The Truth About Lies: The Illusion of Honesty and the Evolution of Deceit

“Why do people believe what they believe,” asks historian Raden (Stoned) in this entertaining survey of “famous swindles.” Each chapter is dedicated to an infamous trick—among them Orson Welles’s 1938 The War of the Worlds broadcast that led listeners to believe aliens had invaded Earth, and the way Rasputin convinced the Russian czar that he had magical healing powers—and illustrates why people fall for lies. In a shell game, for instance, a hustler makes someone see things that aren’t there by manipulating lags in perception, Raden writes, and pyramid schemes, like religion, make use of humans’ proclivity to blindly trust authority. Odd facts about deception are peppered throughout, as in the case of morpho butterflies, whose mirrorlike wings create an optical illusion that make them appear blue. Truth is more fluid than humans like to believe, Raden argues: there is no “one true objective reality that we all experience and recall identically.” In enjoyably witty, conversational prose, she makes a case that humans rely on senses, reason, and logic to collectively decide upon “an unknown, mostly unknowable, reality.” Chock-full of quirky anecdotes, this is a fun romp through the tricky world of deception. (Apr.)