Strategic misrepresentation can be traced to political and organizational pressures, for instance competition for scarce funds or jockeying for position. Optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation are both deception, but where the latter is intentional, i.e., lying, the first is not, optimism bias is self-deception. Although the two types of explanation are different, the result is the same: inaccurate forecasts and inflated benefit-cost ratios.