Lies Rule

How evolution has shaped the human brain to prefer lies to truth, and what it means for our future

We humans aren’t an impressive species when it comes to physiognomy. We don’t have powerful bone-crushing jaws and our muscles are feeble compared to chimps half our size. We can’t run particularly quickly and we can’t scramble up trees fast enough to avoid most predators. Our skins lack protective armor or even much in the way of hair to keep us warm when the temperature drops. Our vision is reasonable but our sense of smell is abysmal and entirely inadequate for either locating prey at a distance or detecting the tell-tale scent of predators. Our hearing is reasonable but nowhere near as acute as that of a great many other animals, many of which regard us as food.

The reason we managed to cling onto the very edges of existence for hundreds of thousands of years was because we’re a quintessential group species. One solitary human can’t last long, but as a member of a group the same human can hope for a reasonable lifespan. That’s just as true today — in fact more so — as it was true fifty thousand years ago. But fitting into a group means accepting group norms and mirroring them faithfully. In all walks of life, from the relatively simple existence of the hunter-gatherer to the caffeine-powered office worker, we quickly learn that those who fail to conform fail to thrive. So we’re hardwired by evolution to automatically accept the beliefs of those around us.

The next important factor to consider is that because we were for so long on the margins of existence, calories were scarce and uncertain. In such conditions it makes a great deal of sense to do as little as possible so as to conserve energy. Anthropologists and ethnologists who study tribes living in less developed lifestyles note how much of each day is spent physically indolent. Even more importantly, intellectual indolence is even greater. As the human brain can consume up to 30% of available blood sugar, and as that sugar would more often be needed to power muscles for foraging or fleeing, it makes evolutionary sense for people to do as little thinking as possible.

Today, thanks to the cumulative effect of millions of inventions over the last few thousand years, our lives are quite different from those of…