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Advantages of telling a lie
Advantages Of Lying
Advantages Of Lying
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Lying is something that comes natural to all of us. From the time we’re babies we uses deception every day. Babies cry more when someone is around. Children make up imaginary friends to feel less lonely. Adults lie to feel better about themselves or to hide something they aren’t proud of. We lie to our friends about how they look in a dress to keep them happy or we lie to our parents about the food we’ve been eating so they don’t worry about us as much. However not every lie is harmless. Some people use lies to deceive people and gain something. We can use scientific knowledge to spot deception and by using this knowledge we can begin to get to the truth and go from lie spotting to trust seeking.
Lying is a cooperative act. A lie will not be any useful if we refuse to believe in it. Power of lies are in us accepting them. Some times, we accept lies because we don’t honestly want to know the truth. But there are times when we are unwilling participants in deception. According to Pamela Meyer in her book “Lie spotting”, we are lied to anywhere from ten to two hundred times a day. We...
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.
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.
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,
The society that we live in today is built around lies. Banks lying to customers in order to feed the capitalist mindset, politicians lying to citizens in order to gain power, and charities taking donations with open arms however are stingy when giving back to the cause. The common reason why these organizations lie is to hide what they truly are. People also deceive others in order to hide who they truly are. From a young age, lying becomes engraved into one’s mind, we are taught to walk, talk, and lie.
When confronted with a problem, why does the human brain default to lying? Dishonesty is never a solution, although it may seem like the best option in the spur of a moment. My grandma always gave the example of her youth: she avoided and deceived her friend’s sister because the little girl riled everyone. Come to find out, the sister passed the following month due to an illness. I could never imagine the guilt she experienced. Nevertheless, everyone has been deceitful before and many characters were in the tragedy, The Crucible, by playwright Arthur Miller. Reasons for lying are understandable, but most people will admit that mendacity has only caused pain. Lying’s outcome is never positive: it may seem like a good option, for falsehood can save a person’s life, benefit someone, and it eases stress, but these are all transitory.
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.
Lying is simply an act of not telling the truth, and this definition of lying will be used in future sections of this paper. There are three groups of lies t...
It tells us how often we lie or tend to lie under different situations and scenarios by taking real world examples. Kornet explained and analyze the result of various studies by Bella DePaulo, a psychologist at the University of Virginia and her colleagues. As lying and deception becomes an integral part of every individual, it is important to know its impact and its results on our life. We are lying about one or the other thing at almost every moment of our life. It can be at workplace, in a relationship, or even friendship. Kornet concludes this article by saying, “The ubiquity of lying is clearly a problem, but would we want to will away all of our lies? Let’s be honest.” I completely agrees with the author as we have to take a step against lying and deception and to be honest in our lives. Kornet’s article provides really good studies and after analyzing those studies one can think of his/her lying habit and how often he lies in a day. I myself tried and thinking about how many times in a day I lie, and found that I lie a number of times in a day. This article is really interesting and I encourage everyone to read this article. After reading this article, you will come to know the actual truth about lying and its
That, like unreliable narrators, individuals often ‘lie’ to themselves in order to cover up the actual
Deception is a part of everyday life. Whether it be a couple lying to each other or an infomercial claiming something is true when it is false, deception has always been an oppressive part of society. For years, people have lied to each other. Ancient and modern day relationships have experienced turmoil caused by deceit. In these myths, characteristics of present day humans shine through because they are the ones writing the myths.
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
There are several different types of deception such as a the myth’s we grow up believing in, a little white lie, trickery, pranks, manipulation, and lying. Each one has been classified as a degree of deceit, but we must take into account all of the reasons behind each one. Some of the deceptions are meant to keep our imagination and dreams alive; others are meant to save someone’s feelings; and a majority of them are lies that are meant to save ourselves or manipulate someone into doing us a favor.
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.)
Can you remember the last time someone lied to you? Or how about the last time you lied to someone else? Did you ever stop and ask yourself why? There are so many different reasons that a person might lie. Maybe a lie about something to keep oneself out of trouble, or even a lie to impress other people. But either way there are always going to be serious consequences or effects of lying.