The Folly Of Fools By Robert Trivers

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.

Deception can be used for both good and bad reasons. It can lead someone to be emotionally or physically hurt, or it can hide information from others, both in positive and negative situations. Despite the negative outcomes that can come from deception, many take a chance when deceiving others in hopes of reaching a positive outcome. In the case of novels, deception is often used as a way to put emphasis on the meaning of the work. In Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer, Oskar Schell and his mother deceive each other in hopes that it will allow the other to cope more easily with a death in their family.

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.

Lying is part of human nature. On average, we tell one to two lies a day. We all lie. Some do it more often than others. We even do it to ourselves on occasion. There are many ways to tell a lie. And sometimes we may not even intend to lie, it just happens. Lying is inevitable. It happens whether we like it or not. But it is up to us whether we let it drastically influence our lives. In The Ways We Lie by Stephanie Ericsson, the author discusses the different types of lies we encounter and tell in our daily lives.

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.

In the essay The Ways We Lie, author Stephanie Ericsson writes in depth about the different types of lies used by most people everyday. While listing examples of them, Ericsson questions her own experiences with lying and whether or not it was appropriate. By using hypothetical situations, true accounts, and personal occurrences, she highlights the moral conflicts and consequences that are a result of harmless fibs or impactful deceptions. In an essay detailing the lies told to ourselves and others, Ericsson points out one bold truth; everyone lies. Through her writing, Ericsson causes the reader to look into how they’ve lied in the past and how to effects others and the general greater good of society.

About 60% of adults can't have a ten minute conversation without lying at least once. In the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon, a character named Christopher Boone has showed me the ideas of lies. In the story, Christopher suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a disorder that 68 million people have. This disability makes it harder for Christopher to talk, makes his coordination poorer, both of which might lead to depression. I found that Christopher is lied to on multiple occasions in the book, mostly by people who are closest to him. These lies were usually made for good intentions, fixing broken trust, or to cover up mistakes made.

Children are taught that lying is bad, that telling the truth no matter the consequences will always outweigh the instant benefit of telling a lie. So we grow up knowing that lying is bad and mostly avoid lying; however, the psychologists assert that “untruths that are somewhere on the spectrum between totally unconscious and partly conscious, untruths that people tell not to others but at times to themselves as well” are not a rare occurrence (Banaji and Greenwald 21). This idea that our unconscious mind can also have a completely different identity than the one that we outwardly portray demonstrates our ability to have preferences and biases that can have detrimental

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

We exaggerate, we minimize, we avoid confrontation, we spare people’s feelings, we conveniently forget, we keep secrets, we justify lying to the big-guy institutions. ”(Page 472 of Patterns for College Writing). The author analyzes the way individuals use lies to help and hurt themselves in everyday lives. Ericcson writes this essay not single out individuals or censor them, but to make people as a whole really deliberate before lying.

The Ways We Lie addresses the main topic of avoiding the truth promptly. Factions of lying, especially those not ordinarily considered deceit, are presented, and personal anecdotes as well as historical precedents magnify personal appeal along with logic. The purpose of this essay is to encourage people to abstain from dishonesty. For illustration, the author states,”I cannot seem to escape the voice deep inside

The point that Ii am trying to relayreciprocate is that there are many different kinds of lies, and not only do we lie to other people without even noticing, but we also lie to ourselves. Lying has become a part of human nature, a part that we would not survive without. It has become almost an instinct and this shows by the way people don't even notice that they are doing it. One Of Ericsson’s key points is the consequences of telling the truth and why we lie. She says that by telling small lies we are protecting ourselves and protecting others.

The parent therefore deceives him or herself into believing the child because the parent desires that the child tell the truth. Some believe that to deceive oneself the self perhaps can be divided into a deceiving and deceived part. Many believe that self deception is logically or psychologically impossible. Some claim that self deception refers to one or more of four restrictions on perception, none of which need to involve the paradox of simultaneously deceiving or being deceived. First, ignorance resulting from necessarily limited capacity to respond to incoming information; second, the psychic numbing that constitutes a reflex response to prolong exposure to facts which would, if confronted each time be difficult to bear, an example of this would be when children shield themselves from fully responding to the violence they witness within the home or on television; third, mechanism of denial whereby we may end up deceived about information that would otherwise be painful to confront, even though we are not deceiving ourselves; and fourth, processes of more conscious avoidance such as procrastination, rationalization, and compartmentalization.

Thanks to the human tendency to lie as an escape from the harmful truth, deceit is everywhere. People deny climate change because the effects of such are frightening. Mass killings are reported as non-genocidal acts due to the threatening consequences of calling something a genocide. Falsity echoes in courtrooms full of people trying to escape jail time. This all brings into question the power of honesty in society.

As many know, we lie to cover up things that we don’t want others to know. Maybe when you were a child you broke your brothers toy and when he confronted you, you lied and said you had no idea who did it, or maybe you completely try to change the subject. In a way, that is what interpersonal deception theory is, it’s an attempt to explain how individuals handle actual deception at the conscious or subconscious level while they are engaged in a face-to-face communication. And Actually This type of deception has 3 aspects such as falsification, concealment, and equivocation.