Translator's Note
Introduction

Chapter 1: The Evolutionary Logic of Self-Deception
Chapter 2: Deception in Nature
Chapter 3 Neurophysiology and Enforced Self-Deception
Chapter 4: Self-Deception and the Divided Self in the Family
Chapter 5: Deception, Self-Deception, and Sex
Chapter 6: The Immunology of Self-Deception
Chapter 7: The Psychology of Self-Deception
Chapter 8 Self-Deception in Everyday Life
Chapter 9 Aerospace Disasters and Self-Deception
Chapter 10: False Historical Narratives
Chapter 11: Self-Deception and War
Chapter 12 Religion and Self-Deception
Chapter 13: Self-Deception and the Structure of Social Science
Chapter 14: Fighting Self-Deception in Our Own Lives

Acknowledgements
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References

Why We Deceive Ourselves

Our sense organs have evolved to show us the outside world in amazing detail and accuracy.
We can perceive objects in three dimensions with full color and perceive their movement, texture, order, inherent patterns, and even sounds and smells.
It has evolved to be able to perceive reality almost as it is.
The problem is that when that detailed information is transmitted to the brain, our consciousness often distorts and biases that information.
It is self-deception that deceives oneself.
They create false memories and rationalize their immoral behavior.
They also overestimate themselves.
Why is that?

Dr. Robert Trivers asks, “Why did we evolve to deceive ourselves?” even though such biases clearly have negative consequences for our biological well-being—our survival and reproduction.
This question has a long history.
When Richard Dawkins's seminal work, The Selfish Gene, was published in 1976, Dr. Trivers wrote the foreword to the first edition (Dawkins restored Dr. Trivers's foreword to the 30th anniversary edition of The Selfish Gene and expressed his gratitude and respect, saying that his ideas made up most of chapters 9, 10, 12, and all of chapter 8).
In that article, Dr. Trivers extends Dawkins's idea that deception is a fundamental element of animal communication, introducing the idea that the ability to detect this deception would have been a powerful advantage (or coevolved) during the process of natural selection, thus selecting for self-deception.


He said he discovered the beginnings of the answer while studying the problem of parent-child conflict in 1976.
Parents use deception and self-deception to shape their children's identities, not for the sake of their children, but for their own sake.
This can be inferred from the parental control over their children, expressed in the phrase, “I’m doing this for your good.”
Dr. Trivers expanded on this idea to study self-deception, and presents the results in his book, Why Did We Evolve to Delude Ourselves?

Why did evolution, or natural selection, select the mechanism of self-deception? In other words, did self-deception provide some biological advantage to our genes for survival and reproduction, leading us to evolve to deceive ourselves? A psychological approach explains it as a "feel-good" response.
That is, to feel happier about yourself.
But Dr. Trivers offers a biological answer: self-deception evolved to serve not just a defensive, feel-good instinct, but also a kind of aggressive instinct for survival: deception.

The great cost of self-deception

Deception is inherent in all the basic relationships of life: parasite and host, predator and prey, plant and animal, parent and child, and so on.
For example, viruses and bacteria camouflage themselves and invade parts of the host's body so as not to be recognized as foreign invaders.
Some animals hunt by waving insect-like body parts to catch prey, and some display protective coloration or mimic other species.
But as time goes by, this kind of deception is seen through by the other party.
Then, the living organism will try to create another deception that surpasses that deception.
A look at animals reveals that their evolution has been a constant co-evolution of deception and detection.

Humans also use deception for their own benefit, and when this happens, they feel cognitive load and react physically in various ways.
A person who is lying blinks more frequently, which is a sign of nervousness, and if it is accompanied by overcontrol, the person may unconsciously raise their voice.
Therefore, when deceiving others, we need to reduce the cognitive burden to hide signs of lying, such as 'anxiety'.
When we practice self-deception, these things can be controlled.
As the saying goes, a true conman must be able to fool himself.
Self-deception is also good for defending yourself when the deception is discovered.
The easiest strategy to counter a tactic of insight is to react with an attitude of “I didn’t know”.

Being overly 'confident' can also be an example of self-deception.
Just as animals inflate their bodies to appear larger than their actual size in times of crisis, people can also instill confidence in others by "over-confident" themselves.
(Of course, if left unchecked to a certain extent, it can lead to fatal and tragic consequences.) 94% of scholars are confident that they are in the top half of their fields.
Additionally, more than 80% of American high school students consider themselves to be in the top half of their leadership abilities.
I really believe that!!

We believe ourselves to be more moral, more attractive, and more self-serving than we actually are.
And it pushes the memories of negative actions further back into the past, more than ten years ago, than the memories of positive actions.
I think he used to be a bit bad, but he's gotten a lot better lately.
Even though it's the same now as it was then! This false narrative is a biased interpretation of current motivations in order to hide one's true motives from others.


The problem is that the benefits we reap from deceiving others and ourselves are temporary and small, while the costs are sometimes too great for individuals to bear.
And the problem is that most of those costs are borne by others, not me.
The horror of the aircraft accidents presented in this book is palpable.
A good example is the pre-takeoff conversation between the pilot and copilot of Air Florida Flight 90 on January 13, 1982.
The co-pilot, sensing the danger of an accident, hesitantly resists the pilot, but is stopped by the pilot's evasive remarks and deceives himself.
He initially points out that the speed on the instrument panel is wrong, but when the pilot tries to avoid reality, he rationalizes by saying, “Well, maybe it’s normal.”
Even before takeoff, the co-pilot pointed out the dangers of snow on the wings and a muddy runway, but the pilot's dismissive attitude (what could possibly happen?) made him helpless.
And the price for such self-deception is a staggering 74 passenger lives.
Similar things happen in countless organizations.
A similar case is when, despite recognizing the risks of a risky corporate strategy, the company vaguely pushes ahead with the CEO's strong insistence, only to face a crisis.


In this way, self-deception initially provides a series of small benefits, but ultimately exacts a great price.
The benefits of self-deception are immediate, but the costs of such ignorance are paid later—that's the general rule of life, says Dr. Trivers.
So we must try to avoid overconfidence and unconsciousness, and, although it is not easy, we must avoid the danger of falling into self-deception.
The cost is so great, whether at the individual or organizational level.


According to the author, the problem of deception and self-deception is everywhere.
It also appears in parent-child relationships, and is particularly common between men and women (Dr. Trivers cites the example of how he felt completely infatuated with a woman before they slept together, and how that interest cooled after work).
The relationship between self-deception and the immune system is also interesting.
(The more a person hid their sexual identity, the more likely they were to become infected with AIDS!) Self-deception at the organizational level (aircraft accidents and NASA accidents are also surprising) also attracts attention.
Chapter 8 and onwards of this book covers the application of the theory of self-deception to real-world cases.
Vivid examples are presented of how self-deception has caused numerous man-made disasters, catastrophes, and accidents.
Interestingly, there are also examples from our country, such as Korean Air and the comfort women issue in Japan.

The author says that research on self-deception is only in its infancy.
It is a research mine that will yield enormous results the more you dig into it.
While we anticipate future research, the content of this book alone provides us with insight into the dangers of self-deception, which are prevalent across politics, economics, culture, and elsewhere, and provides us with the necessary self-reflection.
Dr. Robert Trivers's own instances of deception and self-deception, which are revealed throughout the book, and humorous episodes related to the author's womanizing, are a bonus when reading this book.