# Robert Trivers **Domain:** Evolutionary Biology / Social Theory **Doc Type:** Thinker Node **Maturity:** Developing ## Definition **Robert Trivers** is an evolutionary biologist whose work includes theories of social behavior, deceit, and self-deception. His 2006 Edge conversation presents the hypothesis that self-deception can serve interpersonal deceit. A 2011 paper with William von Hippel develops that account in psychological and evolutionary terms. ## Source Boundary His 2005 Edge Annual Question response is expressly a belief offered to a question about what one believes without being able to prove it. Its archived text contains misspellings, including “disproportinate” and “gnerally”; neither should be silently corrected inside a quotation. That response is not the source of the 2006 Reminder below, which uses a separate Edge conversation. ## Relationships - **Proposes a mechanism for:** [[wiki/Self-Deception|Self-Deception]] in the 2006 Edge conversation, without claiming every false belief has that function. - **Contributes to:** [[wiki/Human Animality|Human Animality]] as a cognitive/social dimension distinct from violence or universal moral judgment. - **Source route:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] organizes his Edge contributions; the 2005 Annual Question response and 2006 conversation are distinct objects. - **Thematic articles and collections:** [[articles/Humans and AIs as Entangled Learning Systems|Humans and AIs as Entangled Learning Systems]], [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]], and [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] relate cognition to later technological trajectories, without suggesting he authored those claims. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “I believe that self-deception evolves in the service of deceit.” > **— Robert Trivers**, *“Deceit and Self-Deception,” Edge conversation, May 30, 2006* [[reminders/Deception/Self-Deception Helps Us Deceive Others by Robert Trivers|Self-Deception Helps Us Deceive Others by Robert Trivers]] > “Now let me just say that deception is a very deep feature of nature. At all levels, all interactions, e.g. viruses and bacteria often use deception to get inside you.” > **— Robert Trivers**, *“Deceit and Self-Deception,” Edge conversation, 2006* [[reminders/Deception/Deception Reaches Down to Viruses and Bacteria by Robert Trivers|Deception Reaches Down to Viruses and Bacteria by Robert Trivers]] ## Sources / Provenance - [Robert Trivers, “Deceit and Self-Deception,” Edge conversation (2006)](https://www.edge.org/conversation/robert_trivers-deceit-and-self-deception) — primary source of the Reminder. - [Robert Trivers, 2005 Edge Annual Question response](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/10362) — separate statement, source spelling retained in archive. - [William von Hippel and Robert Trivers, “The evolution and psychology of self-deception,” *Behavioral and Brain Sciences* 34 (2011)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21288379/) — later coauthored account.