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The ways we lie an essay
The ways we lie an essay
Lies and its disadvantages
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Is truth dead? I think not, but it’s less frequent to hear. I don’t think people are terrible, they’re human. Everyone makes mistakes, but some people do things intentionally. Many people lie to hide things that are very serious and can damage many people or maybe just one. If people lie to hide something wrong, why do they do wrong? Well, in the following, that will be explained, keep reading. For a fact, everyone lies. Not all lies are the same size or same at all. Each one of them, bring many different consequences. Everyone lies to protect themselves or another individual they care about. The emotional attachment to the individual makes someone want to protect them, even if they have to lie. If the reasons for lying are bad, that’s when a lie becomes more than just a fib. White lies, on the other hand, are used to make someone happy or keep them happy. For example, if you lie to your friend or sibling because they’re having a surprise birthday party, but you don’t want to ruin it for them. Maybe you don’t want to hurt their feelings when they’re outfit isn’t “on point” or they’re hair is a mess, so you lie and say they look fine. …show more content…
They feel no guilt. There’s less response in the brain. There has been studies where the results show that the more someone lies, the less guilt they feel, until they don’t feel it at all which makes people lie more often. At this point, you don’t know if they’re saying the truth or making false arguments. The definition of ‘lie” is that it has to be said with an intention. For example, if someone is being dishonest, but they believe it’s true, they’re not lying, even when you know the truth. Which means that the truth can be hidden both ways, with an intention or without it (even if it’s not considered a lie in the dictionary.) Sometimes there is no truth at
If someone has done or said something, they lie in order to make themselves seem like they aren’t the “bad guy”. Doing something that could ultimately cause trouble can make people take actions that they wouldn’t normally take. A tremendous amount of anger can lead to actions that are repulsive and regretful. That is what happened to Christopher’s dad in CIDN. Christopher’s dad says, “‘I killed Wellington, Christopher… Mrs. Shears… she was very good to us… I thought she might… eventually… want to move in here… I think she cared more for that bloody dog than for me, for us…’” (121). Christopher’s dad was angry because Mrs. Shears had turned him down. Consequently, when her dog ran after him, he killed him. Throughout the entire book, his dad lies about this to everyone. In addition, lying to someone makes the other person look foolish for being trusting. Every person that has been lied to had no idea of what was truly happening. In other words, lies can even cause trust issues, depression, or antisocial disorders in people. In “How to Spot a Liar”, it is said that “‘... there are times when we are unwilling participants in deception. And that can have dramatic costs for us.’” (Meyer 2:32). Every lie told affects everyone involved. It can have serious consequences. It is often that people lie in order to protect themselves from being ashamed or
Although they do believe they are doing this, it is seen that it highly unlikely that they truly are. In Dan Ariely’s “Why We Lie…” it had come to his attention that many people are capable of cheating and being deceitful. To set out if this were true he set up an experiment to test if a person would stay honest or not. In his experiment he set out two conditions for individuals that they had to go through, a control where cheating could not be done, and a shredder condition, where individuals had the opportunity to cheat.
Lying is being deceitful. It is construed in more cases than not, as the opposite of being truthful. Yet, there’s more to it than that. A person can lie without actually saying anything false. There’s such a thing as ‘lying by omission’ and little ‘white lies’ to keep people baffled as to what dishonesty is. In reality, mendaciousness is a sickness that haunts its nurturers without letting go. Then, after a while, a person can get so good at this ‘skill’ that they even begin to lie to themselves.
As Stephanie Ericsson says in her essay “The Ways We Lie”, there are many different forms of deception. That said, some lies are worse than others. Stereotyping, for instance, actively harms the lives of millions of people, making them out to be other. Groupthink makes otherwise intelligent people into fools who blindly follow the crowd. And delusions, while perhaps not morally wrong, is dangerous to whoever believes in them. Lies like those are the worst kinds a person can use.
Webster’s Dictionary defines a lie as an intentionally false statement. However, defining a simple three-letter word is not as easy as it seems on the surface. Upon reading or hearing the word lie, people are instantly associated with a general feeling of negativity. Lying generally creates feelings of dishonesty, untrustworthiness, deceit, and betrayal. However, lying is one of the oldest human social practices. Erin Bryant explains in her essay “Real Lies, White Lies, and Gray Lies” that even though lying has a derogatory label, it is a very common social behavior used by a majority of people on a daily basis. It has been a subject of scrutiny through the millennia by philosophers such as St. Augustine, Aristotle, and Plato. Can lies also be seen as positive? Don’t lies contribute to maintaining the bedrock of most relationships? In his essay “Lies, Lies, Lies,” Paul Gray answers this question. “Most ‘little white lies’ belong here, well-intentioned deceptions designed to grease the gears of society. In this context people want to be fooled. No one expects and few would welcome, searing honesty at a dinner party”.
These types of lies are easily distributed in society by the masses because they sound harmless. Lies aren’t only bad, but they come with a high price. That price is trust, once someone’s trust is broken it takes a lot of time to get it back. “Trust is one thing you can’t put back together once it’s broken” (Berenstain 17).
We all lie in one way or another. Whether it is a simple white lie about how someone really looks or blaming someone else for something we really did, we all have lied. In Stephanie Ericsson’s essay, “The Ways We Lie”, she explains the ways people lie in order to get what they want, to stay out of trouble, or just to hide from the cold hard truth. Ericsson explains how is it nearly impossible to go without telling a lie and how lies affect others. After evaluating Ericsson’s essay on the many ways we lie, I can say I am most guilty of the telling whites and lying by omission.
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
The article “Rejecting All Lies: Immanuel Kant by Sissela Bok also presents the same argument. Sissela Bok presents the ideas and viewpoints of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher. Kant believed that lying was bad and that “truthfulness is statements which cannot be avoided is the formal duty of an individual to everyone, however great may be the disadvantage.” He believed lying was always bad no matter the situation. Kant said that lying “vitiates the source of law,” or makes the source of law weaker. Our whole purpose of the government is to serve justice and if everyone is lying in court, it gets harder to serve justice. The purpose of the government would not be fulfilled if people lie. According to Kant, lying also “harms the liar himself, by destroying his human dignity and making him more worthless even than a small thing.” Kant says lying makes the liar lose his or her pride and honor. And I think it probably makes the liar feel bad and makes them feel guilty. In the article “Teens Do their Share of Lying” by Loretta Ragsdell, a quote from Sabrina, a college freshman, takes about how she lied...
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.)
Lying is when you purposely tell someone something you believe or know is false. If you told someone something you thought was true, but then it ended up being a lie, you simply have just given false information. Lying is obviously not an ideal thing to do, but sometimes it may be necessary. Here are the four types of lies.
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.
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.
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.
Self-protection is the main factor of telling lies. According to some, people tell lies to shield themselves from danger, punishment, or from an activity they