The evolutionary necessity of lying

John Horgan has a long review of Robert Trivers' long overdue book, The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life. I really don't care how well Trivers analyzed the topic, this is such a rich and important issue that I can't help but think he must have hit some important mines of insight. I haven't read The Folly of Fools, but I can recommend Natural Selection and Social Theory: Selected Papers of Robert Trivers. It's not just a compilation of papers, there are biographical chapters which flesh out the context behind a particular idea at a given time. Trivers also shows up prominently in Defenders of the Truth: The Sociobiology Debate and Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species.