# Self-Deception **Domain:** Cognition / Evolutionary Psychology / Epistemology **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Maturity:** Developing ## Definition **Self-deception** describes the maintenance or presentation of a distorted belief or self-description despite information that might correct it. Its mechanisms, degree of awareness, and functions vary; not every false belief is a strategic deception. ## Evolutionary Hypothesis and Boundaries [[wiki/Robert Trivers|Robert Trivers]] argues that some self-deception can help a person deceive others by reducing detectable cues of conscious lying. In his 2006 Edge conversation he frames this explicitly as a belief and hypothesis. A later paper coauthored with William von Hippel develops the proposal through dissociations among conscious and unconscious processes while also considering costs and alternative psychological debates. Neither source establishes that this mechanism explains every error, ideology, or human disaster. [[wiki/Human Animality|Human Animality]] is the broader behavioral route. [[articles/Humans and AIs as Entangled Learning Systems|Humans and AIs as Entangled Learning Systems]] studies recursively shaped self-description and feedback systems; that article is an adjacent application, not evidence that Trivers was discussing AI training. ## Relationships - **Proposed mechanism by:** [[wiki/Robert Trivers|Robert Trivers]] — evolutionary account of interpersonal advantages and costs of certain self-deceptive processes. - **Part of:** [[wiki/Human Animality|Human Animality]] as one possible cognitive-social tendency, distinct from aggression and moral responsibility. - **Related epistemic route:** [[articles/The Greatest Transformation in Human History|The Greatest Transformation in Human History]] addresses self-knowledge; [[articles/Humans and AIs as Entangled Learning Systems|Humans and AIs as Entangled Learning Systems]] addresses feedback-shaped identity. These are thematic comparisons, not coauthorship or endorsement. - **Collections:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] and [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] provide distinct person-scale and successor-scale contexts. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “Evolutionary biologists Richard Alexander and Robert Trivers have recently emphasized that it is deception rather than information that often plays the decisive role in systems of selective pressures. Yet most of our thinking continues to treat deception as something of a perturbation on the exchange of pure information, leaving us unprepared to contemplate a world in which fakery may reliably crowd out the genuine.” > **— Eric R. Weinstein**, *“Kayfabe,” Edge Annual Question, 2011* [[reminders/Deception/Deception May Crowd Out Genuine Information by Eric R. Weinstein|Deception May Crowd Out Genuine Information by Eric R. Weinstein]] > “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]] > “The ability to rationalize our dishonesty away is incredibly human and we need to think about how to fight this.” > **— Dan Ariely**, *Scientific American Science Talk, 2012* [[reminders/Deception/Rationalization Lets Dishonesty Feel Honest by Dan Ariely|Rationalization Lets Dishonesty Feel Honest by Dan Ariely]] > “I believe that deceit and self deception play a [disproportionate] role in human-generated disasters, including misguided wars, international affairs more [generally], the collapse of civilizations, and state affairs, including disastrous social, political and economic policies and miscarriages of justice.” > **— Robert Trivers**, *2005 Edge Annual Question, response passage* [[reminders/Deception/Deceit and Self-Deception May Shape Human Disasters by Robert Trivers|Deceit and Self-Deception May Shape Human Disasters 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) — authorial hypothesis and evolutionary argument. - [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/) — coauthored proposal and abstract scope.