The Folly of Fools by Robert Trivers Read Free Book Online

not leave much evidence and is very common in academia. I once wrote a paper that borrowed heavily from a well-known book, a fact I had forgotten by the time I finished the paper. Only when I reread my copy of the book did I see where the ideas had come from—these sections were heavily underlined, with many marginal notations.
    It also seems certain that unconscious ploys to manipulate others in specific ways must be common. Specialized parts of ourselves look out for special opportunities in others. The value of this is precisely that two or more activities can go on simultaneously, with little or no interference. If an independent unconscious module studies for opportunities to steal or lie, it need not interfere (except slightly) with other, ongoing mental activities. We really have no idea how common this kind of activity may be.

THE HALLMARKS OF SELF-DECEPTION
     
    In summary, the hallmark of self-deception in the service of deceit is the denial of deception, the unconscious running of selfish and deceitful ploys, the creation of a public persona as an altruist and a person “beneffective” in the lives of others, the creation of self-serving social theories and biased internal narratives of ongoing behavior, as well as false historical narratives of past behavior that hide true intention and causality. The symptom is a biased system of information flow, with the conscious mind devoted (in part) to constructing a false image and at the same time unaware of contravening behavior and evidence.
    Of course, it must usually be advantageous for the truth to be registered somewhere, so that mechanisms of self-deception are expected often to reside side-by-side with mechanisms for the correct apprehension of reality. The mind must be constructed in a very complex manner, repeatedly split into public and private portions, with complicated interactions between them.
    The general cost of self-deception is the misapprehension of reality, especially social, and an inefficient, fragmented mental system. As we shall learn, there are also important immune costs to self-deception, and there is something called imposed self-deception, in which an organism works unconsciously to further the interests of the organism inducing the self-deception costs on all sides, the worst of all possible worlds. At the same time, as we shall also see in Chapter 3, there is sufficient slack in the system for people to sometimes deceive themselves for direct advantage (even immunological). Before we turn to that, we will review the subject of deception in nature. There is an enormous literature on this subject and a few principles of genuine importance.

CHAPTER 2
     
    Deception in Nature
     

    B efore we take a deeper look at self-deception, let us examine deception in other species. It is often easier to see patterns of importance if we cast our net of evidence widely—in this case, to include all species, not just our own. What can we learn about deception by viewing it in an evolutionary context? The evolutionary approach to deception is to study deception in all its forms while looking for general principles. So far, the forms of deception turn out to be very numerous and the principles very few. Deception hides from view, so its secrets often have to be pried out by meticulous study and analysis, of which, fortunately, there has been a lot, and several important principles have emerged that apply across species. First, there is a tremendous premium on novelty that in turn generates an enormous variety of deceptive ploys. Since novel tricks—almost by definition—lack defenses against the tricks, they usually spread quickly. This is the beginning of a so-called coevolutionary struggle between deceiver and deceived, acted out over evolutionary time. This struggle leads to complexity on both sides—to the evolution of bizarre, intricate, and beautiful examples of deception, as well as the ability to spot them. In general, but especially in birds