The Advantages and Disadvantages of Telling a Lie

Lying has is a part of our culture, and it seems as if not a day goes by where you do not lie at all. Our world could not exist as it does, if we lived in a society in which lying did not exist. However as humans, we are prone to lying, because of our need to protect ourselves, or the ones close to us, that we turn to lying in order to either make our lives easier or to avoid problems. Humans have adapted over time into societies where lying is an evolutionary advantage, which has made it a part of our DNA. Even children, as soon as they can talk, are using deception as a way to get what they want, and these children have not even had a chance to learn to lie. Lying also continues throughout our entire lives, because it is not something that we can help, it is a part of who we are. When evaluating the argument Stephanie Ericsson makes in “The Ways We Lie”, regarding the reasons we chose to lie, however it is also important to consider extending the argument to include the idea that lying is not only a daily occurrence, it has also become imbedded into human nature.

Angelo Segura English 12 Honors Dr. Jen 5 May 2018 The moment we proclaim we don’t or have never lied is the moment we lie. It doesn’t matter how well we say it, there are points in our lives when we are faced with certain situations where the only viable option to get out of it is to lie. Lies may be categorized, but whether it’s a good lie or a bad lie, it’s still a lie. Throughout her essay, “The Ways We Lie”, Stephanie Ericsson explores and exploits different kinds of lies we may use in our daily lives.

Lying is a common habit that everyone has had experiences with. I have lied and have been lied to numerous times. Everyone has. However, not everyone exposed to a certain lie is aware of it’s true power. In her essay “The Ways We Lie”, Stephanie Ericsson criticizes our bad habit of lying. She explains many different types of lies and even gives examples to show how harmful they can be as “our acceptance of lies becomes a cultural cancer that eventually shrouds and reorders reality until moral garbage becomes invisible to us as water is to a fish” (128).

Consequences and stress are a common outcome of lies, yet people still commit them to deliberately hide the truth. “...Brad Blanton says you’re unnecessarily complicating your life.” Lies that are told often are intended to keep another’s feelings from being hurt, and in the end cause even more damage. Stress and other mental

Most people never assumed lying could actually affect their health and the health of others. It can be noted that if a lie is told, one's pulse may be increased for fear of getting caught and they are in an excitable state at that time. They may exhibit a change in facial expressions and body language. Richard Gunderman conducted a study that resulted in "Those who were able to reduce by three the number of lies they told had four fewer mental health complaints (such as feeling tense) and three fewer physical health complaints (such as headaches) than those who did not" (2). This obviously proves a health benefit to the positive side. This possibility of improved health could come from a feeling of being less stressed. By eliminating lies, the liar no longer has to worry about how many lies were told, remembering who they were told to, or weighing out the probability that the lie could be discovered. Gunderman also attempts to determine if people were given incentives not to lie would they attempt to make a valiant effort to do so for the reward. A lie free life could create a sense of accountability and ownership. Not only does lying have health risks that accompanies the behavior, it also could have health consequences to others. A notable lie discussed was the lie of dismissal. In the article "The Ways we Lie", the author makes a strong point saying " The roots of many

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.

Stephanie Ericsson categorizes the many ways people lie on a daily basis. She uses a mixture of facts, quotes and opinions to capture the severity of telling a lie. Her article has enabled me to understand the thought process that goes behind telling a lie. She justifies minor lies by using ethos and stating that minor lies prevents hurt feelings and that it is normal to lie. Stephanie frequently asks rhetorical questions to make readers think of the matter at hand. She also uses anaphora to seem more relatable and understanding to her readers. I tell minor lies on a daily basis but I did not realize that there is so many different types of lies. i and many other people often rationalize with ourselves to make our lies seem less harmful when

But, besides that I dont see why there is a reason to lie. People uses the term, a white lie,

The long term impact on someone who has lied in a major way such as from which country they have come from is hard to access. For some, the opportunity to reinvent themselves or to drawn a line from the past offers them an opportunity to begin again. How realistic this is in realty is another question. Indeed, hiding from the truth of who you are and where you have come from an impact on your ability to have close and intimate relationships. Fearful of the truth being discovered can incur the cost of being lonely. You also have to have a very good memory leaving the person being seen as disingenuous as they fail to remember all that they say. One young man I cared for found himself community less as he lied about the country he came from so

Lying can save you in severe situations such as life or death. Elie lied about his age and said he was eighteen instead of fifteen. “‘Your age?’ he asked, perhaps trying to sound paternal. ‘I'm eighteen.’ My voice was trembling.” (Wiesel 31). Not telling exact information to strangers about yourself can prevent bad things from happening. He told the doctor he was sick so he didn’t have to get his crown taken. His crown could buy him an extra ration of bread and soup, so he decided it’d be smart to keep it. He said he was a farmer because it could save him from being killed immediately. Lying is one of many ways that can help people survive in certain situations.

The majority of people think lying is inherently wrong, and it is only justified in cases of significant benefit. Fear, manipulation and pride are the three main reasons people choose to lie. Some of the harsher lies are

The psychology of lying is an interesting one because everyone at some point engages in lying. The audiences in of this works are the students and the teaching fraternity. The purpose of this work is to explore compelling reasons that make people lie. Unlike other phenomenon, lying is a relatively old phenomenon that exists throughout the world. This lying habit has been in existence for centuries and people find a way to lie about different things based on a subjective outcome intended by the lying party. Since lying has developed over many years, it has become a functional set of the social system and many people’s lives. The main challenge with lying is that it has a way of catching up with a person. When the

The article “Brad Blanton:Honestly,Tell the Truth” states”It keeps you locked in the jail of your own mind. You have to remember what you told each person. You have to think about what the person's reaction might be, and you start manipulating information to control the outcome”. I disagree because feeling guilty is not as bad as both people being hurt.Also, memorizing details of a lie could easily be avoided by keeping the lie simple. The article “Rejecting All Lies:Immanuel Kant” states “ A lie, even if it does not wrong any particular individual,always harms mankind individually.”. Some use lying as a way to get out of a situation instead of a tool of protection. The world is not getting affected by lying but how people are using it. Many do not think that lying is tainting the world but that simply is not

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

What are lies? A lie is defined as follows: To make a statement that one knows to be false, especially with the intent to deceive. There are several ways that lies are told for instance, there are white lies, lies of omission, bold faced lies, and lies of exaggeration. No matter what type of lie that one chooses to tell many people believe that lies do more harm than good.