Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T22:39:39.056Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Self-deceive to countermine detection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Hui Jing Lu
Affiliation:
Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China. [email protected]@cuhk.edu.hkhttp://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/eps/people/changl.html
Lei Chang
Affiliation:
Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China. [email protected]@cuhk.edu.hkhttp://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/eps/people/changl.html

Abstract

Having evolved to escape detection of deception completely, self-deception must respond to social conditions registering different probabilities of detection. To be adaptive, it must have a mechanism to keep truthful information temporarily from the self during deception and retrieve it after deception. The memory system may serve this mechanism and provides a paradigm in which to conduct research on self-deception.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balcetis, E. (2008) Where the motivation resides and self-deception hides: How motivated cognition accomplishes self-deception. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2(1):361–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, D. D. (1999) Cheater detection is modified by social rank: The impact of dominance on the evolution of cognitive functions. Evolution and Human Behavior 20(4):229–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenwald, A. G. (1997) Self-knowledge and self-deception: Further consideration. In: The mythomanias: The nature of deception and self-deception, ed. Myslobodsky, M. S., pp. 5172. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Haley, K. J. & Fessler, D. M. T. (2005) Nobody's watching? Subtle cues affect generosity in an anonymous economic game. Evolution and Human Behavior 26(3):245–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leeuwen, D. S. N. V. (2007) The spandrels of self-deception: Prospects for a biological theory of a mental phenomenon. Philosophical Psychology 20(3):329–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lu, H. & Chang, L. (2010) Deceive yourself to deceive high but not necessarily low status others. Paper presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Eugene, OR, June 2010.Google Scholar
Mele, A. R. (1997) Real self-deception. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 20(1):91136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nairne, J. S., Pandeirada, J. N. S. & Thompson, S. R. (2008) Adaptive memory: The comparative value of survival processing. Psychological Science 19(2):176–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paulhus, D. L. & John, O. P. (1998) Egoistic and moralistic biases in self-perception: The interplay of self-deceptive styles with basic traits and motives. Journal of Personality 66(6):1025–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paulhus, D. L. & Reid, D. B. (1991) Enhancement and denial in socially desirable responding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 60(2):307–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trivers, R. (1976/2006) Foreword. In: The selfish gene, Dawkins, R., pp. 1920. Oxford University Press. (Original work published in 1976).Google Scholar
Trivers, R. (1985) Deceit and self-deception. In: Social evolution, pp. 395420. Benjamin/Cummings.Google Scholar
Trivers, R. (2000) The elements of a scientific theory of self-deception. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 907:114–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed