The Truth About Lying

In 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology, Stephanie Ericsson’s essay “The Ways We Lie” focuses on the many ways society lies today. “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” (159). It is common for many people to think of lying exactly how it is on the surface, not telling the truth. Ericsson’s essay forces you to second guess this stereotype and begin to realize that lying is even more prevalent in today’s society than most people might imagine. Looking around today with this mindset would help us make more informed political decisions, better decisions on friends, and better “next-step” positions. Our lives are not horrible places, but better steps for these areas of our lives could improve our lives dramatically.

Most people are vigilant that telling the truth is a good thing and telling lies is a deplorable thing, but most of us at some point in our lives have been tempted to tell lies and find it very convenient. In fact there are a number of reasons and circumstances that seems that telling lies is good thing. In this essay I will firstly explain what morality is. Define moral relativism and moral egoism. Finally I will use both theories to discuss the morality of lying.

There are various reasons for a person to lie. Floyd states that one reason people lie is to help the person they are lying to. One may tell their friend that they think their friend’s new glasses look nice when the person saying this honestly doesn’t feel that way but they do not want to upset their friend. Another reason Floyd mentions is that lies allow people to become acquainted with others. For example, some may lie to a person they may have just met that they have nothing going on while they, in fact, have an event they could go to only so they have a chance to get to know the other person better. One may also lie in order to preserve one’s privacy. Floyd explains this reason by using an instance when one person may ask another

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,

The majority of us lie as which is known already, but one peculiar fact is that it only took 10 minutes for somebody to tell a lie. Furthermore, that was the result of a survey which showed that 60% of adults who were surveyed confessed that within the first 10 minutes of conversing with someone, they already had told a lie to them. Although, people rejected the idea of lying, they still lied. In addition, people didn’t lie to cause harm, they actually did it to make it seem like they are interesting. Nevertheless, when we try to protect others or try to get out of trouble we tend to lie. We know it’s wrong, we’ve been taught that our whole life, and somehow we still do it. Although I disagree with the idea of lying and believe we should be honest more than dishonest, I still do it time to time. I didn’t want to lie, but

Americans tell an average of 11 lies every week. People often lie in order to make their life easier, because they are afraid of the consequences of telling the truth. As this becomes a habit they forget about the feelings of others. Lying is much worse than a nasty habit, for it can alter the structure of your brain, as well as how your brain works.

Thirteen assigned “liars” and thirteen assigned truth tellers were told to lie or tell the truth during a time period. At the start of the experiment, the number of eye blinks the volunteers took during their neutral state was recorded as a way to compare their later findings. During the experiment the liars were told to steal a piece of paper off an examiner’s desk and later deny doing the task. The truth tellers were told to sit there and not do anything for the ten-minute time span. Once the ten minutes was up, researchers asked the volunteers the question about the paper and recorded the number of eye blinks the volunteers took while being interrogated. Researchers found that liars showed a decrease in blinks during deception, which was then followed by an increase in eye blinks once the question had been answered. The reaction of the truth tellers on the other hand consisted of an increase of eye blinks during the questioning

First lying can help protect the feelings of others. For example, in the article,” It’s the truth,” by NBC news states that “vein says it was too darn hot for her to get up and get dressed for a movie date… so she told her friend she was busy. Velin was to lazy to get up and get dressed by the heat so she lied to her friend and has told her she was busy to not get her friend mad. Veiln’s reason of lying was to save her friendship over a little white lie. In addition Harold Smith states he has a kidney tumor but didn’t want to tell her daughter who had anxiety. Harold Smith had did a white lit because he had to not worry about his daughter. If Harold would have told his daughter she would have had an anxiety attack. So therefore if you lie to protect others

Unfortunately, Graff can be recognized as a liar because of his major lie at the end of the the novel; In the final test at command school, Ender realizes something; he realizes that Graff lied to him. The final test was actually him killing all of the bugger population. Graff says to Ender, “It had to be a trick or you couldn't have done it” (Card, 392). The lyrics that most remind me of this situation are “just gonna stand there and hear me cry but that's alright, because I love the way you lie, I love the way you lie”. This makes sense because Graff knows he hurt Ender by lying to him but he knew it was the right thing to do. Thankfully, Ender goes on the prove Graff wrong; it really was not the correct thing to do.

Exaggeration is like the truth, but with a hint of spice. The end product of combining deception and integrity. The ultimate relationship killer. The Bible says the truth will set you free, but what if you don’t know what the truth is. Sam and Dean struggle with uncovering the truth behind both of their perceptions of each other. In addition, express different views of each other that show the extremes of their personality through their/bystanders actions and verbal insults towards one another. This can be shown in 4 scenes in the episode “tall tales”.

Legal trouble, one of the worst things to be in, especially when you lie. It can be as grand as lying when you were sworn in court, or it can be as simple as lying about your education. In Texas law, it says that if someone claims to have a post second degree but got it from an unaccredited college then they do not earn that title. This is punishable by $2,000 and six months in prison, for lying on a resume! Its worst for perjury (lying in a courtroom while under oath). Someone could be charged with high fines and put in prison for up to 5 years. Not only that, but they could lose their job, if truthfulness is important, or because their boss doesn't want to have an employee with a criminal record. These are just a few ways lying gets you

Many people disagree with lying and believe that telling a lie is never right. Those that disagree often worry about the consequences of what would happen if the person you were lying to found out. These people would criticize those that tell lies and view them as untrustworthy and fake. One criticism of those that lie is that when you tell one lie you may have to tell another, and another, and so on just to cover up the first lie which leads to one big messy web of lies. Another criticism is that the overall purpose of telling a lie is not just. Usually when someone tells a lie it's to protect themselves. Many would argue against lying by saying the best option is to admit to what was done wrong, accept the consequences of that action, and

Oscar Wilde once said, “No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to exist” in his “The Decay of Lying”. This quote foreshadows the death of artist Basil Hallward in his The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde is known for being a participant in the aesthetic movement. This movement emphasizes that the role of art is to provide beauty to the observer.

Yeah, sure, life is hard. Bad things happen. People say mean things. People lie. More bad things happen. People die. They betray you. You feel alone.

In life you will come across many obstacles, some of these you may have caused, others you may have not. How do we determine which is which? How do we determine what is the truth and what is a lie? In 1917, William M. Marston would say the polygraph test or lie detector as it is often called. In the twenty-first century, it would probably be witnesses and physical evidence. Which is more accurate and efficient? Is it fair to determine a person 's life sentence just by asking a few questions regarding whether or not they are lying? In this modern day, we not only need to focus on the “victims” but the “criminals” as well. Not saying that we should cater to criminals, but give them a chance. The old saying goes that a defendant is innocent