Self-Deception Gene

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Each of us at some time faced the situation where she/he was in a situation of self-deception. And, if you were truthful with yourself, you'd have to admit that the self-deception came in quite handy to achieve something, or to release you from guilt.

I even postulate that there is a gene for this: the self-deception gene. It's this gene that prevents us from being too logical and too kind to others, in order to win the struggle for resources. I would go so far as to say that the human brain would definitely evolve to be completely logical weren't it for the self-deception gene.

Like it is with them genes, the extend of the influence on different individuals differs, which explains the range of social behavoiur: from mostly logically acting people (like me :-)), then the more egoistic, and some are on the edge of self-deception taken too far (I'd count DID in this category), to the most extreme like schizophenia.

And it also explains why women are more suffering from the gene: their level of self-deception is naturally higher as their struggle to feed their *own* children and their need to take their supporting men for a ride is substancial.

What I'm up to with this Self-Deception Gene, which is, by the way, my invention, is to provide an explanation for vastly varying symptoms of human behaviour that has one common denominator: deviation from the logical.

Well, I do understand that we enter a critical section here. :-) So we need some definitions first. Humans compete in getting enough resources to live and raise (many) children. In the times when the human brain evolved there were limited resources. But competition also uses up resources, so the logical way would be to not compete and divide resources evenly so the clan as a whole will prosper. (The later is one major basis of many religions and communism).

It would be logical to act as a team, it surly is when it comes to hunting a mammoth. Our brain *is* very logical when finding solutions for problems. It's wonderful how it works, just watch someone playing table tennis, or chess, there's an incredible amount of logical thinking involved.

But, and that's the problem with evolution, there's more to suvival of your *own* genes (and if you have new and better ones then it's even good for the clan): you have to be egoistic. Not logically divide resources, but grab as much as you can without anybody noticing it. That's were the deception kicks in: a woman has to decept her clan fellows in order to get the biggest share for *her* children. But she has to be clever in order to do that repeatedly, and the best way to decept others is to make up a story (I call it a cyberspace), to self-decept herself about the truthfulness of the story and to use it on her man, the other women and the rest of the clan. Of course the gene is also found in men: just look at the cyberspace religion, which decepts the community by making them feed perfectly useless priests.

It is very interesting to see that this schema is still is use by many women: they are creating a cyberspace in which they are working hard, wheras in reality it's their men who do the work and the women have so much spare time that they are becoming alcoholics.

The self-deception gene alters the perception and the though-feedback-loop in an interesting way (like putting in an inverter):

"I bring you roses because I love you so much" - "Seems like you're having another woman"

"I really love your soft skin" - "I'm glad your're having connective tissue weakness, so your skin will age much faster than mine"

"You are so beautiful" - "Don't insult me, I know that I'm currently overweighted"

"Please iron my shirt" - "The slut next door surly wouldn't even wash it"

The gene is particulary dangerous when it comes to its full extend in men. As men have evolved to solve problems logically as a team (which is the only way to hunt a mammoth, self-deflection won't work here) and to build hierachical structures which are only tested occasionally (but not during a mommoth hunt), they are susceptible for a man who does have this gene and decepts them. I think Hitler is a good example for that, and fascism is the ultimate form of deception and the absolute opposite of logic.

The gene once had a function in evolution, but is kind of obsolete now, as we have enough to eat.


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