Deception in Shakespeare

Deception in Shakespeare Beguilement. Deceitfulness. Duplicity. Insincerity. Trickery. Untruth. All of these words are synonyms for one: deception. Deception is officially defined as misleading “by deliberate misrepresentation or lies” (The Free Dictionary by Farlex). But how is it that lies are told and then identified? Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have detected different areas of the brain are involved in telling a lie and telling the truth. “Sections of the brain that exercises a significant role in how humans pay attention, and monitor and control errors… were, on average, more active in the volunteers when they were lying than when they were telling the truth”; so if telling the truth was a human instinct, it would use more brain activity to tell a lie, as shown in the results of the study (O’Brien). Perhaps using an fMRI machine would be the more appropriate way to detect lies; however, without an fMRI machine, it is more difficult for another person to perceive if what they are being told is truth or a lie. A common venue in which deception is readily used at every performance is at a magic show. The magician uses illusions to capture an audience into believing that his act is genuine. Because of this, neuroscientists teamed up with magicians to learn more about the human mind. Researchers are trying to understand how magicians manipulate awareness. Thomas Carew, the president of the Society for Neuroscience, said, “there is no better way to see how the mind works than to study how we can be deceived” (Marcus). Because magicians are able to trick audience members without them knowing it, it allows for a purer result set for cognitive researchers. In the lab, it is often hard to manipulate participants because they know that they are being deceived. One conclusion made is that believing is seeing. Apollo Robbins ran a pickpocketing show in Las Vegas for many years. His success was attributed to misdirection. In