SELF -DECEPTION- SAND

''THE GREATEST deception men suffer from is their own opinion'' : Leonardo Da  Vinci.

In a highly deceptive world where everyone is out to deceive each other for own vested interest, the biggest service one can do to oneself is fall victim of self-deception in a negative way.

Observing the world around with an objective eye, looking at things with sensibility and using the essential tools of knowledge, one should be able to to intelligently distinguish reality and fiction, truth and falsity, wrongdoing and ethics.

No doubt, we often resort to lies whenever it suits us but there is awareness that whatever is being said or shown is far from the truth. At times, lies help to avert a serious situation which can become explosive if one tries to be honest.

For example, if someone has taken refuge in your house from a potential killer and you deny his presence when confronted by him; even though you are lying but the intention here is to protect the refugee from losing his life.

There are times when silence about some known facts also plays a similar role in in helping to avoid unpleasantness.

Self-deception does have immense significance in our lives as it can have both positive and negative effects. Rational thinking is for the logical minds but do observe the behavior of blind followers or those who believe in a set of bizarre ideologies having no solid grounds but mostly based on emotional attachments to certain tenets.

The tend to act with belief of such intense magnitude which overshadows all pragmatism, making them look, like a robotic morons, no matter their educational qualification is or whatever stratum of society they come from.

Beguiled by someone or something, they bask in a world of trickery rather than coming to terms with reality. With this intoxicated mind they are, they are often forced to commit felonies or end up harming themselves or their loved ones.

Psychologists have propounded many theories about why humans intentionally or unintentionally fall prey to deception, especially self-deception.

SCIENTIST Robert Triver, an evolutionary biologist and sociologist, proposes that deception is used by living beings as a means to survive and gain advantage over one another.

A good example would be that of  sweet smells  emanating from flesh eating plants to attract the insects or as in the animal kingdom making alarm calls or mimicry to ward-off dangerous predators.

As a result, self-deception evolved to better mask deception from those who perceived it well.

Triver's notion of self-deception goes as :

''Hiding the truth from yourself to hide it more deeply from others.'' This can be explained from the example of an honest person who, if forced into giving a false statement could appear nervous with telltale signs of perspiration, excessive blinking, change in the tonal quality of the voice etc.

The Honor and Serving of Latest Operational Research and Thinking on Self-Deception, continues. The World Students Society thanks author and Lawyer : Huzaima Bukhari, Adjunct Faculty at LUMS.