Meanwhile, science continues to spit out examples. Metaphor is so strong that we wish to wash our hands when we have done something immoral (= dirty), but the form of our misbehavior can affect the disinfectant chosen: soap for a nasty e-mail sent by hand but mouthwash for a nasty message left on an answering machine. In principle, some of these subtle, unconscious associations are available for notice by others, especially those close by and motivated to do so.
And now conference calls by businesses about quarterly earnings have been subjected to linguistic analysis by economists for cues to deception, mostly using later performance restatements as the arbiter of truth. Sure enough, some of the usual villains reappear—people avoid first person references when lying, preferring “they” or impersonal pronouns, such as “people.” People use fewer extreme positive and negative terms—as if moderating their position for the sake of plausibility—and fewer certainty and hesitation terms (as if having memorized their spiel). They also prefer references to general knowledge but avoid references to shareholder value and creation. Logic can go either way. Perhaps you hype shareholder value to fool others. But the evidence suggests otherwise. You shy away from the truth (shareholder value) because that is where you are weakest, but then you are stuck with weaker pleas to aspects of “general” knowledge. The above work is tentative but very appealing. At last we are moving out of the experimental psychology lab, a near-hopeless place in which to investigate deception and its consequences.
Finally, consider a clever experiment recently run on undergraduates. Although artificial in the extreme—telling an imaginary lie to a teacher (high status) versus an imaginary lie to a fellow student (equal status)—people forgot more simultaneously learned words in the high-status case than in the equal-status one, as if self-deception (including memory impairment) were more often practiced against high-status opponents.
One nice feature of the study of deceit and self-deception is that we will never run out of examples. Quite the contrary, they are being generated more rapidly than we can deconstruct them. At least we can enjoy the never-ending extravaganza while trying to deepen our consciousness. Everybody can join in, not just academics or scientists. The logic for understanding self-deception is simple and the phenomenon universal.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to the many research organizations that have supported my work over the years: the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Biosocial Research Foundation, and the Crafoord Foundation. I am especially grateful to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for giving me the wonderful gift of the Crafoord Prize in 2007. I am also grateful to the University of the West Indies for making me in 2009 an Honorary Research Fellow for life.
The first draft of this book was written while I was a fellow at WIKO, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin (2008–09). The institute provided a very warm and supportive environment in which to work, and I am grateful to all staff members at all levels, administrative, IT, library, and kitchen. Fellows who helped me that year were Roger Chickering, Holk Cruse, Thomas Metzinger, Srinivas Narayanan, and Ibrahima Thioub. I am especially grateful to Bill von Hippell for spending five months at WIKO teaching me social psychology and commenting on all aspects of the book.
For detailed, helpful comments on multiple chapters I am grateful to Nick Davies, Bernhard Fink, Norman Finkelstein, Steven Gangestad, Marc Hauser, Jody Hey, Srinivas Narayanan, Stephen Pinker, Richard Wrangham, Doron Zeilberger, and William Zimmerman. I am most grateful to David Haig for reading the entire book and engaging in numerous conversations on all aspects of the book. Finally, I am also grateful to Amy Jacobson and Darine Zaatari for their contributions to this book.
I thank my agent John Brockman for connecting me with three first-rate publishers. I thank my English-language editors for detailed comments and unfailing support—Will Goodland at Penguin and TJ Kelleher at Basic Books. I am also grateful for the critical support of Michele Luz-zatto at Einaudi.
Finally, for early years filled with comic insight into the subject, I thank my brother Jonathan.
NOTES
NOTES TO CHAPTER 1
1 Parent/offspring relations: Trivers 1974; reciprocal altruism: Trivers 1971.
2 Sex differences: Trivers 1972; sex ratio: Trivers and Willard 1973, Trivers and Hare 1976.
7 Within our genomes: Burt and Trivers 2006.
8 Stick insects: Brock 1999; at least fifty million years: Wedman et al 2007.
10 Behavioral cues to human deception: DePaolo et al 2003, Vrij 2008; accuracy of detection: Bond and DePaolo 2006; suppression versus faking : Craig et al 1991, Larochette et al 2006; cognitive load a critical variable: Vrij 2004, Vrij et al 2006.
11 By no means always a delay prior to lying: Morgan et al 2009; pitch of voice: DePaolo and Kashy 2003, Vrij 2008; displacement activities: Troisi 2002; nervousness as a weak factor: Vrij 2004, 2008.
12 Cognitive load and blurting out: Wegner 2009; common verbal features: Newman et al 2003.
13 Lies are detected 20 percent of the time: DePaolo et al 1996; see also DePaolo et al 1998.
14 Ignorance and confidence: Ehrlinger et al 2008, Kruger and Dunning 1999.
15 “Beneffectance,” active voice, man and telephone pole: Greenwald 1980; BMW owners: Johansson-Stenman and Martinsson 2006.
16 Self-inflation effect, high school students, academics: Greenwald 1980; general review: Alicke and Sedikides 2009, Guenther and Alicke 2010; morphing faces: Epley and Whitchurch 2008.
17 Japan and China: Alicke and Sedikides 2009, Kobayashi and Greenwald 2003; area of the brain for self-inflation: Kwan et al 2007; narcissists high in dominance and power: Campbell et al 2007; overconfident, over-bet, and persistent in their delusions: Campbell 2004.
18 Contrast two sets of college students: Fein and Spencer 1997.
19 “Us” paired with nonsense syllables: Perdue et al 1990; generalize bad to out-group, good to in-group: Maas et al 1989; smiles imputed to in-group members: Beaupre and Hess 2003; smile intensity predicts longevity : Abel and Kruger 2010.
20 Monkeys: Mahajan et al 2011.
21 Power prime: Galinksy et al 2006; Churchill: Mukerjee 2010.
22 Moral hypocrisy: Batson et al 1999; under cognitive load, moral bias toward self vanishes: Valdesolo and DeStano 2008; predictable and unpredictable shocks in rats: Weiss 1970; effects of perceived control in humans: Lykken et al 1972.
23 Illusion of control: Langer and Roth 1975; in stockbrokers: Fenton-O’C-reavy et al 2003; illusory pattern recognition: Whitson and Galinksy 2008.
25 Victim/perpetrator: Baumeister et al 1990.
28 Self-deception and inefficient mental systems include misapprehension of reality: Peterson et al 2002; failure to respond to error: Peterson et al 2003.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 2
30 Frequency-dependent selection in butterflies: Sheppard 1959; for matched pictures of the butterfly models and mimics: Owen 1971.
31 Brood parasites in birds: Davies 2000; almost everything in this section can be found there.
32 Individual species specialized to lay eggs: Gibbs et al 2000; advantageous to count eggs: Lyon 2003; single cuckoo’s begging call mimicking entire brood: Davies et al 1998; hawk cuckoo in Japan: Tanaka and Ubeda 2005, Tanaka et al 2005.
33 Importance of recognition errors in reed warblers: Davies et al 1996, Brooke et al 1998.
34 “Mafia-like” behavior: Soler et al 1995, Hoover and Robinson 2007; cultural transmission: Davies and Welbergen 2009.
35 Ants: Barbero et al 2009; ant mimics: Maderspracher and Stensmyr 2011.
37 Monkey and ape brains: Byrne and Corp 2004.
38 Mimicry in general: Wickler 1968; fireflies: El-Hani et al 2010, Lloyd 1986; orchids: Jersakova et al 2006; deceptive orchids more outbred: Cozzolino and Widmer 2005.
39 Bluegill sunfish: Dominey 1980, Gross 1982; blister beetle: Saul-Gershenz and Millar 2006.
40 In mixed-
species flocks: Greig-Smith 1978; see also use by drongos to steal food from meerkats, Flower 2010; to separate warring siblings: Spellerberg 1971, and more generally, Wiebe and Bartolotti 2000; as a paternity guard: Moller 1990; antelopes: Bro-Jorgensen and Pangle 2010; each skin-color cell of an octopus: Hanlon et al 2007.
41 Adjusting its color to each new surface: Barbosa et al 2007; mimic flounders: Hanlon and Conroy 2008; randomly displaying variant phenotypes: Hanlon et al 1999; squid female mimic: Hanlon et al 2005; bird distraction displays: Sordahl 1986.
42 Crakes: source unknown; fake butterfly eggs: Gilbert 1982; pronghorn mother: Byers and Byers 1983.
44 Wasp status badges: Tibbetts and Dale 2004; key perceptual factor: Tibbetts and Izzo 2010; sparrow status badges: Rohwer 1977, Rohwer and Rohwer 1978, Rohwer and Ewald 1981, Moller and Swaddle 1987.
46 Ravens adjust behavior to context and competitors: Bugnyar and Heinrich 2006; cachers and raiders: Bugnyar and Kotrschal 2002; see around an obstacle: Bugnyar et al 2004; jays: Dally et al 2004, 2006; gray squirrels: Leaver et al 2007; chimps hiding erections: de Waal 1982.
47 Mantis shrimps: Steger and Caldwell 1983, Caldwell 1986, Adams and Caldwell 1990; fiddler crabs: Lailvaux et al 2009.
48 Hide objects behind back: de Waal 1982; throw object: de Waal 1986; cooperation modeled as prisoner’s dilemma: Axelrod and Hamilton 1981; more recent work reviewed: Trivers 2005.
49 I am most grateful to Karl Sigmund for suggesting this entire page.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 3
54 Neurophysiology of action: Libet 2004; we also have an illusion of conscious will, one we actively work to maintain: Wegner 2002.
55 A novel experiment: Soon et al 2008.
56 Flip side: Libet 2004, Wegner 2002; thought suppression in the lab: Anderson et al 2004.
57 Ironic effects of thought suppression: Wegner 1989, 2009, Wegner et al 2004.
58 Neural inhibition of deception area: Karim et al 2009.
59 Brains of pathological liars: Yang et al 2007; jugglers: Scholz et al 2009; unconscious voice recognition experiments: Gur and Sackeim 1979.
61 Unconscious facial recognition: Bobes et al 2004; voice recognition in birds: Margoliash and Konishi 1985.
62 Anosognosia: Ramachandran 2009.
63 Response time to threatening words: Nardone et al 2008; dominance reversal in birds: reviewed in Trivers 1985.
64 IAT: Greenwald et al 1998; improvements in methodology: Greenwald et al 2003; general IAT effects: Greenwald et al 2009.
65 IAT for racial preferences: Nosek et al 2002; effects of racial prime on academic performance: Steele and Aronson 1995; effects of racial bias on executive control of the biased: Richeson and Shelton 2003.
66 False confessions: Kassin 2005, Kassin and Gudjonsson 2005; disassociation under torture: Ray et al 2006; high disassociators and interference on Stroop: Freyd et al 1998.
67 False memories of child abuse: McNally 2003, Clancy 2009.
71 Placebo effects in general: Benedetti 2009, Price et al 2008; rubbing is good: Saradeth et al 1994; so are sham devices: Kaptchuk et al 2006; homeopathic effects are placebo effects: Shang et al 2005.
72 Color of pills: de Craen et al 1996; angina surgery: Cobb et al 1959; arthroscopic surgery: Moseley et al 1996.
73 Placebo and pain: Wager et al 2004, Benedetti 2009; I thank Anders Moller for the quote from unpublished work; meta-analysis of placebo and depression: Fournier et al 2010.
74 Auto-stimulatory effects on female sexuality: Palace 1995; caffeine and cyclists: Beedie et al 2006; placebo effect out of a placebo effect: Kaptchuk et al 2010.
75 Placebo and suggestibility: Benedetti 2009; hypnosis and Stroop test: Raz et al 2002; Stroop test: Stroop 1935; immune benefits of hypnosis: Gruzeller 2002.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 4
77 Hamilton’s rule: Hamilton 1964.
78 Self-deception regarding parental investment: Eibach and Mock 2011
79 Paternal grandmothers: Fox et al 2010.
80 Parent/offspring conflict: Trivers 1974, Trivers 1985.
82 High disassociators and interference on Stroop: Freyd et al 1998; early discovery of imprinted genes: Haig and Westoby 1989.
83 Conflict between Igf2 and Igf2r: Haig and Graham 1991; evidence for Haig’s rule: Haig 2004, Burt and Trivers 2006; chimeric mice: Keverne et al 1996.
84 Selves-deception: Burt and Trivers 2006; imprinting and genes in the brain: Gregg et al 2010; paternal genes for maternal behavior: Li et al 1999, Curley et al 2004; incest: Haig 1999.
86 I am indebted to David Haig for the notion that imprinting becomes less important with increasing adult age.
87 Children’s reaction to a new half-sibling: Schlomer et al 2010.
88 Variety of children’s deception: Reddy 2007.
89 How often children lie: Wilson et al 2003; white lies: Talwar et al 2007; temper tantrums in chimps and pelicans: reviewed in Trivers 1985; fetal deception during pregnancy: Haig 1993.
90 Intelligence and deception in children: Lewis 1993.
91 Smiling at victim and deception in children: Talwar et al 2007; dominance and deception: Keating and Heitman 1994.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 5
96 Investment and genes: Trivers 1972; asexual species small, frequent extinction: Bell 1982.
97 Bluegill sunfish single-siders: Gross et al 2007.
99 Human female and male choice: Thornhill and Gangestad 2008.
100 Attribution of relatedness: Daly and Wilson 1982.
101 Creating artificial parental resemblance: Platek et al 2004; male sexual jealousy: Daly et al 1982.
103 Duck re-raped by mate: Barash 1977; women and men respond to infidelity: Daly et al 1982; women are more attractive at the time of ovulation: Thornhill and Gangestad 2008; derogate the looks of other women more: Fisher 2004; in several clubs in Vienna: Grammer et al 2004.
104 Preferences shift at ovulation to signs of genetic quality: Thornhill and Gangestad 2008; lap dancers: Miller et al 2007; genetic matching lowers female sexual interest: Garver-Apgar et al 2006; women’s sense of smell more acute: Yousem et al 1999; especially at ovulation: Thornhill et al 2003.
105 Women are better at reading facial expressions: Williams and Mattingley 2006; women’s brains tend to act more symmetrically: Kovalev et al 2003; men deceive themselves about women’s sexual interest: Haselton 2003.
106 Two sexes introduced together for ten minutes: Grammer et al 2000; male denial of homosexual tendencies: Adams et al 1996; for a possible alternative view of the latter, Meier et al 2006.
108 People have a bias toward seeing improvement: Karney and Coombs 2000; both spouses reported steady improvement: Frye and Karney 2004; self-justification as assassin of marriage: Tavris and Aronson 2007.
111 Elin Woods: National Enquirer April 2010, National Enquirer December 2009, Vecsey 2010.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 6
115 Parasites arrayed against immune systems: for an excellent general review of the two-sided interaction, Schmidt-Hempel 2011.
116 The immune system sends many cellular types: Murphy et al 2008; immune system as sixth sense: Blalock and Smith 2007.
117 Immune system is expensive: Murphy et al 2008.
118 Metabolic cost of fever and immune response: Lochmiller and Deerenberg 2000, Baracos et al 1987.
119 Sickness behavior: Dantzer and Kelley 2007.
120 Sleep beneficial for immune function: Cohen et al 2009, Bryant et al 2004; different species of mammals: Preston et al 2009.
121 The lowest testosterone levels: Gray and Campbell 2009, Burnham et al 2003, Muller et al 2009; males with higher testosterone are more likely to become infected: Muhlenbein et al 2006, Muhlenbein 2006, Muhlenbein 2008.
122 Degree of fat-free muscle mass: Lassek and Gaulin 2009; stress: Segerstrom and Miller 2004; arithmetic: Sokoloff et al 1955; brain’s resting energy cost remains virtually constant: Raichle and Gusnard 2002, Clarke and Sokoloff 1999.
123 Brain is the most genetically active tissue: H
siao et al 2001.
124 Brightly colored males chosen for their parasite-resistant genes: Hamilton and Zuk 1982; honeybee associative learning: Mallon et al 2003; bird brain size and immunity: Moller et al 2005.
125 River otters and nematode worms, Scherr and Bowman 2009; series of experiments writing about trauma: Pennebaker 1997, Petrie et al 1998; for effects on HIV: Petrie et al 2004.
126 A recent review of about 150 studies: Frattaroli 2006; in New World Amerindian religions; as one psychologist drily notes: Pennebaker 1997.
127 Emotion words and pronouns: Ramirez-Esparza and Pennebaker 2006; undisclosed trauma and sexual trauma: Pennebaker 2011; suicide support groups: Pennebaker and O’Heeron 1984; chance of reemployment: Spera et al 1994.
128 Expressive group therapy: Belanoff et al 2004; deny HIV-positive statu.s: Strachan et al 2007; higher survival of HIV-positive men who are out of the closet: Cole et al 1996a (study corrected for unsafe sex).
129 HIV-positive women: Eisenberger et al 2003; hide your heterosexual identity: Sullivan, 2010.
130 Better health for HIV-negative men out of closet: Cole et al 1996b; rejection-sensitive men: Cole et al 1997; direct experimental tests: Rosenkrantz et al 2003; response to vaccines: Marsland et al 2006, Cohen et al 2006; in general: Marsland et al 2007.
131 I am grateful to Srinivas Narayanan for help producing the first and third paragraphs; effects on older people: Pennebaker 1997.
132 Monkey music: Snowdon and Tele 2009; Musak, jazz, and noise: Charnetski and Brennan 1998; injecting cancer cells into mice: Nunez et al 2002; Bach’s music: le Roux et al 2007; playing music appears to work even better than listening to it: Kuhn 2002.
The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life Page 39