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WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU LIED ? . WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE CAUGHT OUT?. CENTURIES OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT HAS LED US TO BE THE HIGHLY SOCIAL CLASS OF ANIMAL THAT WE ARE TODAY. Humans have the ability to deceive other humans. .
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CENTURIES OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT HAS LED US TO BE THE HIGHLY SOCIAL CLASS OF ANIMAL THAT WE ARE TODAY.
Humans have the ability to deceive other humans. We lie to induce a false belief in another person. What gives us away is our body language, voice quality, speech content and micro-expressions. The perfect liar would need to control every aspect of these elements in order for someone else to believe their lie. The perfect liar does not even know they are lying.
Bob Trivers’ Theory of Self Deception • When a person aims to deceive another they face two potential costs; • the cognitive load required to plan, process and then carry out deception • the surely negative reprisal if their deceit is discovered. • It has been suggested that a co-evolutionary struggle exists between the capacity to deceive versus the ability to recognise deception.
The theory suggests that an unconscious form of deception has thereforearisen. One that avoids the negative potential impacts of deception and acts to circumvent this co-evolutionary struggle. By deceiving themselves, people avoid the potential costs of knowingly and unconvincingly lying to another person.
For the theory work there needs to be; 1. evidence that people are good at detecting liars. 2. Evidence that people are bad at lying This would leave room for self-deception to arise.
My study will test these things: How good people are at detecting deception 2. How good people are at deceiving another person
Considering humans communicate and interact in very social circles, it will also be interesting to look at familiarity. If people are more familiar with each other do they detect deception more easily and deceive less successfully?
Not only will the data collected add clarity to the theory of self-deception but also to the ways in which human behaviour and psychology are susceptible to evolution.