When you think of human communication, it’s rife with deception,” says Stephen Nowicki, a biologist at Duke University in the United States. According to him the reason is not far to see. Since the point of communication is to get information across, it presents a great opportunity for liars who may wish to get such information across as would benefit them most. Yet there are some people who attempt to downgrade lying to the level of deception by claiming that a whole lot of animals do it all the time too. Not only does this give it a convenient biological basis but also helps them to shirk a bit of moral responsibility in the bargain.

Yes, there’s sham in the animal world. For instance, there are some caterpillars which look exactly like dangerous snakes. It’s an example of a weaker animal copying a stronger one in order to protect itself. That’s hardly dishonesty. But what can we make of the male green frog whose croaks are more like real deception? These animals croak in order to attract females, the lower the pitch of the croak the bigger – and thus healthier – the frog. It also serves to drive other male frogs away from the competition. However, it’s been observed that some smaller frogs frequently lower the pitch of their croaks too to indicate the same thing.

If that seems a little more deceitful, consider the shrike. These small sparrow-like birds routinely use alarm communication calls to warn others of the presence of a predator so that they can fly away. Sometimes though, a shriek uses a false alarm to scare  other shrikes away from food which it can then get more of. Now that seems like an outright lie which actually appears to harm others by depriving them of a decent meal.

But is it? Human beings, of course, would like to think so because then they can blame deceit on an animal ancestry. The difference is, a frog that alters its voice does not choose to lower its pitch knowing that doing so will fool other frogs. It’s merely an evolved behavioural adaptation. Nor is the shrike deliberately out to starve its companions. Over time, natural selection will ultimately favour those shrikes which are not fooled by the false alarm as they will get enough to eat in the end.

With us that’s not the case. Instead it’s a well thought out and reasoned deception which fully understands – and, more importantly, often anticipates – the consequences such action will have. And then still goes ahead and does it. And damn the consequences. That’s the difference.