Deception: Perspectives on Human and Nonhuman Deceit (Animal Behavior

by Robert W. Mitchell (Editor), Nicholas S. Thompson (Series Editor)

Robert W. Mitchell is Research Fellow, Department of Psychology, Clark University. Nicholas S. Thompson is Associate Professor of Psychology, Clark University.

418 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1985

Reviews

[Stephen Sorensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains a series of essays from specialists in different fields. The majority of them contain studies focusing on deception in specific types of animals. The book is split into four main categories, which I briefly summarize as follows:
1) Defining deception and setting the framework for the rest of the book
2) Deception in evolution, birds, fireflies, and stomatopods
3) Deception in macaques, neotropical birds, artic foxes, elephants, dogs, nonhuman primates, chimpanzees, and apes
4) Deception in humans; children, relationships, sports, cultures, and military

It's somewhat geared more towards an academic audience or people with an interest in animals. Some technical language is used but it's easy enough to navigate with a dictionary at the ready.

I'd love to read another book like this with more recent studies into nonhuman examples of deceptions.