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Self-deception is adaptive in itself

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Louisa C. Egan
Louisa C. Egan
Affiliation:
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208. louisa-egan@kellogg.northwestern.edu http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/egan_louisa.aspx
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Abstract

Von Hippel & Trivers reason that the potential benefits of successfully deceiving others provide a basis for the evolution of self-deception. However, as self-deceptive processes themselves provide considerable adaptive value to an individual, self-deception may have evolved as an end in itself, rather than as the means to an end of improving other-deception.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , February 2011 , pp. 19 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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