Deceiver’s Distrust in Psychological Anime & Manga

I was studying for an exam and the term, deceiver’s distrust, came up.

Deceiver’s distrust = When people lie to others, they often begin to perceive the recipients of the lies as less honest and trustworthy as a result.

I thought about it, and it does happen in a lot of psychological and gambling anime. Two examples of deceiver’s distrust in anime and manga are Kaiji and Liar Game. Deceiver’s distrust plays out often in these two series, but I’ll outline two specific scenarios. Spoilers ahead!

1. Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor

Kaiji is the best psychological anime I’ve seen. I highly recommend it. In a match against Middle Manager Tonegawa, Kaiji trusted Tonegawa. Tonegawa, who was cheating the entire match, believed that Kaiji had switched the cards for his own benefit. Because Kaiji trusted Tonegawa and because Tonegawa thought that Kaiji had switched the cards, he lost… bitterly.

2. Liar Game

Liar Game is a psychological manga. I highly recommend this series as well, but the ending was extremely disappointing. During the Contraband game, Nao and Akiyama promised to save everyone, even though it meant that they had to move onto the next round. Yokoya, who was secretly smuggling money into his own account, did not believe Nao and Akiyama’s good intentions. He called them losers, stupid, and foolish. Spoiler alert: he lost the match.

There are many more examples of deceiver’s distrust in anime and manga. Can you think of other examples? What about in real life? Perhaps believing that others are less honest and trustworthy reduces their own guilt. What do you think?