Strategically wrong: On the relationship between generalized deception and persuasive behaviour

•A long-length discussion about the conceptual family of generalized deception (self-deception, deception, lies, manipulation) is presented.•Social influence bias is associated with deceptive behaviours in controversial settings.•Beyond the mind-modularity thesis, a manipulation axiology is advanced to consider the audience's effects.

According to a growing literature in many fields of the social sciences and humanities defending the mind-modularity thesis, the brain is composed of mutually inconsistent modules that contain contradictory beliefs. What consequences could this view have on persuasive behaviour? In order to sketch an answer, first the family of concepts of what is called generalized deception is discussed; then, this discussion is applied to the problem of the social influence bias to observe both how the mind works strategically wrong and what kind of argumentative moves are used within this mental design in a controversial social context.