Introduction
"To lie is to state something that one knows to be false or that one has not reasonably ascertained to be true with the intention that it be taken for the truth by oneself or someone else’ (Aldert Vrij 2011) .In spite of our intentions in everyday life, we all are all faced with situations that require our economy with the truth. The discussion below explores the types of lies, reasons why people tell such lies with emphasis on the benefits that accrue to liars from their actions. The giveaway cues of detecting them and the ethical issues surrounding lies will also be discussed.
Different people lie because of different reasons, of course depending on the circumstances. While some people may be hard pressed not to tell the truth, other people are serial liars and don’t give a damn about any truth in their expressions. Behavioral scientists have classified lies into three broad categories; the beneficial, the spiteful and the neutral lies. The most vicious of lies are those that are intended to benefit someone at the expense of the others, commonly known as spiteful lies. Effective interpersonal relationships require that people are truthful in their dealings and communication. While this is true, it must be appreciated that some lies may be beneficial to both the liar and the victims.
Types of lies and why people tell them
Lies have been part of human life since the advent of languages and communication. Ancient history brings to light instances where great people or armies went down because of omission of facts or outright non truths in the planning process. In today’s world, the political leadership thrives on the lies that are fed to the poor citizens of a country to elect a particular leadership.
According to behavioral scientists, while people frown upon lies, some can be classified as beneficial or rather less vicious. According to the purpose or reason why we tell lies, they can be divided into three broad categories;
Beneficial lies
These are lies that are told with the intention of helping others. Usually, they are told to avoid hurt, insult, impersonality and/or sadness. More often than not, parents lie to their children that their grandfather is living happily with the angels in heaven, when he is actually dead, or that children are bought, but not born so as to escape the agony of having to explain to the two or three year olds, the process of childbearing.
Spiteful lies
This is a common form of lies that are told by malicious people with the intention of gaining or benefiting at the expense of others, often resulting to injury to their victims. They are commonly presented in form of deceit or rumor. Deceits are mostly concocted by liars so as to gain some benefit, whether financial or otherwise. For instance, a lawyer knowingly misrepresents information to a court of justice so as to secure the release of his client for financial gain; a seller would cunningly entice a buyer to buy his fake wares, or even overprice commodities for financial gain. These liars usually benefit in terms of reputation, profits and toleration.
Rumors on the other hand are more vicious. People usually make them so as to revenge their enemies or to pull down others from their positions. This happens most commonly in politics, business, entertainment and other platforms. For instance a politician may lie that the rival is involved in say sex scandals or corruption so as to make them lose popularity, an enterprise may try to maliciously gain market share by misinforming the public about competitor products (Paul Ekman, 2009). We have also been witnesses of entertainment celebrities who have been brought down by other artistes out of unfounded rumors of involvement in drugs, black magic or other. Such lies are usually malicious, mean and should be avoided and condemned at all costs.
Neutral lies
As the name suggests, these are lies that hurt no one and are just told to make things simpler or simply to protect someone’s privacy. Some people avoid answering many questions by just telling lies.
Some other types of lies require a brief mentioning and include some common and informal classifications of lies such as;
Lies and ethics
According to psychologist Immanuel Kant, Lies are morally wrong, for two major reasons. First of all, lying corrupts ones quality of humanity, the ability to make free and rational choices. Each lie told deprives one of their moral self worth and also deprives others of their freedom to make rational choices (Paul Ekman, 2009).
The second perspective of ethics in lies is Virtue Ethics that also proposes that lying is morally wrong, albeit using a different argument from the above perspective. Proponents of value ethics argue that lying is wrong since it opposes the virtues of honesty. There is always some debate as to whether a lie that is told in pursuit of a virtue (eg a brother’s lie to his sister’s drunken husband may be motivated by compassion for her physical safety) is right or wrong. Essentially, virtue ethics still finds lying to be immoral, as long as it is not for the beneficial good of the victims.
The third perspective, utilitarian ethics appreciates the value of the cost benefit analysis underlying the lies told. This theory indicates that the benefits should be weighed against the harms of telling lies. Utilitarian’s base their arguments on the claims that actions, are morally acceptable when the resulting consequences maximize the benefits and/or minimize the harm. The challenge is always applying the utilitarian theory in everyday’s life, since it is not always easy to estimate the parameters involved.
Altruistic lies that are specifically intended to benefit someone else are usually considered morally beneficial by utilitarian’s. Consider the example below; a doctor lies to his patient that there is a 50% probability that they would recover when tests actually indicate that they only have a few days to live. The doctor knows from experience that if he told the truth to the patient, the patient would probably sink deeper into depression or even commit suicide, with the hope of recovery however, the patient will probably be cheerful in their remaining days. Utilitarianism would support the doctors decisions because of the greater good served by his altruistic lie.
Detecting lies from the behavior of liars
DePaulo Et al and Vrij, recently uncovered a number of issues regarding non verbal indicators of deceit after reviewing close to 100 scientific studies (Aldert Vrij,2011).
The main finding was perhaps the fact that there was no single behavior response, or a straightforward give away cue that was uniquely related to deception and telling of lies. However, their review uncovered that some behaviors’ are more likely to occur or to be exhibited during deception than others, depending in the three processes that are experienced by liars including, emotion, content complexity and attempted behavioral control (David J. Lieberman, 1999)
The fact that someone is lying may not result in any particular behavior but liars are usually nervous, emotional and usually have to think pretty hard to make their ‘ truth’ plausible (Content complexity) and may attempt to control their behavior to give a good and credible impression (behavior control)
The review also noted that liars tend to speak at a higher pitched voice, usually as a result of arousal and experienced by liars (Ekman, Friesen, & Scherer, 1999).Sometimes, liar’s voices are tenser than their truth telling counterparts, also as a result of arousal.
A more significant behavior of liars is the use of poor sentence structure, sentence repetition, incompletion, speech hesitations and the use of sentence fillers such as ‘ah’,’um’ ,’er’ etc, thus showing a conflicting pattern.
One of the most significant behavioral aspects of liars is their body motion and postures. Liars usually tend to make fewer illustrators and fewer hand and finger movements than truth tellers, usually as a result of the content complexity. Cognitive load results in neglect of body language thus reducing overall animation, often also associated with the attempts to control behavior. Liars believe that movements will give away their lies and so will attempt to curtail any such movements. This result to unusual rigidity in body motions majorly attributed to the lack of emotional attachment. A classic example is a person going for a business trip. Such a person is expected to animatedly discuss the deal with a lot of enthusiasm, but if the person seems disinterested in any related discussions may raise eyebrows on the veracity of the trip he intends to go.
Avoidance of eye contact- maintenance of eye contact is one of the most important aspects of interpersonal communication. The fact that one insists on looking away during speech or conversations may indicate a non- verbal cue that they are not telling the truth. This is because; eye contact reveals confidence and truth in speech, a very important deficiency in lies.
Conclusion
While we appreciate the need for ethics in interpersonal communication, it’s an undisputed truth that all people tell lies in one way or another. The difference comes in the types of lies that they tell. As discussed above, most of the lies that people tell are not bad after all, and more of these lies would probably may make life even better and alleviate allot of suffering and make people’s lives happier. What is wrong with telling an ugly person that they look great while in essence they are not? This person would probably feel happier and their self esteem will be on top. Figure out the damage that would cause if you hit the nail on the head and told them how awfully they looked!
The behaviors’ exhibited by liars as discussed can easily help individuals identify liars from truth tellers. One should be on the lookout for such behavioral cues to discern lies and beware of the resultant consequences.
References
Aldert Vrij. Detecting lies and deceit:Pitfalls and opportunities. Willey and Sons,2011
Paul Ekman: Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage.W.W. Norton, 2009
David J. Lieberman. Never Be Lied to Again: How to Get the Truth In 5 Minutes Or Less In Any Conversation Or Situation. St Martin’s Press, 1999.
