Book Review - The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars - Princeton University Press

 

     I suppose you will have to believe me when I tell you that this is a very enjoyable book, although if I could gain personal advantage by lying about my reaction to it, how would you know? Lying and cheating, it turns out is far more complex and nuanced than we might have thought! From fungi to foxes, from apes to amphibians, from cuckoos to crabs, from hominids to herons, cheating and deception are  integral parts of the struggle to survive, and dishonesty is used in myriad ways to facilitate it. George Washington may have declared that he could never tell a lie, but he would be a rare exception to the general rule. Lying is part of our daily existence and is as important a survival strategy in many instances  as food and water. It is not a moral code, it is an essential part of our makeup.

     Lixing Sun treats this topic with both a serious scientific demeanour and a welcome injection of wry humour. In a playful manner he postulates two laws of cheating. The First Law of Cheating is operative when  benefits accrue to the cheater, often at the expense of another. An example might be a Killdeer feigning a broken wing and flying off before the fox was able to gain a meal. My favorite example of this type of cheating says, "......It requires minimum effort, yet the return can be large. If you question that formula, just ask someone who dodged the draft during the war in Vietnam - someone who came from a rich family and paid off his physician to falsely diagnose a bone spur in his medical record." Touché!

     The Second Law of Cheating applies when pure deception is used and one animal exploits another. A soldier is told that he is fighting a noble fight for the glory of his country, when in reality he is furthering the maniacal ambitions of a despot, and is merely an expendable commodity.

     Cheating and lying manifest themselves in so many ways, yet ultimately are reined in when the benefits of deception are outweighed by honesty. One of the great problems in human society today is the exponential spread of lies, misinformation and conspiracy theories on the internet and the effort needed to know what is true. We have always known politicians will lie if it serves their selfish ends, but now lying has become brazen and ubiquitous to the detriment of civil society. Cheaters have been elevated to positions of the highest power and legions of voters accept ouright lies and pure fiction as unassailable truth.

     But "little white lies" are still what they have always been - a means of greasing the wheels of social intercourse. So, the next time someone dear to you poses the question, "Do these clothes make me look fat?" feel free to keep a straight face and say, "No, of course not." It's a survival stratgey well known to us all.

Fact Check

Page 105 - "Among such strategists is an Austrian bird called the Superb Fairy-Wren." In fact, this is an Australian bird, not an Austrian bird.

The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars: Cheating and Deception in the Living World - Princeton University Press

Lixing Sun

Hardcover - US$29.95 - ISBN: 9780691198606

288 pages - 6.125 x 9.25 inches (15.31 x 23.125 cm)

12 Colour and 34 black-and-white illustrations

Publication Date: 04 April, 2023