Evolution strategies are full of deceptive soap operas. Why is demanded that deception is more successful?

Question

If honesty can get you killed, why is it asked for? For instance, in the animal kingdom, when an animal plays dead, it is deceiving the predator, and lives on to reproduce. Why is this wrong? And if it is right, why is it wrong when humans deceive?

Answer 1

It’s a daunting task to try and reconcile “morality” between Humanity and the rest of the animal kingdom. I asked a question once on how it was possible for there to exist a “bad dog” or “bad robot” when morality was created by Humanity. The answer I chose suggested that morality existed in nature: a dog does not attack an infant, even when provoked. I thought this was an interesting idea, although I’m more inclined to believe that we have simply modeled some of our morality on natural behaviors. If dogs and humans live cooperatively, then it is to our evolutionary advantage to protect each other’s young. In general, I believe cooperation is a more successful evolutionary strategy than deception.

In my opinion, the most difficult animal behavior to comprehend is the ability to react smoothly to disconnected instincts. We can observe animals that will kill prey, and then, without ingesting the kill, care for the prey’s abandoned young. It would be impossible for a Human to enact such “present moment” morality, with no regard to past action or likely future consequences. So I believe it is often nonsensical to judge animal behavior as “right” or “wrong”, although, as the answerer to my above-mentioned question pointed out, if we reward an animal for behavior that we feel is “good”, and punish it for behavior that we judge “bad”, we are teaching the animal a system of ethics.

To address your main point: deception cannot possibly be declared “wrong” in a blanketed sense. No morality is that simple. A lie in the service of physical self-preservation or preservation of another cannot reasonably be declared evil. A lie to preserve another’s feelings is not necessarily wrong; only if the sheltering will eventually do more harm. I think the measure is pain. Deception is “wrong” when it causes more pain than truth, from a long-term perspective, and to the degree that the future outcome is predictable. The gray area of unforeseeable and unintentional pain is impossible to sort out, even if we gather an army of priests, rabbis, ministers, lawyers, judges, politicians, veterinarians, diplomats, and soccer moms. And if I see *that* army approaching, I will most definitely “play dead”…

Answer 2

You're asking a philosophical question. Science makes no attempt to answer these types of problems. But, from my own personal belief, we have a moral obligation to tell the truth unless there is an extenuating circumstance that can permit lying. A situation where lying will save yours, or someone elses life is one of those situations. These cases must be evaluated individually though. So, the best bet is to tell the truth. If lies became the norm among people, think what that would mean. You wouldn't be able to trust anybody. You couldn't loan someone money or get married. You couldn't depend on friends. Essentially, anything that requires trust goes out the window if lying becomes the norm. Any person can usually look at a situation and decide if lying is necessary. Those who can't have problems; morally or mentally.

Answer 3

Human evolution is full of deceptions. Hunters sneak around and fool their prey to trap them or lure them to be killed.

Humans have waged war against each other as long as they have existed. The winner is often the one who can best deceive the opponent.

Who's to say which is right and which is wrong? From an evolution point of view, sometimes the best strategy is to be nice and not deceive your friends. They will, hopefully, return the favor and not fool you.

Most people consider it perfectly OK to deceive your enemies. Even the entire U.S. legal system considers it perfectly OK to try to deceive your accusers and claim innocence even when you are not.

Answer 4

It depends on why a human would deceive - if it was strictly a case of survival, I don't think that's wrong.

However, because human existence has many more layers of order than the predator-prey relationship, deception has the potential to seriously corrupt that order, sending our way of life into total chaos if it went unchecked.

Answer 5

I'm convinced the best answer you will get, is from Question This.
Just one comment--that in the "animal kingdom"--deceit is truly not deceit, but ways to survive. Only humans deceive for reasons of greed, hatred & bigotry.