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Deception is a pervasive aspect of human communication. Empirical studies have shown that most individuals engage in some form of deceit on a daily basis, with approximately 20% of social exchanges involving deceptive elements. Lying follows a developmental trajectory, peaking during adolescence and declining with age, possibly due to the maturation of cognitive control and social accountability.Cognitive and Social Factors in Deception DetectionDespite its prevalence, accurately detecting...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 21, 2026

The Modified Temptation Resistance Task: A Paradigm to Elicit Children's Strategic Lie-telling
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Deception and self-deception.

Peter Schwardmann1, Joël van der Weele2,3

  • 1Department of Economics, University of Munich (LMU), Munich, Germany. peter.schwardmann@econ.lmu.de.

Nature Human Behaviour
|July 31, 2019
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

People may intentionally deceive themselves into overconfidence to better persuade others. This strategic self-deception offers social benefits, suggesting overconfidence is an adaptive cognitive trait, not a bias.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Behavioral Economics

Background:

  • Overconfidence is common, with individuals rating themselves as more skilled, attractive, and kind than average.
  • Traditional explanations for overconfidence focus on its psychological benefits, like improved self-image and reduced anxiety.
  • An alternative evolutionary theory suggests self-deception into higher confidence serves to enhance persuasion and deception of others.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test the strategic self-deception hypothesis regarding overconfidence.
  • To investigate whether overconfidence provides tangible social benefits.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments were conducted with a combined total of 688 participants.
  • Participants performed a challenging cognitive task.
  • One group was incentivized to convince others of their performance, while a control group was not. Confidence levels were also experimentally manipulated using noisy feedback.

Main Results:

  • Participants informed of a profitable deception opportunity showed significantly higher overconfidence than the control group.
  • Experimentally increasing participants' confidence made them more persuasive in social interactions.
  • These findings suggest overconfidence can be an adaptive strategy with social advantages.

Conclusions:

  • Overconfidence may be an adaptive cognitive strategy that facilitates social interactions and persuasion.
  • The study challenges the view of overconfidence as solely a cognitive bias or deficiency.
  • Strategic self-deception into overconfidence appears to have evolved due to its social utility.