just in case it turns out he’s heir to a giant fortune or something.
That seems like a highly dubious explanation to me. I guess, the woman’s honest account (or what you’d get by examining her state of mind) would say that she does it as a matter of habit, aiming to be nice and conform to social conventions.
If that’s true, the question becomes where the convention comes from and what maintains it despite the naively plausible benefits one might hope to gain by breaking it. I don’t claim to understand this (that would hint at understanding a lot of human culture at a basic level). However, I strongly suspect the origins of such behavior (and what maintains it) to be social. I.e., a good explanation of why the woman has come to act this way involves more than two people. That might involve some sort of strategic deception, but consider that most people in fact want to be lied to in such situations. An explanation must go a lot deeper than that kind of strategic deception.
That seems like a highly dubious explanation to me. I guess, the woman’s honest account (or what you’d get by examining her state of mind) would say that she does it as a matter of habit, aiming to be nice and conform to social conventions.
If that’s true, the question becomes where the convention comes from and what maintains it despite the naively plausible benefits one might hope to gain by breaking it. I don’t claim to understand this (that would hint at understanding a lot of human culture at a basic level). However, I strongly suspect the origins of such behavior (and what maintains it) to be social. I.e., a good explanation of why the woman has come to act this way involves more than two people. That might involve some sort of strategic deception, but consider that most people in fact want to be lied to in such situations. An explanation must go a lot deeper than that kind of strategic deception.