The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars

Cheating and Deception in the Living World

De: Lixing Sun

Narrado por: Jason Vu

Nature is rife with cheating. Possums play possum, feigning death to cheat predators. Crows cry wolf to scare off rivals. Amphibians and reptiles are inveterate impostors. Even genes and cells cheat. The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars explores the evolution of cheating in the natural world, revealing how dishonesty has given rise to wondrous diversity.

Blending cutting-edge science with a wealth of illuminating examples—from microscopic organisms to highly intelligent birds and mammals—Lixing Sun shows how cheating in nature relies on two basic rules. One is lying, by which cheaters exploit honest messages in communication signals and use them to serve their own interests. The other is deceiving, by which cheaters exploit the biases and loopholes in the sensory systems of other creatures. Sun demonstrates that cheating serves as a potent catalyst in the evolutionary arms race between the cheating and the cheated, resulting in a biological world teeming with complexity and beauty.

Brimming with insight and humor, The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars also looks at the prevalence of cheating in human society, identifying the kinds of cheating that spur innovation and cultural vitality and laying down a blueprint for combatting malicious cheating such as fake news and disinformation.

©2023 Princeton University Press (P)2023 Tantor

Couldn’t put it down!

I found this book on a book club website and it was recommended to read. Once I started I didn’t want to stop listening. The book does a wonderful job, offering explanations of our every day lives regarding lying, cheating, and even other things of the sort. I am going to definitely follow up reading some of the studies that was used if I can find them.