Modern Wisdom #995 - Lionel Page - Born to Lie: How Humans Deceive Ourselves & Others
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Sep 18, 2025 Lionel Page, a professor at the University of Queensland and author, delves into the fascinating world of self-deception and human communication. He discusses how our reasoning often prioritizes persuasion over truth, revealing everyday examples of self-deception like overconfidence and conflict resolution. Page explores the complexities of communication, emphasizing the role of ambiguity and social dynamics. He examines gender differences in social networks and reinterprets politics as a coalition game, shedding light on how we navigate social interactions and the implications for empathy.
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Reason Is Built For Persuasion Not Truth
- Human reasoning evolved mainly to persuade others, not to discover objective truth.
- We reason like lawyers: we spin evidence to win arguments rather than search neutrally for facts.
Self-Deception Aids Social Bluffing
- Self-deception can be adaptive because believing your own bluff hides cues of deception.
- Robert Trivers argues self-deception reduces the cost of lying and makes social bluffing more convincing.
Couples' Chore Estimates Summing Over 100%
- Couples often overestimate their own share of chores and both believe they do more than 100% combined.
- Lionel uses this to illustrate pervasive, everyday self-serving bias in households.
