William von Hippel and Robert Trivers
Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2011), 34: 35-35
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X10002281

(read this paper)

This paper, and the following peer commentary papers are an interesting summary of the state of the art in understanding self-deception from an evolutionary perspective. The Von Hippel and Trivers paper articulates the evidence for an idea (first advanced by Trivers in the 70's) that can be regarded as the orthodox evolutionary psychology explanation for self-deception, which is that self-deception is adaptive as a means for more effectively deceiving others. This is followed by over 10 one-page commentaries, and then a reply by the authors.