In a brilliant article "Lies
we tell ourselves", Michael Shermer, the founding publisher of Skeptic
magazine provides his scholarly insight on the topic of deception. A section of
the article relates to the title explaining the concept of self-deception.
We
being with the Evolution of Deception and Deception Detection;
According
to the Author, " A selfish-gene model of
evolution dictates that we should maximise our reproductive success through
cunning deceit. Yet the dynamics of game theory shows that if you are aware
that other contestants in the game will also be employing similar
strategies, it behooves you to feign transparency and honesty to lure them into
complacency before you defect and grab the spoils. But if they are like you in
anticipating such a shift in strategy, they might pull the same trick, which
means you must be keenly sensitive to their deceptions and they of yours. Thus,
we evolved the capacity for deception and deception detection."
(Detection on its own)
To my understanding it seems to depend upon our awareness
of the person whom we are testing for deception. The Author suggests that one
needs to spend time with the individual to understand their intent. As noted by
Trives,“When interactions are
anonymous or infrequent, behavioral cues cannot be read against a background of
known behavior, so more general attributes of lying must be used.”
He
identifies three!
Nervousness: Because of negative
consequences of being detected, including being aggressed against... people are
expected to be more nervous when lying.
Control: In response to concern over
appearing nervous... people may exert control, trying to suppress behavior,
with possible detectable side effects such as... a planned and rehearsed
impression.
Cognitive load: Lying can be congitively
demanding. You must suppress the truth and construct a falsehood that is
plausible on its face and... you must tell it in a convincing way and you must
remember the story.
Clearly
the cognitive load seems to be the biggest challenge considering the extent of
effort one needs to put in and the side effects it causes. Likewise,
overcontrol leads to blinking and fidgeting less and using fewer hand gestures,
longer pauses and higher-pitched voices (examples mentioned in the
article).
(Finally, Self-Deception!)
To
explain the same, the Author uses a quote by Abraham Lincoln, “You can fool some of the people all of the
time and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the
people all of the time.” Unless self-deception is involved.
If you believe the lie, you are less
likely to give off the normal cues of lying that others might perceive:
deception and deception detection create self-deception.
Article Link http://www.michaelshermer.com/2012/02/lies-we-tell-ourselves/
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