith) meet around the poker table of life. Why We Lie is a
wonderfully blended cluster of arguments to support the painful truth
that we are a species whose skills at deceiving others is matched only
by our ability to deceive ourselves."
--Arthur S. Reber, author of The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology

"Why We Lie is written with snap, panache, and the sort of insights that
stop you in your tracks. Its subject--deception, trickery, pulling a
fast one, conning other humans and conning ourselves--is critical to
understanding the evolution of the human mind. Getting a handle on
deception is crucial to understanding the self with which you and I live
from second to second every minute of our conscious and our dreaming
lives."
--Howard Bloom, author of Global Brain and The Lucifer Principle




connectionists at cs.cmu.edu