Deception: From Ancient Empires to Internet Dating

Brooke Harrington (ed.)

25. April 2009

MPIfG Book

original

Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009
360 pages
ISBN 978-0804756495

» Publisher's page
Harrington, Brooke
Deception: From Ancient Empires to Internet Dating. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2009.

Abstract

From Internet-dating profiles to Native American folktales to the photo trickery of Hollywood gossip magazines, this volume explores deception and offers insights from leading figures in disparate fields, drawing out surprising commonalities. For the first time, one broadly accessible volume pulls together classic philosophical debates on deception with examinations of contemporary issues, including stock market fraud and terrorism. Deception offers a unique perspective on the state of the art: readers will find scholars from biology and physics in conversation with experts in mass media and culture, and archaeologists engaged with ideas from military strategists.
 
As the essays make clear, deception touches virtually every aspect of our lives; in fact, recent psychological research suggests that we each tell at least two to three lies per day. Throughout the animal kingdom, survival and reproduction depend upon successful deceptions.
 
But while deception has captured the interest of philosophers, scientists, warriors, and artists over thousands of years, our knowledge of the subject is limited. At the same time, new technologies have made deception more commonplace, more dangerous, and more difficult to detect than ever. Deception is a particularly timely and insightful work. Its scope and subject make it compelling reading for a broad readership.


Contents

Foreword
Murray Gell-Mann
 
Introduction: Beyond True and False
Brooke Harrington
 

 
Part I: Defining and Detecting Deception
 
1 Dealing with Deception in Biology
Carl T. Bergstrom
 
2 Paltering
Frederick Schauer and Richard Zeckhauser
 
3 Thoughts, Feelings, and Deception
Mark G. Frank
 
4 Why Most People Parse Palters, Fibs, Lies, Whoppers, and Other Deceptions Poorly
Maureen O'Sullivan
 

 
Part II: Deception and Technology
 
5 Digital Doctoring: Can We Trust Photographs?
Hany Farid
 
6 Digital Deception: The Practice of Lying in the Digital Age
Jeffrey T. Hancock
 
7 Cognitive Hacking: Detecting Deception on the Web
Paul Thompson
 

 
Part III: Trust and Deception
 
8 Leaps and Lapses of Faith: Exploring the Relationship Between Trust and Deception
Guido Möllering
 
9 Tying the Truth in Knots: Trustworthiness and Accountability in the Inka Khipu
Gary Urton
 
10 Does Rumor Lie? Narrators, Trust, and the Framing of Unsecured Information
Gary Alan Fine
 
11 Crocodile Tears, or, Method Acting in Everyday Life
Tom Lutz
 

 
Part IV: Deception and Institutions
 
12 Deception and Trust in Health Crises
Ford Rowan
 
13 Responding to Deception: The Case of Fraud in Financial Markets
Brooke Harrington
 
14 Military Deception in the Information Age: Scale Matters
William Glenney IV
 
15 The Pleasures of Lying
Kenneth Fields
 
Notes
Index


Editor

Brooke Harrington

Brooke Harrington is Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. She is the author of Pop Finance: Investment Clubs and Stock Market Populism (2008). A graduate of Stanford and Harvard Universities, she has been a visiting scholar at the Santa Fe Institute and has been recognized for excellence in research by the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Reviews

"Brook Harrington's edited collection of essays is the product of a series of cross-disciplinary workshops held at the Santa Fe Institute in 2007, while Harrington was a Visiting Scholar. It includes essays by biologists, computer scientists, social psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, law professors, humanities professors, and poets. The mix of contributors reflects the editorial view that . . . it would be a form of 'reductionism' for the collection as a whole to offer a definition of deception …" (James Edwin Mahon, Philosophy in Review)

"This book is not only very interesting, it is one that should be read by all those who are interested in achieving a better understanding of human behavior, regardless of context." (Richard Klimoski, Administrative Science Quarterly) 

"This quirky but wonderful book has one message: lies abound. Deception is everywhere and always has been … This first-rate book belongs bedside and in any number of disciplinary seminars on deception." (CHOICE)

"One of the most important forms of communication – deception – is one of the least studied, in part because it deliberately blurs itself to get its effect, in part because there are so many forms of deception they seem to defy coherent analysis. A useful approach to the problem, then, is with a collection of investigators, each with a different angle, each aware of the others' contributions, each looking for signs of hidden structure. The result in this book, deliciously, is an introduction to the Science of Untruth." (Stewart Brand, Global Business Network/Monitor)

"Well written, with fresh insights into deceptive behaviors in diverse contexts, this timely volume is a must-read for anyone interested in the latest cutting edge thinking about deception." (David Shulman, author of From Hire to Liar: The Role of Deception inthe Workplace)

"Don't be deceived by the deceptively simple title. These fascinating essays by biologists, psychologists, sociologists, poets, and computer scientists reveal the complexities of studying deception across historical epochs and types of interactions – from the micromechanisms of facial muscles to online communications, from photography to finance, from the false mating signals of the carnivorous firefly to the literary trickster Brer Rabbit, from deception in warfare to self-delusion. Insightful analysis, and delightful reading." (David Stark, Columbia University, author of The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life)

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