Who Lies?
A simple answer to this question is everyone. Everyone lies. The severity of a lie and frequency may depend on the individual, but everyone lies. Dr. Ekman is quoted saying that, “The average person lies three times per ten minutes of conversation.” Now is the time where we must bring up the types of lies again. Notice this is where extreme elaboration and outright lies mingle with the social lies. Why is it that everyone lies? Here are just a few examples.
Billy is celebrating his sixth birthday with friends and family. He opens a present from his grandmother to find a sweater. Not only it is not the baseball glove he wanted, but it is hand knit and the color of a radioactive orange. Billy goes to open his mouth and is shot a look by his parents. Billy sighs and tells his grandmother that he loves the sweater. This falls under the category of a social lie because being polite is expected of the young boy.
Stephanie is in a panic because the paper she has written for her British Literature class is due today, not Friday. With all of her other school work she mixed up due dates and knows that she will be in trouble and cannot afford a zero. She take that panic and speaks to her English teacher explaining that her computer died last night and apologizes that she could not fix it. Stephanie goes on to say that she will go get the computer looked at today and if she needs to will write a new paper. Her teacher hears the panic in her voice and gives her an extension on the paper. Stephanie's lie worked.
With those two examples we see that lies are not specific to age or situation. Not all lies are like the ones that movie plots are surrounded around. Not every lie is high stakes and not every lie is meant to truly harm another.
Billy is celebrating his sixth birthday with friends and family. He opens a present from his grandmother to find a sweater. Not only it is not the baseball glove he wanted, but it is hand knit and the color of a radioactive orange. Billy goes to open his mouth and is shot a look by his parents. Billy sighs and tells his grandmother that he loves the sweater. This falls under the category of a social lie because being polite is expected of the young boy.
Stephanie is in a panic because the paper she has written for her British Literature class is due today, not Friday. With all of her other school work she mixed up due dates and knows that she will be in trouble and cannot afford a zero. She take that panic and speaks to her English teacher explaining that her computer died last night and apologizes that she could not fix it. Stephanie goes on to say that she will go get the computer looked at today and if she needs to will write a new paper. Her teacher hears the panic in her voice and gives her an extension on the paper. Stephanie's lie worked.
With those two examples we see that lies are not specific to age or situation. Not all lies are like the ones that movie plots are surrounded around. Not every lie is high stakes and not every lie is meant to truly harm another.