Most Important Concepts

Action Points

Chapter Recap

Introduction

• Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.
• The human brain is designed to deceive itself, so that it may better deceive others.

Part 1 - Why we hide our motives

1 - Animal behavior

• The deeper underlying motive for animal behavior is often different than it can seem to be on the surface. There is no reason why this wouldn’t also apply to humans.

2 - Competition

• The true evolutionary cause for the rapid rise of human intelligence likely has much more to do with faring well in social hierarchical competition, than helping to solve external issues like how to hunt.

3 - Norms

• Once weapons enter the picture, physical strength is no longer the most crucial factor in determining a hominid’s rank within the group, as individuals of lower strength can take down a stronger foe, especially if they gang up.
  • In such a situation, political skill takes over as the determining factor, as the more politically skilled will always be on the winning side, as part of the more influential gang.
• We then developed norms, as a way of collectively punishing individuals who partake in unwanted behaviors.

4 - Cheating

• Everyone cheats.

5 - Self-deception

• The brain is not one united organism, rather it is divided into many parts, and thus resembles more of a committee. The different parts don’t always agree.
  • It’s possible for our brains to maintain a relatively accurate set of beliefs in systems tasked with evaluating potential actions, while keeping those beliefs hidden from the systems involved in managing social impressions (potentially giving a game-theoretic advantage in social situations).

6 - Counterfeit reasons

• We constantly rationalize counterfeit reasons for why we do something.