Exploring how our natural inclination to believe in the honesty of others shapes our communication and social interactions. Tim Levine uncovers the reasons behind our vulnerability to deception and highlights the benefits of defaulting to truth and its role in the development of human civilization, culture, and relationships.

Communication is an essential part of being human. Communication allows up to us learn from others and to pass along things we have learned to others. With communication, we can cooperate with other people and coordinate our activities to accomplish tasks and goals that are not individually possible. Forming meaningful and lasting relationships with other humans requires communication. Effective and efficient communication enables human civilization, scientific and technological progress, and the creation and transition of human cultures.

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Join me for a moment in a thought experiment. Imagine a communication ecology where truth and honesty were not the default. Communication could not and should not be trusted in such a dystopian world. We would all bog down in uncertainty. Assessing the veracity of every incoming bit of information is an unthinkable burden. Communicative solipsism would be deeply dysfunctional.