Discover more from Overcoming Bias
This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
Over 11,000 subscribers
Continue reading
Tyler Cowen offers a quote on innocence by Casanova:
The girl’s quick mind, unrefined by study, sought to have the advantage of being considered pure and airless; it was conscious of this, and it made use of this consciousness to further its ends; but such a mind had given me too strong an impression of its cleverness.
That is from History of My Life. Is that why human self-deception has evolved? If we don’t know our own artifices, we can more successfully conceal them from others.
Yes, we self-deceive to gain advantages from innocence.
Casanova on Innocence
Self-deceptive behavior is often explained by claims of that kind, i.e. "We want <status> to get <perk> but others will help us get <status> if they believe we want it for <ideal>. People are good at detecting lies, so instead of just claiming we want <ideal>, we should believe it." However, why would we be able to detect conscious lies but not self-deception (or, for that matter, honest mistakes)? It doesn't look much harder (if you examine the claim and not the person), and the benefit should be roughly the same (and increase if we are already good at detecting lies, so that self-deception becomes more common).
So what are those advantages of deceit? Evolutionary logic points to a positive-sum game. So what benefit to we gain from being deceived by others? I believe it is trust. Here's more:http://hereticatthegates.bl...