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　　Honestymaybethebestpolicy，butlyinghasitsmeritsevenwhenwearedeceivingourselves。Numerousstudieshaveshownthatthosewhoarepractisedintheartofselfdeceptionmightbemoresuccessfulinthespheresofsportandbusiness。Theymightevenbehappierthanpeoplewhoarealwaystruetothemselves。Butisthereeveradownsidetobelievingourownlies？
　　AningeniousstudybyZoeChanceofYaleUniversitytestedtheidea，bywatchingwhathappenswhenpeoplecheatontests。
　　ChanceandcolleaguesranexperimentswhichinvolvedaskingstudentstoanswerIQandgeneralknowledgequestions。Halftheparticipantsweregivenacopyofthetestpaperwhichhadapparentlyinerrorbeenprintedwiththeanswerslistedatthebottom。Thismeanttheyhadtoresistthetemptationtocheckorimprovetheiranswersagainsttherealanswersastheywentalong。
　　Asyoudexpect，someoftheseparticipantscouldn’thelpbutcheat。Collectively，thegroupthathadaccesstotheanswersperformedbetterontheteststhanparticipantswhodidnteventhoughbothgroupsofparticipantswereselectedatrandomfromstudentsatthesameuniversity，sowere，onaverage，ofsimilarability。（Wecantknowforsurewhowascheatingprobablysomeofthepeoplewhohadanswerswouldhavegothighscoresevenwithouttheanswersbutitmeansthattheaverageperformanceinthegroupwaspartlydowntoindividualsmarts，andpartlydowntohavingtheanswersathand。）
　　ThecrucialquestionforChancesresearchwasthis：didpeopleinthecheatergroupknowthattheydbeenrelyingontheanswers？Ordidtheyattributetheirsuccessinthetestssolelytotheirownintelligence？
　　Thewaytheresearcherstestedthiswastoaskthestudentstopredicthowwelltheyddoonafollowuptest。Theywereallowedtoquicklyglanceoverthesecondtestsheetsothattheycouldseethatitinvolvedthesamekindofquestionsand，importantly，thatnoanswershadbeenmistakenlybeenprintedatthebottomthistime。Theresearchersreasonedthatifthestudentswhohadcheatedrealisedthatcheatingwasn’tanoptionthesecondtimearound，theyshouldpredicttheywouldntdoaswellonthissecondtest。
　　Notso。Selfdeceptionwontheday。Thepeoplewhodhadaccesstotheanswerspredicted，onaverage，thattheydgethigherscoresonthefollowupequivalenttogivingthemsomethinglikea10pointIQboost。Whentested，ofcourse，theyscoredfarlower。
　　Theresearchersrananotherexperimenttocheckthattheeffectwasreallyduetothecheaters’inflatedbeliefintheirownabilities。Inthisexperiment，studentswereofferedacashrewardforaccuratelypredictingtheirscoresonthesecondtest。Sureenough，thosewhohadbeengiventheopportunitytocheatoverestimatedtheirabilityandlostoutearning20lessthantheotherstudents。
　　TheimplicationisthatpeopleinChancesexperimentpeopleverymuchlikeyouandmehadtrickedthemselvesintobelievingtheyweresmarterthantheywere。Theremaybebenefitsfromdoingthisconfidence，satisfaction，ormoreeasilygainingthetrustofothersbuttherearealsocertainlydisadvantages。Whenevercircumstanceschangeandyouneedtoaccuratelypredicthowwellyoulldo，itcancosttobelieveyourebetterthanyouare。
　　Thatselfdeceptionhasitscostshassomeinterestingimplications。Morally，mostofuswouldsaythatselfdeceptioniswrong。Butasidefromwhetherselfdeceptionisundesirable，weshouldexpectittobepresentinallofustosomedegree（becauseofthebenefits），buttobelimitedaswell（becauseofthecosts）。
　　Selfdeceptionisntsomethingthatisalwaysbetterinlargerdosestheremustbeanamountofitforwhichthebenefitsoutweighthecosts，mostofthetime。Wereprobablyallselfdeceivingtosomedegree。Theironybeing，becauseitisselfdeception，wecantknowhowoften。