Here is a classic essay by Jennifer Jacquet for Scientific American magazine (October 26, 2011) in which she discusses Robert Trivers’ then latest book, The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life. To read the complete article and check out others, please click here.

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Imagine you, but better. Apparently this is what most of us do most of the time. Our tendency toward self-deception is captured in Robert Trivers’ Folly of Fools in bookstores this week. Trivers is one of the greatest thinkers of our time and, early in his career, offered unifying theories on reciprocal altruism, parental investment, sexual selection, as well as deceit and self-deception — the topic of this book. Folly of Fools takes a refreshingly critical look at human behavior, and it can be hard to stare ourselves in the face.

In an experiment, participants were given a series of photographs. One was the real deal and the others are tweaked along a spectrum up to 50% better and 50% worse looking. Subjects were asked to choose the real photograph and, more often than notchose a face that is more attractive than their own. And that’s just our view of how we look.

People prefer letters found in their own names and numbers found in their own birthdays. Overconfidence is common, and it affects men more than women, at least in arithmetic contests. When given the option between getting paid for correct answers and competing with three other people where the winner takes all the earnings (presumably 4 times as profitable), 35 percent of women choose to compete — close to the 25 percent you would expect (due to probabilities about the intelligence of the other three players). Not so with men, 75 percent of whom chose to compete.

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Jennifer Jacquet is a Clinical Assistant Professor in Environmental Studies at NYU. She works at the intersection of conservation, cooperation, and technology, and is currently writing a book about the evolution, function, and future of shame. She formerly wrote the guilty planet blog at Scientific American, and contributes to Edge.org

Follow her on Twitter as @guiltyplanet and/or visit her website.