Why Do People Lie
Luisa F. Samayoa Professor Class Date Why do People Lie If you are truthful in a relationship, nothing hurts more than hearing a lie from your partner; sometimes knowing the truth may hurt even more, yet still, in the longer run, a lie causes more damage than truth. Mark Twain once said, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything. ” Lying is not as simple as telling the truth versus falsifying it. It is deeper than that. It may well be about creating a whole new set of truths that only the liar knows of. Today, I reflect on an interesting topic: why do people lie?
Four years ago, I tried to understand why people lie, so I have been researching and learning from my friends and own experiences. Lying is a constant action that is used in a daily day. So according to psychology today, much of the research shows that we tell 2 to 3 lies every 10 seconds. So, it’s about 9:30 now, suggest that most of us should have lied. Let’s take a look, how many of you have lied in the last 72 hours? Think back… Have told a fib, or a big one? How many have told a little lie out there? (Raise Hand) All right these are all the liars, make sure you pay attention to them. (Smile) No, that looked good, it was about 2/3 of you.
The other 3rd. didn’t lie or perhaps forgot, or you’re lying to me about your lying, which is very devious. (Smile) SHOW STADISTICS Lying has been used in the past and is not a recent behavior that has been adapted, as a result has been carried through evolution. Here we have Diogenes with his lantern. Does anyone knows what he was looking for? A single honest man and he died without finding one back in Greece. Also, we have Confucius in the East who was really concerned with sincerity. So let me talk about new deceptions we have been tracking. They are called: The butler, Sock-puppet and the Chinese water.
Let’s start with the Butlers. * On my way, anybody ever written on my way? (Raise hand) then you’ve also lied. We are never on our way. We are thinking on going on our way. * Sorry I didn’t respond to you earlier, my battery was dead. Your battery wasn’t dead! You weren’t in a dead zone! You just didn’t want to respond to that person that time. * You’re talking to someone and you say: “Sorry, got work, gotta go” But really, you are just bored, you want to talk to someone else. In order to succeed everyday, people have created an action, this action is called Lying and is used for different purposes.
It appears some lie for no reason at all, while many lie with great reasoning, some lie for a cause, and many build a cause to lie. Let me tell you, it has been a fantastic month for deception and I’m not even talking about the high profile journalist caught for plagiarism get publicity & better pay, a young superstar writer whose book involves so many made up quotes that they’ve been pulled from the shelves to be known and make money; a NY Times expose on fake book reviews (Chinese water) to attract/gain publicity. Now of course, not all deception hit’s the news. Much of the deception is every day.
People lie for many reason and some are: to save their face (example), Lying to shift blame (example), Lying to avoid confrontation, Lying to get one’s way (Example), to hide information (This one can be used for good reasons or bad ones. Example good/bad), matter of habit or to gain attention. But can you detect a liar? Many people say they can sometimes and they are able to tell by seeing through their eyes, tone of voice or their body movement. Now that you have understand why people lie and that this action has been taking place since long time ago, I will tell you some of its benefits. Are there benefits on lying?
Of course, telling a lie for personal benefits is always wrong, but if it can save lives or using it to don’t hurt someone else is worth it. One of the best examples of a great benefit lying cause is about the teacher in Connecticut. Now that you know a little about why people lie, you are able to be aware of many lies people have been telling in order to achieve their objectives. As a result, around the world people lie for different reasons, some can be positive or negative. All this lies are being used by people to create a buffer, because we live in a 24/7 connected world and we just want to succeed in life.
