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

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Preface

  CHAPTER 1 - The Evolutionary Logic of Self-Deception

  THE EVOLUTION OF SELF-DECEPTION

  DECEPTION IS EVERYWHERE

  WHAT IS SELF-DECEPTION?

  DETECTING DECEPTION IN HUMANS VIA COGNITIVE LOAD

  SELF-DECEPTION IS OLDER THAN LANGUAGE

  NINE CATEGORIES OF SELF-DECEPTION

  THE HALLMARKS OF SELF-DECEPTION

  CHAPTER 2 - Deception in Nature

  THE COEVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE BETWEEN DECEIVER AND DECEIVED

  FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT SELECTION IN BUTTERFLIES

  AN EPIC COEVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE

  INTELLIGENCE AND DECEPTION

  FEMALE MIMICS

  FALSE ALARM CALLS

  CAMOUFLAGE

  DEATH AND NEAR-DEATH ACTS

  RANDOMNESS AS A STRATEGY

  DECEPTION MAY INDUCE ANGER

  ANIMALS MAY BE CONSCIOUS OF DECEPTION

  DECEPTION AS AN EVOLUTIONARY GAME

  A DEEPER THEORY OF DECEPTION

  CHAPTER 3 - Neurophysiology and Levels of Imposed Self-Deception

  THE NEUROPHYSIOLOGY OF CONSCIOUS KNOWLEDGE

  THE NEUROPHYSIOLOGY OF THOUGHT SUPPRESSION

  THE IRONY OF TRYING TO SUPPRESS ONE’S THOUGHTS

  IMPROVING DECEPTION THROUGH NEURAL INHIBITION

  UNCONSCIOUS SELF-RECOGNITION SHOWS SELF-DECEPTION

  CAN ONE HALF OF THE BRAIN HIDE FROM THE OTHER?

  IMPOSED SELF-DECEPTION

  IMPLICIT VERSUS EXPLICIT SELF-ESTEEM

  FALSE CONFESSIONS, TORTURE, AND FLATTERY

  FALSE MEMORIES OF CHILD ABUSE

  IS SELF-DECEPTION THE PSYCHE ’S IMMUNE SYSTEM?

  THE PLACEBO EFFECT

  CHAPTER 4 - Self-Deception in the Family—and the Split Self

  PARENT/OFFSPRING CONFLICT

  CASES OF EXTREME ABUSE

  GENOMIC IMPRINTING

  INTERNAL CONFLICT FROM OPPOSITELY IMPRINTED GENES

  PARENTAL MANIPULATION AND IMPRINTING

  THE EFFECT OF MARITAL CONFLICT ON GENETIC CONFLICT

  IMPRINTING AND SELF-DECEPTION

  DECEPTION IN CHILDREN

  PARENTAL EFFECTS ON CHILDREN ’S DECEPTION

  CHAPTER 5 - Deceit, Self-Deception, and Sex

  WHY SEX?

  TWO SEXES—TWO COEVOLVING SPECIES

  DECEPTION AND SELF-DECEPTION AT COURTSHIP

  WHOSE BABY IS IT?

  MALE RESPONSE TO FEMALE INFIDELITY

  DECEIT AND A WOMAN ’S MONTHLY CYCLE

  MEN’S SELF-DECEIT ABOUT FEMALE INTEREST

  MALE DENIAL OF HOMOSEXUAL TENDENCIES

  IS SELF-DECEPTION GOOD OR BAD FOR MARRIAGE?

  THE APPEAL AND DANGER OF FANTASY

  THE PAIN OF BETRAYAL

  CHAPTER 6 - The Immunology of Self-Deception

  THE IMMUNE SYSTEM IS EXPENSIVE

  THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP

  TRADE-OFFS WITH IMMUNITY

  WRITING ABOUT TRAUMA IMPROVES IMMUNE FUNCTION

  HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE EFFECTS OF DENIAL

  POSITIVE AFFECT AND IMMUNE FUNCTION

  THE EFFECTS OF MUSIC

  POSITIVITY IN OLD AGE

  AN IMMUNOLOGICAL THEORY OF HAPPINESS

  CHAPTER 7 - The Psychology of Self-Deception

  AVOIDING SOME INFORMATION AND SEEKING OUT OTHER

  BIASED ENCODING AND INTERPRETATION OF INFORMATION

  BIASED MEMORY

  RATIONALIZATION AND BIASED REPORTING

  PREDICTING FUTURE FEELINGS

  ARE ALL BIASES DUE TO SELF-DECEPTION?

  DENIAL AND PROJECTION

  DENIAL IS SELF-REINFORCING

  YOUR AGGRESSION, MY SELF-DEFENSE

  COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND SELF-JUSTIFICATION

  SOCIAL EFFECTS OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE REDUCTION

  COGNITIVE DISSONANCE IN MONKEYS AND YOUNG CHILDREN

  CHAPTER 8 - Self-Deception in Everyday Life

  SEX DIFFERENCES IN OVERCONFIDENCE

  METAPHORS IN THE STOCK MARKET

  MANIPULATIVE METAPHORS IN LIFE

  THE NAME-LETTER EFFECT

  DECEIVING DOWN AND DUMMYING UP

  FACE-ISM

  SPAM AGAINST ANTI-SPAM

  HUMOR, LAUGHTER, AND SELF-DECEPTION

  DRUGS AND SELF-DECEPTION

  VULNERABILITY TO MANIPULATION BY OTHERS

  PROFESSIONAL CON ARTISTS

  LIE-DETECTOR TESTS

  CHAPTER 9 - Self-Deception in Aviation and Space Disasters

  AIR FLORIDA FLIGHT 90—DOOMED BY SELF-DECEPTION?

  DISASTER 37,000 FEET ABOVE THE AMAZON

  ELDAR TAKES COMMAND—AEROFLOT FLIGHT 593

  SIMPLE PILOT ERROR—OR PILOT FATIGUE?

  ICE OVERPOWERS THE PILOTS; AIRLINES OVERPOWER THE FAA

  THE US APPROACH TO SAFETY HELPS CAUSE 9/11

  THE CHALLENGER DISASTER

  THE COLUMBIA DISASTER

  EGYPT AND EGYPTAIR DENY ALL

  SAVED BY LACK OF SELF-DECEPTION?

  CHAPTER 10 - False Historical Narratives

  THE US FALSE HISTORICAL NARRATIVE

  CONTROL THROUGH SMALL WARS AND INSTALLED PROXIES

  US HISTORY TEXTBOOKS

  LARGER VIEW OF US HISTORY

  THE REWRITING OF JAPANESE HISTORY

  TURKEY’S HOLOCAUST DENIAL

  A LAND WITHOUT PEOPLE FOR A PEOPLE WITHOUT LAND

  THE FOUNDING OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL

  VOLUNTARY FLIGHT OR ETHNIC CLEANSING?

  ARAB DECEIT AND SELF-DECEPTION

  CHRISTIAN ZIONISM

  WHY FALSE HISTORICAL NARRATIVES?

  CHAPTER 11 - Self-Deception and War

  CHIMPANZEE RAIDING → HUMAN WARFARE

  SELF-DECEPTION ENCOURAGES WARFARE

  DEROGATION OF OTHERS → FATAL OVERCONFIDENCE

  THE 2003 US WAR ON IRAQ

  CREATING KNOWLEDGE AND THEN WALLING IT OFF

  CAN WARS BE WON THROUGH BOMBING?

  BOMBING TO ERADICATE HISTORY AND TO REINFORCE IT

  CARNAGE IN GAZA

  SELF-DECEPTION AND THE HISTORY OF WAR

  CHAPTER 12 - Religion and Self-Deception

  COOPERATION WITHIN THE GROUP

  RELIGION: A RECIPE FOR SELF-DECEPTION

  RELIGION AND HEALTH

  PARASITES AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY

  WHY THE BIAS AGAINST WOMEN?

  POWER CORRUPTS

  RELIGIONS IMPOSE MATING SYSTEMS

  RELIGION PREACHES AGAINST SELF-DECEPTION

  INTERCESSORY PRAYER—DOES IT WORK?

  RELIGION AND SUPPORT FOR SUICIDE ATTACKS

  RELIGION → SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS → WARFARE

  CHAPTER 13 - Self-Deception and the Structure of the Social Sciences

  PRECEDENCE OF JUSTICE OVER TRUTH?

  SUCCESS OF SCIENCE IS BASED ON ANTI-SELF-DECEPTION DEVICES

  THE MORE SOCIAL THE DISCIPLINE, THE MORE RETARDED ITS DEVELOPMENT

  SELF-DECEPTION IN BIOLOGY

  IS ECONOMICS A SCIENCE?

  CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

  PSYCHOLOGY

  PSYCHOANALYSIS: SELF-DECEPTION IN THE STUDY OF SELF-DECEPTION

  SELF-DECEPTION DEFORMS DISCIPLINES

  CHAPTER 14 - Fighting Self-Deception in Our Own Lives

  TO FIGHT ONE’S OWN SELF-DECEPTION OR NOT?

  A SERIES OF MINOR VICTORIES FOLLOWED BY A MAJOR DISASTER

  SIGNALS OF UNDERLYING MENTAL SCREW-UPS

  CORRECTING FOR OUR OWN BIASES

&
nbsp; WHY ARE WE SO COMPULSIVE?

  THE VALUE OF BEING CONSCIOUS

  THE DANGER OF FANTASY IN PROPAGATING DECEPTION

  THE BENEFITS OF PRAYER AND MEDITATION

  VALUE OF FRIENDS AND COUNSELORS

  AN INVITATION TO SELF-DECEPTION AND PERSONAL DISASTER

  A NEVER-ENDING EXTRAVAGANZA

  Acknowledgments

  NOTES

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  INDEX

  Copyright Page

  In memory of Dr. Huey P. Newton,

  Black Panther and dear friend

  PREFACE

  The time is ripe for a general theory of deceit and self-deception based on evolutionary logic, a theory that in principle applies to all species but with special force to our own. We are thoroughgoing liars, even to ourselves. Our most prized possession—language—not only strengthens our ability to lie but greatly extends its range. We can lie about events distant in space and time, the details and meaning of the behavior of others, our innermost thoughts and desires, and so on. But why, why self-deception? Why do we possess marvelous sense organs to detect information only to distort it after arrival?

  Evolutionary biology provides the foundation for a functional view of the subject—in this case, we lie to ourselves the better to lie to others—but many other aspects are involved. Self-deception sits squarely within psychology, but if you restrict yourself to that subject, you may well go blind (and crazy as well) long before you discern the underlying principles. In many situations, an understanding of daily life is more valuable than findings from the lab, but our understanding of daily life is easily colored by ignorance and our own deceit and self-deception. This may be especially true where politics and international relations are concerned, but to leave out these topics would be a foolish omission, as if because of potential bias we best remain silent. Since the analysis of self-deception begins at home, I have included some personal stories. Naturally, I have tried to strike a balance between what can be scientifically shown with some certainty and what is provocative but far from certain, and I have tried to make clear which is which.

  My hope is to engage you in applying these concepts to your own life and developing them further. I have tried not to linger unduly over points of uncertainty but to draw attention to them where they occur and move on. Some real fraction of what I write must inevitably be wrong, but I hope that the logic being advanced and facts asserted will easily invite improvements toward a deeper, integrated science of self-deception.

  The topic is a negative one. This book is about untruth, about falsehoods, about lies, inward and outward. At times, it is a depressing subject but, surely more than most, deceit and self-deception deserve to see the light of day, to enjoy the benefits of explicit scientific analysis and study. It is a dark and opaque side to ourselves, one that we leave untreated at our own peril, but it is also a source of endless humor and amazement, so we can also enjoy the subject as we suffer it.

  I have written the book in a certain order—evolutionary logic and deception in nature first, neurophysiology, imposed self-deception, the family, two sexes, immunology, and social psychology next, then self-deception in daily life, including airplane crashes, false historical narratives, war, religion, and the social sciences, before offering final thoughts on how we may fight self-deception in ourselves.

  But in fact, after the first chapter, the book can be read in almost any order. I have made an effort to refer back and forward to related material so that if you skip over material that is later necessary you will often know at once where to find it. For any fact or theory asserted in the text, it is easy to locate the appropriate source by going to the endnotes, which begin after the last chapter and are pegged to page number and content. I have occasionally added references to related material. Full references can then be found in the bibliography.

  Everyone can participate in building a science of self-deception. We all have something to add. The logic is very simple and most of the evidence, easy to grasp. The topic is universal and its many subareas carry us into every corner of human life.

  CHAPTER 1

  The Evolutionary Logic of Self-Deception

  In the early 1970s, I busied myself trying to construct social theory based on natural selection. I wanted to understand the evolution of our basic social relationships—parent/offspring, male/female, relative/ friend, in-group member/out-group one, whatever. Natural selection, in turn, was the key to understanding evolution, and the only theory that answered the question, what is a trait designed to achieve? Natural selection refers to the fact that in every species, some individuals leave more surviving offspring than do others, so that the genetic traits of the reproductively successful tend to become more frequent over time. Since this process knits together genes associated with high reproductive success (RS = number of surviving offspring), all living creatures are expected to be organized accordingly, that is, to attempt to maximize personal RS. Because the replicating units are actually genes, this also means that our genes are expected to promote their own propagation.

  When applied to social behavior, natural selection predicts a mixture of conflicting emotions and behavior. Contrary to widespread beliefs of the time (and even sometimes now), parent/offspring relations are not expected to be free of conflict, not even in the womb. At the same time, reciprocal relations are easily exploited by cheaters, that is, non-reciprocators, so that a sense of fairness may naturally evolve to regulate such relations in a protective manner. Finally, a coherent and unbiased theory for the evolution of sex differences can be built on the concept of relative parental investment—how much time and effort each parent puts into creating the offspring—as well as an understanding of selection acting on their relative numbers (the sex ratio). This work gives us a deeper view of the meaning of being a male or a female.

  The general system of logic worked perfectly well for most subjects I encountered, but one problem stood out. At the heart of our mental lives, there seemed to be a striking contradiction—we seek out information and then act to destroy it. On the one hand, our sense organs have evolved to give us a marvelously detailed and accurate view of the outside world—we see the world in color and 3-D, in motion, texture, nonrandomness, embedded patterns, and a great variety of other features. Likewise for hearing and smell. Together our sensory systems are organized to give us a detailed and accurate view of reality, exactly as we would expect if truth about the outside world helps us to navigate it more effectively. But once this information arrives in our brains, it is often distorted and biased to our conscious minds. We deny the truth to ourselves. We project onto others traits that are in fact true of ourselves—and then attack them! We repress painful memories, create completely false ones, rationalize immoral behavior, act repeatedly to boost positive self-opinion, and show a suite of ego-defense mechanisms. Why?

  Surely these biases are expected to have negative effects on our biological welfare. Why degrade and destroy the truth? Why alter information after arrival so as to reach a conscious falsehood? Why should natural selection have favored our marvelous organs of perception, on the one hand, only to have us systematically distort the information gathered, on the other? In short, why practice self-deception?

  During a brainstorm on parent-offspring conflict in 1972, it occurred to me that deception of others might provide exactly the force to drive deception of self. The key moment occurred when I realized that parent-offspring conflict extended beyond how much parental investment is delivered to the behavior of the offspring itself. Once I saw conflict over the offspring’s personality, it was easy to imagine parental deceit and self-deception molding offspring identity for parental benefit. Likewise, one could imagine parents not just practicing self-deception but also imposing it—that is, inducing it in the offspring—to the offspring’s detriment but to parental advantage. After all, the parent is in the position of advantage—larger, stronger, in control of the resources at issue, and more practiced in the arts of sel
f-deception.