Deception: Perspectives on Human and Nonhuman Deceit (Animal Behavior

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

Mitchell and Thompson have compiled the first interdisciplinary study of deception and its manifestations in a variety of animal species. Deception is unique in that it presents detailed explorations of the broadest array of deceptive behavior, ranging from deceptive signaling in fireflies and stomatopods, to false-alarm calling by birds and foxes, to playful manipulating between people and dogs, to deceiving within intimate human relationships. It offers a historical overview of the problem of deception in related fields of animal behavior, philosophical analyses of the meaning and significance of deception in evolutionary and psychological theories, and diverse perspectives on deception--philosophical, ecological, evolutionary, ethological, developmental, psychological, anthropological, and historical. The contributions gathered herein afford scientists the opportunity to discover something about the formal properties of deception, enabling them to explore and evaluate the belief that one set of descriptive and perhaps explanatory structures is suitable for both biological and psychological phenomena.

418 pages, Hardcover

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.