About the book: 2021 / People lie. Lies permeate every aspect of our lives - from advertising and politics to medicine and education. Is society to blame for this? Or is our brain naturally tuned to distort information? Where is the line between self-deception and optimism? And in what situations is a lie more valuable than the truth? Science journalists Shankar Vedantam and Bill Mesler show how deception has shaped humanity and reveal the role that lying plays in the modern world. Drawing on scientific research, crime reports, and personal stories, they explain how to benefit from misconceptions and stop thinking other people are crazy because of their strange views. And why the truth is not always what it seems.