Lying and Deception in Human Interaction

by Mark L. Knapp

Lying and Deception in Human Interaction provides readers with a critical understanding of deception that is necessary for evaluating the integrity of the messages they receive and send in daily life. The author’s lively writing style engages the reader as a multitude of real life examples demonstrate the relevance of visual deception in human interaction. Deception, as a form of communication, is represented in the behavior of all living organisms and has been a part of human behavior for millions of years. Lying and Deception in Human Interaction enables its readers to seek more accurate ways of identifying deceitful behavior and to effectively cope with it.

358 pages, Paperback

First published November 9, 2007

Reviews

[Mikey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting yet common sense textbook about the topics of lying and deception that mostly serves to dispel popular myths. Although published in 2008, it's already quite dated but nonetheless it does cover some timeless truths about human psychology. It did have certain glaring faults though which threw the reliability of the rest of the text into doubt, such as referring to trypanosomes as being a type of virus. It also came across as unprofessional how Knapp made a point of crabbily noting every picture he wasn't given permission to include. Overall, it's extremely readable and engaging for something meant to be a textbook. Knapp excels at making the subject accessible and covers the phenomenon of lying and deception from just about every possible angle. He would be a cool professor to take a course with. Is this obscure and dated academic text worth seeking? Not really. Is it worth picking up if you happen to find it at thrift store or something? Sure!