University of New England

University of New England Assistant Professor David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D. believes humans are natural born liars. In fact, that was the original title of his recent book, Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind (St. Martins Press), in which he posits that our brains have evolved to handle deception as a Darwinian tool for survival.

Smith’s thesis is that none of us are entirely honest. With false claims about weapons of mass destruction, the Martha Stewart trial, corporate scandals involving Enron and MCI, and candidates preparing for the upcoming election, we are just as fascinated as ever with liars and deception.

This provocative book continues to capture  the national media’s attention, including excepts in Seed magazine, a review in Psychology Today, an article in the Wall Street Journal, and interviews on Fox News Live and Forbes.com, among other media outlets. U.S. News & World Report, for instance, quoted Smith in a December 2005 story titled "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire," which looked at media figures such as Baltimore Orioles player Rafael Palmeiro and Martha Stewart and at a New York Times/CBS poll on the Bush administration's credibility on the case for the Iraq War.

Smith says there are scientific, evolutionary explanations for our propensity to lie—to others and to ourselves. Deception and social manipulation, he claims, were driving forces behind the evolution of human intelligence. We lie to others to gain success and to enhance our social status; we lie to ourselves because this helps us to deceive others more effectively (the most effective liar is the one who believes his/her own lies). Much of this activity is unconscious, with our brains deciding on a course of action before we are consciously aware of it.

Steven Pinker, best-selling author of The Blank Slate and The Language Instinct, wrote: “Self-deception is one of the most powerful ideas in psychology, indeed in human affairs, and David Smith’s Why We Lie is an excellent synthesis of this crucial topic.”

David Smith is the co-founder and director of the Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology at the University of New England. The Institute is an initiative by UNE’s College of Arts and Sciences to foster research and education into the interdisciplinary link between cognitive science and evolutionary psychology. He is also an assistant professor in UNE’s Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.

Smith earned his M.A. from Antioch University and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of London, Kings College, where he worked on topics in the philosophy of mind and psychology.  Smith's books include Freud's Philosophy of the Unconscious (Kluwer, 1999), Approaching Psychoanalysis: An Introductory Course (Karnac, 1999), and Psychoanalysis in Focus (Sage, 2002).  His next book Where War Lives: A Journey into Human Nature will be published by St. Martins Press in 2007.
 
(Press release updated January 2006)