Родени лъжци

by Ian Leslie, Ина Бъчварова (Illustrator), Elika Rafi (Translator)

„Удивителна книга.“
— The Independent

„Родени лъжци е истинско постижение: свежо, интригуващо четиво, което прави смели заключения за ролята на лъжата в нашия живот.“
— Стивън Джонсън, автор на Откъде идват добрите идеи и Всичко лошо е добро за теб

„Книга, която не спира да ви стряска и удивлява. . . Написана е с ерудиция, но знанието никъде не натежава – пълна е със страхотни истории. Освен това ще ви накара да видите себе си – и света около вас – в нова светлина.“
— Daily Mail


„Обхвата на цитираните източници е удивителен. . . Страшно ми допадна иронията и изобретателността на тази книга.“
— The Times

„Абсолютно очарователно пътешествие из най-уникално човешкия от всички човешки таланти: умението да лъжеш.“
— Джона Лерър, автор на Решителният момент

„Родени лъжци се чете както се четат най-добрите детективски романи – това е едно просветляващо, удивляващо и страшно занимателно проучване на всекидневните ни лъжи. Отървах се с лъжа от една светска проява и останах будна цяла нощ, докато не я дочета.“
— Кейт Фокс, автор на Наблюдения върху англичаните

„Смайващо изследване на тази всеобща черта от един изгряващ талант. Прочетете Родени лъжци: тя ще ви провокира, изненада и ще ви забавлява до дупка. Повярвайте ми.“
— Ричард Уайзмън, автор на 59 секунди



Въведение

Змията ме подмами, та ядох.

Ева (Бит. 3:14.)

В Библията е казано, че тя води до падението на човека. Философи от Кант до Опра я заклеймяват безусловно. Учим децата си никога да не я използват. Тя е извращение, заблуда, напаст. Малко неща са ни поненавистни от лъжата.

Разбира се, лъжци са неизменно другите. Любовници пред раздяла се обвиняват взаимно в измама; гласоподаватели обявяват всички политици за мошеници; религиозните хулят безбожниците като врагове на истината, а атеистите винят богомолците, че подхранват най-голямата съществувала някога заблуда. Без значение на чия страна сте в тези спорове, граматиката на изказа е все една: аз говоря истината, а ти се опитваш да ме баламосаш с измислици, подклаждани от личния ти интерес.
Странно, но за разлика от кражбата, сексуалното посегателство или убийството лъжата е морално престъпление, което всички ние вършим, при това най-редовно. Психоложката Бела де Пауло моли 147 души да водят дневник на социалните си контакти в течение на седмица, като отбелязват всички случаи, когато съзнателно са подвели някого. Избраните от нея лица споделят, че лъжат средно по 1,5 пъти на ден. Това може да се приеме за скромен резултат. Друг изследовател, Робърт Фелдман, установява, че непознати, които за пръв път се срещат лице в лице, са склонни да излъжат три пъти в рамките на десет минути.

Лъжем, когато казваме: „Добре съм, благодаря“, а всъщност се чувстваме нещастни. Лъжем и когато казваме: „Какво красиво бебе“, а вътрешно се удивяваме на приликата му с извънземни форми на живот. Готови сме да изречем лъжа, още докато разкъсваме хартиената опаковка, с която леля Мойра грижовно е увила порцелановата статуетка на принцеса Даяна. Повечето от нас симулираме гняв, тъга, привързаност или изричаме „обичам те“, без да го мислим. Почти няма човек, който да не е демонстрирал фалшив ентусиазъм по повод на нечии готварски умения. Съветваме децата си да се усмихнат и да се постараят да изглеждат признателни за „практичния“ подарък на баба за рождения им ден, а може и да додадем, че ако не вложат достатъчно старание, тази година Дядо Коледа няма да дойде. „Всеки лъже – пише Марк Твен. – Всеки ден, всеки час; докато е буден, докато спи, в сънищата си, в радостта си, в скръбта си“.

Не само правим компромис със забраната да лъжем; случва се и горещо да подкрепяме неискреността. Ако лекарят каже на съкрушения съпруг, че катастрофиралата му съпруга е умряла на място, като по този начин му спести истината – че жената е преживяла последните си часове в адска болка, – бихме приветствали състрадателността на професионалиста. Когато треньорът по футбол, макар и сам за себе си отчаян, уверява отбора в стопроцентовата си убеденост, че са способни да обърнат резултата въпреки двата гола във вратата им през първото полувреме, го наричаме вдъхновяващ водач (или поне ако в крайна сметка отборът спечели).

Насърчаваме и лъжите, които ни помагат да продължим заедно въпреки трудностите. Да благодарим на човек, към когото изпитваме искрена признателност, е не толкова проява на добро възпитание, колкото начин да изразим себе си; доброто възпитание ни е нужно именно тогава, когато трябва да кажем нещо, което не изпитваме. Когато одобряваме една лъжа, я наричаме бяла, но ако бъдем помолени да определим какво по-конкретно превръща лъжата в дипломация, бързо се оплитаме в противоречиви уговорки.

Лъжата е всичко друго, но не и недвусмислена, а през последните години все повече учени от различни специалности изследват сложната роля, която тя играе в живота ни. Изследователите отбелязват престореното поведение на децата, проследяват какво се случва в мозъка на човек, който лъже, и сравняват нашет...

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Philosophy, Neuroscience

372 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 2011

About the author

London-based author who writes ideas-based non-fiction. He also writes and performs in the comedy show Before They Were Famous for BBC Radio 4. Ian appears as a commentator on current affairs and culture for the BBC, Sky, and NPR.

Reviews

[Münevver]

Yalan söylemenin hayatta kalmak için bir gereklilik olduğunu ve muhteşem işleyen bir mekanizma sonucunda ortaya çıktığını hiç düşünmezdim. Çocukların yalan söylemesine hayranlıkla da bakmazdım. Bu kitabı okuduktan sonra bunlar değişti. Yalan söyleyebilmenin muazzam bir sürecin ürünü olduğunu öğrenmek denge bozucu ve faydalı bir şey. Tavsiye ederim.

[Tweedledum · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and entertaining blend of ethics, sociology, politics, anthropology, religion, science....
( To name but a few of the academic fields touched on in this book. )Having studied ethics... ( a long time ago) , gone into "theory of mind" and Simon Baron Cohen's thoughts on this ( Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty in considerable depth, and having to daily grapple with the difficulties those with ASDs have with developing social understanding and the difficulties many of them have discriminating between fantasy and reality, never mind social, media, or political deceptions intentional or otherwise and the very real distress this often causes , made this a very absorbing read for me. Leslie intersperses complex ideas with great illustrations both contemporary and historical and from different cultures which helps to keep the reader's interest while considering another subtle twist to the tale. I thought Leslie's conclusions .... that lying and deception are born out of the creativity of the human brain and are both necessary and intrinsic to the mind enabling us essentially to make decisions on how to act ....were well summarised. All in all the book really helped me think again about these complex ideas and clarify how to share some of them more effectively with some of the young people and their families that I work with.

[Thomas Edmund · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Born Liars Ian Leslie dissects deceit through the lens of law, psychology and culture. It's a fascinating ride, but I wouldn't recommend the central section which covers self-deception for anyone feeling squeamish about their own illusions. Leslie unpacks many of the cognitive biases we have towards viewing ourselves positively and reading this book may just remove those illusions.

The first few chapters are recommended to all however, especially anyone enamoured with the idea of lie-detecting, whether with machine or person (spoiler its really hard to detect lies)

The last section on the culture of lying is eye-opening to say the least. The only flaw being a lack of depth and details.

In short Born Liars is a great read. Leslie errs away from his own opinion and reasoning (and I would have liked to hear his thesis), and relies heavily on other's academic material, making this book a strong technical piece, but perhaps lacking a personal touch or point.

Nonetheless recommended.

[Vanessa Princessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book thanks to Blinkist:

The key message in this book:

It’s time to change the way we think about lying. It isn’t some evil character flaw that bad people are infected with. It’s a very human trait that has served us throughout our existence and can continue to be a useful tool – especially when you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings.

Actionable advice:

Be skeptical of your own knowledge.

Part of being honest with yourself is admitting that you might be wrong about what you think you know. If you replace “I know” with “I think,” you’ll be more open to discussion and, in turn, better able to contribute to the progress of the human race.

[Bookmaniac70 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Книгата следва добре изпитания модел на популярната така да се каже "научна" литература- представя се една теза и се изреждат примери под формата на житейски случки и научни изследвания в нейна подкрепа. Този модел винаги ме настройва скептично, тъй като създава идеална предпоставка за манипулиране на читателското мнение в желаната от автора посока. Леката умствена гимнастика, която се симулира при четивата от този род, подлъгва читателя да си мисли, че подхранва интелекта си, докато в действителност много често той просто предъвква предварително смляната и подходящо поднесена информация. "Родени лъжци" събужда любопитството с избора на нестандартна тема. Лъжата сякаш е нещо, за което предпочитаме да не говорим много-много. Без да се замисляме, сме я приели до някаква степен в личния и социалния си живот и ни е неприятно да ни напомнят за това. Книгата изважда на показ нелицеприятните й страни, но ни изненадва и с неочакваните "дивиденти", които може да донесе. Съжалявам, че така интригуващо изложената идея за ролята на лъжата в еволюцията не бе разработена по-нататък.Частта за плацебо ефекта и широките граници на самозаблудата ми беше най-интересна. Определено те кара да се замислиш върху "обективното" си възприятие на реалността.:-)) С две думи, приятно и добре написано четиво.

[Barbaraw - su anobii aussi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raramente leggo saggi - perché trovo più pensiero filosofia e riflessione nei grandi romanzi a dire il vero - ma questo è un saggio davvero ottimo che smonta completamente la visione morale della bugia (meglio chiamata qui : auto-inganno) e ne rivela la struttura sociale, collettiva, politica.
Leggiamo di medicina (placebo in particolare) , di Saddam Hussein, di bugie bianche, di evoluzione e sopravvivenza, da un punto di vista allargato ed interessante che non esclude la letteratura:
"La menzogna è un tema che attraversa molto teatro e narrativa contemporanei e, in particolare nella tradizione nordamericana, si collega a una visione tetra della vita borghese. Penso al commesso viaggiatore di Arthur Miller, al nuotatore di John Cheever e ai personaggi di Richard Yates, con i loro aneliti e le loro rinunce, o, nel cinema, alla lenta autodistruzione di Lester Burnham in American Beauty. [...]
Per dirla con Wallace Stevens "Il credere ultimo è credere in una finzione che sai essere una finzione, non essendoci nient'altro. La verità squisita è sapere che è una finzione e che tu ci credi volontariamente".

Un aspetto molto gradevole del libro è la presenza nella parte finale di "Approfondimenti dei capitoli" dove, anziché le antipatiche note scoraggianti, si leggono brevi pagine scritte con piglio narrativo di riferimenti bibliografici o di approfondimento di un aneddoto riportato, di un'intervista fatta, suggerimenti verso altre letture.

[Tia · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s parts of this book that will stay with me forever and other parts that I read and instantly forgot about. Overall, very interesting tho!

[Jonathan Hockey · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started reasonable, a few insights, but it soon became too much a case of apologism for the usual left wing political agenda: Don't trust your own intution, trust social norms and social pressures and values. I.e. question yourself but not what the government, media and scientific experts tell you. He barely gets into the insidiousness of lying in the media, in government etc, instead focusing it all on being something wrong with us in our nature. And so we need social values and guidelines to whip us into shape.

You can filter a lot of his biases out, but even with that, he still makes a naive distinction between stories and narratives we make about our world, and the world itself. As if we can talk of a reality neutral from our stories, and is if that is the only truth, and all the stories we tell about reality are just lies. It's a completely fallacious interpretation relying on, and motivated by, a moral bias of his own that he refuses to see. This is the problem when anyone claims to be an authority on what is a lie and what isn't in a generic way, rather than sticking to individual cases. You presume you have access to some higher arbiter of truth than everyone else who you are criticising, and it so often simply isn't the case. And it certainly isn't the case in this book.

He says at the end of the book the lessons we should take from it are 1) Share the work 2) Distrust your own certainty 3) Accept a margin of illusion. Where by this last he means pretend to others something is true, when you don't think it is true yourself. So basically combine the three and you have a perfect excuse for institutional compartmentalisation of knowledge. Social collectives are to be arbiters of truth, and we are merely cogs in that system doing its bidding who should distrust our own intutions and ignore inconsistencies in the actions of the institutions and just lie to people and pretend it is consistent! Well, there you go, Ian Leslie is a born liar and he is practising deceit on you all, its more an autobiography than an investigation into human nature in general!

And this illustrates another problem with this kind of pseudo science investigation into something. Generic claims about human nature in social and cultural domains are very difficult to make. You will never disentangle all the narratives we create for ourselves, here, because the narratives are all there is. There is no neutral truth hiding behind social reality, the only arbiter is having integrity in your own perspective. It is tied up with morality and narratives through and through. Better to embrace this than to pretend we are capable of a kind of understanding of social reality that we simply are not able to reach.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:
Ian Leslie traces the line from the great apes - who are no mean liars themselves - to humans and documents studies which suggest that becoming human wasn't a simple evolutionary process of the best forager and builder surviving, but the building blocks came from our social contacts and our understanding of deceit.

Ian Leslie was born in 1972 and lives in London. He combines careers in advertising and writing. His first book, To be President (Politicos, 2008), an account of the 2008 US presidential election, was described by Adam Boulton as 'brilliantly capturing the drama and emotion of Obama's successful run for the White House' and was extracted by Granta. He regularly appears as an analyst of American politics on Sky and the BBC. He has written about politics, culture, marketing and psychology for Prospect, the Guardian, the Times and the BBC. He also blogs about all these things at Marbury, named one of the fifty 'Most Powerful' blogs in the world by the Observer.

'Consistently startling and fascinating. Most popular psychology books follow a depressingly familiar path: there's some dodgy theorising at the beginning, then a raft of dubious statistics with a few anecdotes to back them up. Born Liars, however, is in quite a different league. It's erudite yet wears its learning lightly and is full of terrific stories. It will also make you see yourself, and the world around you, in a new light.' - 'Book of the Week', Daily Mail

Written by Ian Leslie
Abridged by Pete Nichols

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011zm18

[Scotchneat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lying is a biological imperative and probably a part of our survival.

Leslie looks at deceit - of others, of ourselves - through a variety of lenses, including science, psychology, anthropology, biology and sociology. What comes through is how much deceit plays into our ability to relate to each other, and to succeed.

For example, studies show that achievers regularly build themselves to be better than they are, to themselves. And also, that "normal" people are overly positive in what they believe about their own capacities and potential for good things, while the mildly depressed are the most realistic people on the planet.

Growing up is fraught with discovering how and when to lie, even though we cover that over with a strong societal narrative that lying, under any circumstances, is wrong. Until the parents need a little social lubricant. We all lie.

The anecdotes and pop culture references keep it a fun read as well as an educational one, and I think Leslie's background in journalism serves him well for this project.

[دانیال بهزادی · Rating 2 out of 5]

‫این رو انتخاب کردم که امسال یه کتاب غیرداستانی هم خونده باشم. البته تو فهرست کتاب‌های امسالم، از جنبش تا نظریه اجتماعی: تاریخ دو قرن فمینیسم هم بود؛ ولی خوندن اون کتاب رو پارسال شروع کرده بودم و صرفاً امسال تمومش کردم.

‫متن کتاب ساده و روون و خوندنش راحت و سریع بود، ولی لااقل برای من چیز جدیدی نداشت. هرچیزی که کتاب با شوق و ذوق توضیح می‌داد رو قبلاً خودم می‌دونستم. احتمالاً کتاب برای مخاطبینی با سن پایین‌تر نوشته شده بود و من اشتباه خوندمش. ولی به هر حال پشیمون نیستم از خوندنش.

[Daniele Scaglione · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mentiamo, mentiamo come forsennati, e ci insegnano da farlo sin da piccoli, in modo decisamente spiazzante. A un bambino si dice che dire bugie non è una buona cosa, ma guai se dice allo zio Mario che il regalo che gli ha fatto per il compleanno non gli piace. Al contrario, se si dimostra entusiasta del dono, gli facciamo capire che apprezziamo molto il suo comportamento.

Il libro di Leslie parla di quanto l'inganno sia presente nella nostra vita, soprattutto grazie a noi stessi. Nessuno ci mente quanto ci mentiamo da soli. Questa è la parte più sorprendente ed è ben documentata e decisamente convincente.

La storia dell'effetto placebo è emblematica: un chirurgo deve operare un soldato rimasto ferito nello sbarco ad Anzio, ma non ha più morfina. Un'infermiera ci prova, inietta nel braccio del soldato una semplice soluzione salina, dicendogli appunto che è morfina. Funziona, non solo quella volta, ma quasi tutte le altre volte che il medico e l'infermiera si trovano a corto di antidolorifico.

Leslie racconta di comunità che aspettano la fine del mondo e, quando questa non arriva, non pensano di aver sbagliato, ma trovano qualche altra spiegazione plausibile, tipo che proprio grazie alla loro fede l'entità sovrannaturale a cui sono devoti ha deciso di salvare l'intero pianeta. Sono persone a cui il cervello funziona benissimo, anzi: sono proprio i cervelli che funzionano meglio che riescono ad autoingannarsi.

Difficile per me non buttarla in politica (cosa che Leslie non fa, sia chiaro). La capacità di autoingannarci, per noi elettori, è notevole. Votiamo qualcuno e, se poi fa il contrario di quello che aveva dichiarato - e soprattutto, di quello che noi ci aspettavamo - qualche giustificazione la troviamo sempre. Ci sono circostanze che non si potevano prevedere, quelli di prima hanno lasciato una situazione peggiore di quella che s'immaginava, in fondo non ci sono alternative, ma in fondo quello che facciamo noi è 'diverso'. Certo, è facile vedere queste cose soprattutto in una parte (5 Stelle) di chi sta governando, ma in realtà è sempre così (e anche questa mia affermazione, 'è sempre così', a suo modo è un modo per autogiustificarsi, per mentirsi, in quanto elettori).

Tornando a Leslie, questo suo libro è davvero bello, perché ci aiuta a capire quanto sia importante comportarsi da persone mature, nei confronti della bugia. Senza assumere posizioni di principio, che non hanno senso, ma imparando a capire quanto sono importanti per noi, e come si può fare per gestirle al meglio.

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an autistic, I have long been fascinated about why people lie. Of course, I have lied (yes, I love your hat), but as a skill, it’s only come to me later in life, and I find it uncomfortable – an approach to be avoided whenever possible. So I was curious to explore the reasons why other seem able to lie pretty much all the time, and with such ease.

What I learned is that most people are hardwired to lie, and that deceit – on a varying scale of untruthfulness – is a vital part of surviving social interactions. It seems the ability to lie goes back a long way in evolutionary terms (Ian Leslie shows us how good apes are at deceit), suggesting the fittest were also the best liars, passing on their ability to their descendents: us. (And it’s not just primates; in Corvus: a life with birds, Esther Woolfson describes two of her pet corvids, a magpie and a crow, also displaying clearly duplicitous behaviour.)

Leslie explores lying in many areas of life, including (not surprisingly) relationships, politics, work, and advertising. He looks in more detail at conmen, the “tell”, the lie-detector, self-deception, lying as a comfort blanket (my words), and the ethical boundaries around deception – concluding it all with an afterword about honesty.

I really had my eyes opened by this book. It has helped me understand neurotypical people much better (and stop being so confused and frustrated by deceitful behaviour). it has also helped me better understand where my own vulnerabilities are, so I can better protect myself in the future.

[Milena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Изумителна книга! Показва до каква степен лъжата, измамата, самозаблудата са част от живота ни. Не просто част, а есенциални за оцеляването на човешкия вид, за по-добрите ни социални връзки и отношения, за материалното ни благополучие.
Изумително е как заблуждаваме себе си, как позволяваме да бъдем заблуждавани от рекламите, как децата се учат да лъжат, за да се харесат на възрастните, нищо, че почти всеки, който е родител, неуморно и лицемерно убеждава децата си, че няма нищо по-лошо от лъжата :)
Епохален труд, който аз не си представям да напиша и за цял един живот. Препратките, цитираните източници и обхвата на обемане на проблема са също изключителни.
Чудесна работа за преводача, редактора и коректора - успели са да предадат на много високо ниво един разнороден текст, без нито една стилистична или правописна грешка.

[Bilge B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yalanın psikolojik ve fiziksel 'sebeplerine' güzel değinilmiş, yer yer sıkıcı ve karmaşıktı ama genele baktığımda yalan konusuna, beynin gelişimine ve yalanın etikliğine giriş açısından güzel bir kitaptı.

Eğer bu konular hakkında bilginiz varsa daha ayrıntılı kitapları tercih edin, zira başlangıç için uygun bir kitap.

[Luke John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating journey through the world of deception, lies and dishonesty, taking in philosophy, social sciences and medical research. The new Trump cover is misleading, but not a reason to not give this a read.

[زينب · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. But I hate how it makes you suspect everything...

[YHC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another easy reading book for me, i will share my notes.
Human intelligence starts from manipulation, deceive, and tricking cooperation. Lying made our species thrive and it's a very important part from evolution to develop our brains, because it was involved creation. In order to lie to others , we need to learn to be able to distinguish if others are lying to us. so back and forth, it stimulates brain development. like in Chinese old saying: 爾虞我詐.
However, those who can not stop lying and enjoy manipulation on his or her own creations actually got some mental disorder. The best way to see through the liar's lies is to let the liar continue lying without revealing the truth. if you pierce the bubbles, lair got pissed off and you never know what damage could come after. The best way is just walk away and don't need to teach this person lessons.
-EEG and fMRI have been used to detect the lies from the criminals and suspects, however, we humans are also capable to implant false memories into our own brains. It has been shown from many criminal cases that some people who could make up stories of killing people just by remodeling the plots with each confessions they made. Therefore "remember" is not a pure memories recall or replay, it's mixed with creation and reconstruction of memories when that person has anxiety, desire, and imagination.
-Our brain got a function called : controlled fantasy, means it eliminates the messages it doesn't like, and keeps the ones it like to strengthen. This is a self protect mechanism.
-Positive illusion( also called bias blind spot): we tend to believe that we are better than others and should deserve better than others, we are so unique. Those who see the reality of themselves actually suffer mild to severe anxiety.
-The best liar is the one who could lie to oneself and even convince oneself the lie is the reality. We often say that you might be able to detect a liar who lie to others, but to those who even lie to themselves and feel no shame or guilty...you just can not do anything about that.
-Placebo effect. Best and efficient lying way existing in medical field. The color of pills could play a role on better healing. Yellow for depression, blue for sleeplessness, green for anxiety, white for stomach ulcer.
- Murderer at door. The example about why white lies are important. (Justice and morality struggling)

[Adelyne · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up.

This one started so well, I whizzed through the first couple of chapters when the author seemed well in his domain: Discussing instance of lying (workplace, childhood etc.) and the psychology behind that. The studies being referenced were interesting, there were many studies that I’d never heard about, and I thought the breadth of possible situations being discussed made for interesting case studies.

It becomes very apparent after this though, that the author had clearly run out of things to say on the topic, and instead of having a shorter book the latter half is instead filled with more widely-discussed psychology topics such as cognitive bias and self-deceit, which arguably isn’t the premise promised by the book. I felt a bit cheated (well, I guess the reasons for his doing so is in the book): I bought a book about lying / liars, which to me is an active effort to deceive, not a book about how humans are naturally wired to behave or think in a certain way (such as cognitive bias), which to me is more of a passive, automatic thing.

For these latter chapters, I have read many other books on the topic and therefore didn’t really find much insight anymore, plus there are better-written books out there. This one would have gotten at least 4 stars, probably 4.5 if it had stuck to the early chapters that were true to the title, but the rest (and unfortunately majority, page-count wise) was too much of a slog that I ended up giving 2.5 stars. Rounded up for the chapters that I did find good.

[Michael Layden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is a lot different, thought provoking and comprehensive than I was expecting. It is a book by a polymath which dips into a wide range of topics including neuroscience, anthropology, behavioural psychology in discussing why we are wired for deception and how it drove our brain development.
Particularly interesting was the discussion of how children's ability and skill in deception develops also fascinating seeing the discussion of deception in other species.
The impact of advertising, culture etc on how we see and taste things.
I particularly liked the discussion of St Augustine, Kant and Thomas Aquinas. I hadn't come accross the whole concept of "mental reservation" before but it explains a lot.
The discussion of the placebo effect and the general discussion of healing was interesting.
The book is well written and topics are well thought out with stimulating anecdotes. As is the case with many good books i've a list of about five books which I will have to read and hopefully return and reread this book afterwards.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Born Liars: Why We Can’t Live without Deceit by Ian Leslie is a fascinating and provocative exploration of one of the most paradoxical elements of human nature deception. Through an engaging and deeply researched narrative, Leslie delves into why lying is not merely a flaw in human behavior but an evolutionary feature that shapes our relationships, decisions, and sense of self.

The book masterfully blends science, psychology, philosophy, and storytelling to reveal how lies both innocent and destructive influence every layer of society, from politics to art to personal life. Leslie’s writing is sharp, balanced, and reflective, challenging readers to confront uncomfortable truths about honesty, morality, and human survival. It’s the kind of book that leaves readers questioning not only what they believe about others but what they believe about themselves.

A thought provoking and illuminating read for anyone interested in the psychology of truth and the complexity of human behavior.

[Katrina Durkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and worrying in equal measure. Couldn't put it down. Ok, that's a lie. I did put it down when sufficiently motivated by nature (the need to sleep and attend to bodily functions).

I found the breadth of the book wonderful. Everything from lies to make life interesting, grandiose lies both conscious and unconscious, medical lies (placebos), examinations on what constitutes a lie and how different cultures believe they should/shouldn't be used.

This one is a keeper - and will be rereading in the future. That isn't a lie.

[Davide Battilori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mentiamo, sopravvalutiamo noi stessi e sottovalutiamo gli altri.
Eppure, forse, la bugia è stato il motore che ha permesso un rapido progresso della nostre facoltà mentali.
Togli la bugia e crolla la convivenza civile.
Inoltre, sembra che i bravi bugiardi siano persone più equilibrate e di successo.
Sarà vero?

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh. Walking on a very fine line between explaining and promoting lying. However, has some interesting research to support its thesis that lying is essential to survive and a mirror to reflect our desire to navigate social context. Did not make so much of a moral/ethical claim but interpreted lying within a sociological context.

[amberle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molto, molto gradevole, riporta una quantità di storie e aneddoti, anche molto famosi, per dimostrare quanto la tendenza a mentire sia connaturata all'essere umano.
ottima bibliografia, e notevole la lista di testi di cui è consigliata la lettura per approfondire certe parti del libro.

[K.L. Wicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an engaging, fascinating read which helped to explain many people I had known in my life. A great look at the concept of self and illusion as well as dillusion, proving there is so much we can learn about how the human mind and environment co-exist.

[Charlotte Robeson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goes into everything you would want to know about lying. I found the physiological aspect of why we lie hugely fascinating. The line of nature verses nurture. Don’t be mislead by the cover with the illustration of Donald Trump as a baby. I don’t remember him featuring much or at all in the book.

[Nikayla Reize · Rating 5 out of 5]

strangely a very transformative book for those who grew up in high control religion. lying is consciousness. lying is survival. plants and animals do it. babies do it. its how we problem solve and adapt and evolve. wow.

[Don Pollock · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thought provoking book on honesty.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, learned quite a lot.