A study at the University of Massachusetts found that “…60 percent of people lied at least once during a 10-minute conversation and told an average of two to three lies…” (“umass”). At first, this statistic seems startling, but when looking upon the many reasons people tell lies, it becomes easier to believe. Lies are not all necessarily the large friendship-breaking ones we think of in a negative light; they can also be as simple as stating that an outfit is beautiful when it truly is not. When considering these smaller lies, it is difficult to find someone who does not lie at least one time a day. These little lies bring in a question of their own. Is all lying truly negative? Would the world be better off if everyone was forced to tell the truth? In a world where lying is so integrated into society, understanding the causes of lying can allow one to see why it appears to be necessary to the world today. Lying is unavoidable in life. Even when people try their hardest, they will still come across lies. People lie to their friends, families, and even to themselves. Social media allows for lies to be more easily spread and the news constantly shows accusations that are quickly denied. Lies …show more content…
Children often display this well: babies will sometimes cry when nothing is wrong in order to receive attention (Lee). Even though this fake-crying may appear to be unimportant, it is still a form of a lie. The ability to lie for rewards is not simply for children, however. Adults often lie in job interviews. A common question that comes up is: “What is your biggest weakness?” Most people realize that answering this question honestly will be negative for the interview, and they will say something about how they are over-organized or get too focused on work. For most people this is not true, but it is a common way to answer. With the opportunity to receive attention and jobs, lying is almost encouraged by
Lying is bad but the fear that can come from it is worse. Fear can rule a person which drives them to extreme and irrational acts that can shape society in a negative way. We as people are so accustomed to how we should act that during times of fear and crisis our vision is blurred and sometimes our decision making abilities are impaired. We often look past at how much fear can affect us and our society. Starting from Salem 1692 and going to the McCarthy era fear ruled the people and even now in present time America we are constantly living in fear.
Although it is considered wrong to tell lies, it seems that literature has offered us situations where telling lies isn’t necessarily bad. Of course, lying often has a tragic outcome, but not always for the person or people who told the lie or lies. Oftentimes, these unfortunate outcomes are directed at the person about whom the lie was told. Furthermore, these stories have explained that dishonesty can result in success for both the liar and the target. Maybe we have been teaching the wrong values to our children.
American writer and speaker, Dorothy Allison, once said “things come apart so easily when they have been held together by lies” (Allison). One of the first lessons that kids are taught is to be honest and always tell the truth. Being honest is not always easy, but the result of lying is much worse then telling the truth. In Animal Farm, George Orwell demonstrates how lies and deceit will ruin society if everyone always believes what the leader says, people lie to themself, and if laws are changed to benefit the group in power.
The society we live in can either lead us to a complicated relationship with the truth or be 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. Being truthful can be beneficial to anyone, and people will follow the example of being honest. 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. It was discovered by Nick that his whole family wasn’t dead because at Gatsby’s funeral he met Gatsby’s father.
Stephanie Ericsson’s The Ways We Lie, analyzes and reflects on how lying has simply become the norm in our society. We all lie, there is not one person in the world that does not lie. Most people lie because they are afraid of telling the truth, however what they do not know is telling a lie can lead them in the wrong direction because many things can happen when lying to a person. The person can find out when everything unravels that person will not have trust in you and you would be known as a liar. To every action there is a consequence, so why not deal with just one consequence when telling the
In “The Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson, the author uses her knowledge to talk about the different ways of lies and how those lies affect the liar, as well as the people who had been told lies. According to the author’s essay, there are 10 types of lies that people encounter every single day: the White Lie, Facades, Ignoring the Plain Facts, Deflecting, Omission, Stereotypes and Cliches, Groupthink, Out-and-Out Lies, Dismissal, and Delusion. Throughout the essay, it is connoted that people are lying in various ways even though they are not intended to. I had been taught that lying is a bad habit. According to Ericsson, there are many types of lie and I did three of them in my life: the White Lie, Omission, and Out-and-Out Lies; however, I can defend my lies for good purposes.
Throughout life, people are faced with moral decisions that will impact not only themselves but also, the people they surround themselves with. One of these moral decisions people encounter daily is truthfulness in their actions and words. In Blackburn’s novel, “Being Good”, he states “It is not easy to find a stable attitude to the stringency of the prohibition of lying.” I agree with his quote because everyone tends to lie no matter the magnitude of the lie, in order to protect themselves and the people they care about. Although Blackburn believes it is only ethical to lie on occasion, German philosopher, Immanuel Kant affirms that lying is always morally wrong, no matter what the situation is. Though lying can be seen as a deplorable action,
In the article, “The Truth about Lies and the First Amendment,” the author Ken Paulson writes to illustrate an important point regarding Xavier Alvarez, who was arrested and charged with a criminal offense for lying about being a recipient of the prestigious medal of honor award, and free speech: that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with its findings that the first amendment also protects Xavier Alvarez’s lies from legal, governmental prosecution.
The article, “Is Lying Bad for Us,” accurately describes the intentions of a “liar.” The author says, “Though liars do not tell the truth, they care about it, while the bullshitter does not even care about the truth and seeks merely to impress” (Gunderman). This statement proves that lying should not be viewed as out of the ordinary, or unacceptable, and that liars should not be viewed as bad people. Lying can be shown as a way of protecting or caring
We lie all the time, lying is not something new to our culture. We lie to our parents, we lie to our friends, we even lie to our significant other, but why do we do it? There is not one set reason on why we lie but they can vary from an insignificant reason to something more nefarious. A good operational definition of a lie is “A lie is a false statement to a person or group made by another person or group who knows it is not the whole truth, intentionally.” (Freitas-Magalhães) We have been raised to know that lying is usually a bad thing, and it’s better to tell the truth, not to mention the circumstances get exponentially worse if you are caught lying. No one wants to be labeled as a liar, or untrustworthy. This may sound unorthodox but I personally think lying is perfectly fine; depending on the situation. If you have a prima-facie duty to be dishonest it’s perfectly acceptable. Ross says a prima facie duty or obligation is an actual duty. “One’s actual duty is what one ought to do all things considered.” (Carson) I’m not the only one who finds this too be true. Ross would also agree with me, He says “Lying is permissible or obligatory when the duty not to lie conflicts with a more important or equal important prima facie duty.” (Carson) As I was doing research on this topic I did read one extremely compelling argument on why we ought not to lie. Aristotle basically said a person who makes a defense for lying could never be trusted. (King.)
Liars have rumors spread around about how they lie all the time. Nobody wants to talk to them because they won't know if they are lying to them or not. They aren't trusted as much as people who don't lie. Liars never get very far in life and always have a reputation of lying. It's much better to tell the truth and have friends who trust them, rather than lying and having rumors spread around making no one like them.
People lie everyday to, in someway or another, keep themselves out of trouble. Many teenagers will lie to their parents about what they are doing for the evening, how much of their homework they have done, or how that glass vase got broken while they were out of town. We even lie to our significant others about who that other boy was that called the house or what exactly we did with our friends last night. All anyone is trying to accomplish by this is to stay out of trouble when we know we’ve done wrong. But we never think of the effects of lying. Although we think we’re being sly, parents are usually smarter than we give them credit for! And eventually our boyfriends and girlfriends will find out! Then the problem becomes the issue of trust. If you lie, there is no trust. That can be one of the serious consequences of lying.
Growing up, we are always told to never lie because it is the worst thing you could ever do. “Lying will only lead to a horrible situation with less than mediocre results. While lying is not always good, it is not always bad either. Samuel Butler once said “Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.
First, lying is an aggressively debated topic, and most people believe that lying can be good or bad depending on the situation.
Almost everyone, eventually, will lie. Actually, a few people, dismal to state, lie constantly. Even the youngest children will lie, particularly because they think by lying they will not be disciplined for their actions.