Is Lying Bad For Us?

In discussions on the topic of lying, a controversial issue has been whether there is justification of lying or not. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of if there is ever a time when a lie can be told for the good of someone else. Whereas some are convinced that lies should never be told, others agree that there are certain instances where lying is acceptable because the liar protects the one lied to. In the essay “The Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson, she explores the types of lies and how they affect everyday people. In Anton Chekhov’s fictional story, “The Lady with the Dog,” he displays two characters, Dmitri Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna, lying for love and to avoid consequence by their spouses. I stand against lying for the benefit of oneself because I think that it has the ability to ruin relationships or friendships and is hard to keep up the lies which leads to creating more lies. Although some people think that there are circumstances that warrant lying, I claim that no one should lie because lies end up hurting both people involved: the liar and the person lied to.

“Like most people, I indulge in small falsehoods and still think of myself as an honest person. Sure I lie, but it doesn’t hurt anything. Or does it” (3)? The selection lists ten types of lies. Those types are: the white lie, facades, ignoring the plain facts, deflecting, omission, stereotypes and cliché, groupthink, out-and-out lies, dismissal, and delusion. The white lie is used when the truth is more harmful than a lie. A facade is when you hide your true self and put on a mask for

In this essay, The Ways We Lie, Ericsson writes examples of lies we tell daily. She explains that not all the lies we tell are intentional. We choose to make life easier by lying. This essay also highlights situations that occur in everyday life. Ericson explains that “The white lie assumes that the truth will cause more damage than a simple, harmless untruth.” (89) She then continue to explain that a “white lie” can be dangerous simply because telling the truth could ease a lot of pain.

In today’s American society, lying has become something that we are accustomed to using almost every day without even realizing it. In “The Ways We Lie”, Stephanie Ericsson, screenwriter, advertising copywriter, and writer, elaborates on the act of lying and how it is used by everyone on a daily basis. She comes up with a list of the common, different kinds of lies that we all have told. Furthermore, the text goes in depth about the significance of lying and how it is an essential part of every human’s life. Ericsson’s essay effectively conveys this idea through the use of pathos, logos, ethos, personal examples, rhetorical questions, and analogies which helps the reader better understand the reasoning behind lies and how it affects our

Ericsson first uses metaphors to establish her purpose for writing the essay. As an example, the author says “Unfortunately, it [stereotype] often shuts down the original thinking, giving those hungry for the truth a candy bar of misinformation instead of a balanced meal.” (pg. 164). By using metaphors, the author allows the readers minds to wander and think about what is being said in a way they can easily comprehend. Next, the author uses hyperbole to dramatize her points. An example of this would be “I once tried going a week without telling a lie, and it was paralyzing” (pg. 159). Hyperboles benefit the essay in that they provide a dramatic contrast, thus allowing the point to stand out more. Finally, there is a profusion of rhetorical questions in “The Ways We Lie”, especially at the beginning and ends of the essay, which assist the author in strengthening the purpose. In fact, Ericsson asks when talking about the consequences of lying and tell the truth: “What far-reaching consequences will I, or others, pay as a result of my lie? Will someone’s trust be destroyed? Will someone else pay my penance because I ducked out?”(pg. 160). Similarly, in the second to last paragraph, the audience is asked how much people will tolerate before they become “sick and tired of being sick and tired” and also when will they stand up and assert their right to trust, “realize the truth is in the fine print” and when will they stop

As she went into depth explaining each form of lying, Ericsson showcased the varying levels of severity in lying, through examples written in the text. At the beginning of the essay, she writes about lying to a friend by saying she was busy and couldn’t meet up, even though she just wasn’t hungry. Further into the essay while writing about ignoring facts, she writes about how a Catholic Church hired Father Porter, knowing his history of abusing children, which led to more children being harmed. It’s hard to imagine that both of these instances are defined as lies, and it clearly shows the complicated layers of lying that keep all lies from being harmless or bad. Ericsson even shows a mild and more extreme version of the same type of lie. When describing a facade, she writes about how she puts up a facade by wearing suits to work, even though she prefers to stay in her pajamas until the afternoon. Right after, she describes

The reasons people lie vary, but can be distinguished into lies that are for personal benefit or for someone else’s benefit; because humans tend to be selfish creatures, the first category is more

There comes a time in every persons life where they feel a burning sensation to lie, but is it worth it? Don’t they feel the shame and the guilt of that lie? On average, people lie between ten to two hundred times a day. But doesn't all of that lying come with a lot of conflict and trouble? The more that you lie the more conflict arises by avoiding truth then if it were to be faced head-on.

A lie is considered a false statement given to fool someone. At some point throughout the day everyone will stretch the truth. Are lies just really some version of the truth or are they bold and deliberate? Lying is discussed in-depth in "The Ways We Lie" by Stephanie Ericsson and in the article "Is Lying Bad for Us" by Richard Gunderman. The two articles discuss the types of lies, reasons people lie and the consequences suffered by all. It can be determined after reading the texts that lying causes undue stress and telling the truth is beneficial in more ways than one.

There comes a time when a doctor, minister or politicians and an individual will tell a lie. It could be a white lie or big lie; most people almost generally resort to lying in certain situation. Often times a lawyer will lie in order to protect his client, or vice versa, a client will tell a lie in order to avoid being incarnated. There are many situations an individual will be placed in, and at some point in a person’s life they will need to tell a lie. Is it appropriate to lie? This is what Sissela Bok writes about in Lying: Moral choice in Public and Private Life. Bok acknowledges that despite numerous religious and moral statements against lying, people will still lie in certain situations. She will discuss and

Lies, they're everywhere, are they worth the trouble? Throughout these three articles, “It’s the truth”, “Honestly tell the truth”, and “Rejecting all lies”, the authors precisely analyze who agrees, and who doesn’t agree with lying, and why. Lying may be the first thing to come to mind when in a bad situation, but does anyone realize how much damage it can cause towards the other person or to the liar themselves?

Have you ever wondered why it can be so hard to tell the truth, or why it seems better to tell a lie? In both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Rob Marshall’s Chicago, characters lie because they feel that it is easier. However, lying leads to a downward- spiral. The society we live in can either lead us to a complicated relationship with the truth or easy going. The problem with constantly telling lies is that it starts off with one then leads to another until everything you say is a lie. People know it is easier to tell lies than face the truth because they are either doing it for money, or protection for themselves, people they love, or relationships. Yes, telling lies can help but imagine the damage you’re building up on the way. Nobody likes liars and liars can be found anywhere, even families lie to each other. Relationships are just like thin pieces of paper that make small tears to it every time a lie is told. The paper can be put back together but it will never be the same or be seen the same.

A professional deception detector, and author, Pamela Meyer points out the fact that, “ Lying is complex. It 's woven into the fabric of our daily and our business lives. We 're deeply ambivalent about the truth…. It 's as old as breathing. It 's part of our culture, it 's part of our history. Think Dante, Shakespeare, the Bible, News of the World”, in a TED Talk in which she details certain clues about how to

Ever since birth, people are told about lying and how it is something bad. Lying is projected as something that only can hurt people. Instead the slogan “Honesty is the best policy” is ingrained in their heads so that they are raised up to become honest people. Except not all lying is bad. Mark Twain shows this in his Adventures of Huckleberry Finn where Huck and many others lie throughout the whole novel. In the case of Huck, lying is what saves him and frees him from his grim situations. So lying itself is not that bad if it can save someone's life. This controversy over a good lie and a bad lie connect to the binary of appearances vs reality. As society’s appearance to the outside world is simply a lie to hide the horrors of slavery that

We are told from a very young that we should tell the truth, and that lying is wrong; an immoral action which we should not engage in. Yet lying is a large part of daily life, whether it be our lying to others or others lying to us, around us, or lying in ways that affect our lives. Oftentimes, the lies we tell are for social gain; for the purposes of esteem, affection, or respect. We lie as a way to manage others impressions of us. Studies have found that women are generally more intimate in their interactions, which would suggest that they lie less. However, might women lie more to benefit others, as opposed to self-centered lies? A study by DePaul et al. (1996) set out to answers questions about the frequency of lying, types of lies told,