deception

Also known as beguilement, subterfuge, deceit, mystification, ruse, dishonesty, outright deception, trickery

Deception is the act of convincing of one or many recipients of untrue information. The person creating the deception knows it to be false while the receiver of the information does not. It is often done for personal gain or advantage.

AI overview

Deception is when someone deliberately tells others something false, knowing it isn't true while keeping them in the dark about that fact. It matters because it can be used to manipulate people for personal benefit, undermining trust and causing real harm to those who are misled.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Research

12,339 papers

Deception in clinical trials and its impact on recruitment and adherence of study participants.Contemporary clinical trials · 2018
Tactical deception in cephalopods: a new framework for understanding cognition.Trends in ecology & evolution · 2025
Detecting deception in children: A meta-analysis.Law and human behavior · 2017
Placebos Without Deception: Outcomes, Mechanisms, and Ethics.International review of neurobiology · 2018
Altruistic deception.Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences · 2019

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

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Article

29 sections

Contents

Types
Communication
Appearance
Mimicry
Camouflage
Disguise
In romantic relationships
Deception and infidelity
Online dating deceptions
In business
In journalism
In interrogations
In law
In war
In religion
Christianity
Islam
In psychological research
In social research
Online disinhibition
"Dark patterns"
Double bluff
Deception detection
See also
References
Citations
General and cited sources
Further reading
External links

Deceit and dishonesty can also form grounds for civil litigation in tort, or contract law (where it is known as misrepresentation or fraudulent misrepresentation if deliberate), or give rise to criminal prosecution for fraud.