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Different forms of lying
Types of deceptions
Different forms of lying
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Lying Has an Impact Richard Gunderman and Stephanie Ericsson each have written a piece explaining the impacts of lying on society. In Gunderman’s article, “Is Lying Bad for Us?” he outlines the health effects of lying, and how there are serious “mental and physical consequences,” (Gunderman 1). Ericsson’s essay, “The Ways We Lie,” focuses more on the different types of lying, and how each has a different impact. Although Gunderman’s and Ericsson’s pieces of literature both relate to the negative impacts of lying, their different thoughts of how lying impacts society, including types, health, and solutions, outweigh their similarities.
Both “The Ways We Lie,” and “Is Lying Bad for Us?” reference different types of lies, but Ericsson’s essay
Ericsson clearly defines each type of lie with relatable anecdotes. She narrates each scenario of a lie, creating a personal connection. She starts by recounting the lies she has felt necessary within a day. Without these lies her “partner keels over when I tell him about my travails, my client fires me for telling her I didn’t feel like being on time, and my friend takes it personal when I say I’m not hungry.” She establishes the causes and effects of lying revealing the
Richard Gunderman asks the question, "Isn 't there something inherently wrong with lying, and “in his article” Is Lying Bad for Us?" Similarly, Stephanie Ericsson states, "Sure I lie, but it doesn 't hurt anything. Or does it?" in her essay, "The Ways We Lie.” Both Gunderman and Ericsson hold strong opinions in regards to lying and they appeal to their audience by incorporating personal experiences as well as references to answer the questions that so many long to confirm.
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.
As John Ruskin once said, “The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.” This essence is debated in “The Ways We Lie”, written by Stephanie Ericsson, and “Doubts about Doublespeak”, written by William Lutz. In “The Ways We Lie”, Ericsson talks about the different ways people lie on a day to day basis. By comparison, in “Doubts about Doublespeak”, Lutz discusses the different forms of doublespeak that many individuals frequently use. Lutz considers doublespeak as a language that distorts the meaning of words in order to deceive another person, and only “pretends to communicate” (83). Although both authors agree that lying is about the use of deceptive language, Ericsson describes this use of language as occasionally being necessary,
Are everyday rituals, such as, facades reflected as to being a lie? Simply preparing for a meeting or interview does not come off as lying, although another type of façade such as when someone asks, “Are you okay,” after a death of someone close to you, in reality it is a form of a lie, because you are not being honest. In Stephanie Erricsson’s article “The Ways We Lie,” she discusses many different types of lying, that most wouldn’t even consider. Ericsson claimed, “But façades can be destructive because they are used to seduce others into an illusion” (409). Depending how a façade is used, the outcome can be beneficial or damaging. There are facades that are used to cover up one’s true feelings, in order to protect an individual and then there is a type in which one puts on a mask to cover up how awful of a person they are. Charity, a former friend, deceived me with the qualities of everything she was not, my mom is a great example of when it comes to hiding when she is saddened. In this article “The Ways We Lie,” Stephanie Ericsson has a great point of view on the destructiveness of facades, although, it can very well be used in a good way just as much as in a bad way, in fact, like my protective mother, using facades for mine and my sisters own good and then a conniving friend using facades in
Ericsson's article is clearly about the way people lie, mainly whether the manner in which people lie to others is to make the other’s life easier or their own life easier. People lie every day, whether in simple white lies or more complex lies. Ericsson describes white lies, the most popular lies. She uses an example, how a friend told her another friend looked good when, in fact, she did not look good. People use these types of lies daily to avoid confrontation. “The liar deciding what is best for the lied to” (Ericsson #). Anyone can use them, children to parents, friend to friend, students to teachers, boyfriend to girlfriend, etc. A white lie is a good way to keep oneself out of trouble. Ericsson thinks white lies are so common because the truth is more dangerous than a simple lie. However, the lie may seem simple and part of daily life, but Ericsson points out that it is not always so simple. Telling a white lie may benefit to you in the short term, but if for a...
In “The Ways We Lie”, Ericsson describes the different types of lies: white lie, facades, ignoring
Lying is an issue that has been debated on for a long time. Some people believe that lying is sometimes ok in certain circumstances. Some people believe lying is always acceptable. In contrast, some believe lying is always bad. Keeping all other’s opinions in mind, I believe that lying is a deficient way of solving problems and is a bad thing. I claim that only certain situations allow the usage of lies and that otherwise, lying is bad. Dishonesty is bad because it makes it harder to serve justice, harms the liar individually, and messes up records. Furthermore, it should only be said to protect someone from grave danger.
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.
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
Ericsson uses a metaphor to state her argument and to show the problems that may likely emerge from excessive lying. Near the end of her essay, she states, “Our acceptance of lies becomes a cultural cancer that eventually shrouds and reorders reality until moral garbage becomes as invisible to us as water is to a fish.” In this line, the author is comparing humans to fish, and lies to water. By stating this, she means that lying is so rampant throughout society that it has become an invisible part of everyday life. As stated earlier in the piece, “There is a world of difference between telling functional lies and living a lie.” The essay suggests that an excessive amount of functional lies eventually leads to other types of lies, and finally ends up with one living a lie. This metaphor is used mainly to allow the audience to realize that lying is a common but dangerous aspect of society. By comparing humans to fish, the audience will likely become a bit offended and search for ways to refute this...
Ericsson’s essay was obviously about The Ways We Lie, mostly about the way we lie to other people to make their or your own life easier. Buckley’s essay is not so obviously about lying, but if you read deeper into the text you can see how Buckley makes his life harder by lying to himself. When Ericsson is describing the white lie; she use the example of a friend telling another friend she looks good when the truth is she doesn’t. This is exactly how we use lies to lubricate daily living, we avoid confrontation. “ The liar deciding what is best for the lied to” (Ericsson 121). When Buckley describes the amount of discomfort he endured from the heat on the train, he imagines what would happen to the conductor in an age of more violence. “The passengers would seize the conductor and strap him down on a seat over the radiator to share the fate of his patrons” (64). He has strong feelings toward the conductor, because something has not already been done. When the conductor approaches Buckley; he has intensions of making the conductor aware of the problem, but the simple stare of his neighbor drives him to ignore the plain facts. Even though Buckley notices, “the car was flecked with the white shirts of the passengers”; he uses the stare as a way to dilute the truth into believing that his idea of turning the heat down would not be the consensus of the rest of the car (64).
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
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.
(2010) which talks about honesty and dishonesty, they found out that some of their participants claimed to have lied a lot and others are very little. Serota believes that individual difference greatly affects the Human Deceptive communication. Individual differences play a major role in this field, and most lies in our society told by a small number of prolific liars (Serota et al., 2010). A recent initial work supports Serota’s study and reveals that people who chronologically tend towards attempting to achieve positive outcomes (rather to avoid negative things to happen) are more likely to lie due to their reduction of fear risks involved in such a