Purpose and Origin of Deception in Human Communication

Admit it: You’ve lied. You told your boss you were at home with the flu when really you are spending the day going shopping at the mall. You told your friend that she looked fabulous in that new polka dot dress she just bought. According to the free online dictionary, a lie is defined as a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood. There are several different reasons that a person might lie. For example, you might lie to keep yourself or a friend out of trouble, or even lie to impress others.

Most of the time, whatever the lie may be, there is going to be serious consequences and effects to lying.

Lying begins early. By the age of 3, most children, know how to fib, and by 6, most lie a few times a day. People lie everyday to, in some way or another, keep themselves out of trouble. Many teenagers, for example, will lie to their parents about what their plans are for the night, whether they finished all their homework or not, or even how that expensive picture frame got broken while they were out of town.

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Furthermore, we will even lie to our significant others about who that man was that was texting your phone the other night, and even about how much money we spent at the grocery store.

Everyone has in some way has been associated with lying. But, when and in what ways does lying become a moral problem? Well, first let’s begin by establishing what it means to tell a lie.

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I believe a lie must have two components:

1. The statement must be false.

2. The speaker must know their statement is false.

I don’t think it would be appropriate to assign moral weight to something a person has no idea they’re doing. I also don’t think lying in itself is inherently wrong. However, I do believe that any moral problem associated with lying must come from what happens when you tell a lie to others.

Tiny Lies in Polite Conversation

Some lies told to others have no negative consequences that I can see. If anything, they have positive effects of streamlining interpersonal interactions. I consider these types of lies to be morally permissible. For example, have you ever been listening to someone telling a story about this person they know who did something heroic to save someone else’s life, and they get sidetracked by explaining how that some one was related to them? Maybe it was, “my cousin; well actually he’s my uncle’s friend’s neighbor.” Whether or not this person was really related to them or not, was not really of any interest to me. This is one of those lies that, in my opinion, don’t really matter.

Little White Lies

“White lies,” are defined as, “minor or unimportant lies, especially ones uttered in the interest of tact or politeness (freedictionary.com). These type of lies are usually told to make someone feel good, spare someone embarrassment, etc. For example, if your friend, who had just recently had a baby, asked you if you thought she looked fat in a dress she was wearing. Even though you think she could probably find something a little more flattering for her body, you instead tell her that she looks good. The vast majority of the time, white lies do more good than harm.

Lying in Important Situations

Next, there is the kind of situation where someone has requested information from you and obviously intends to make important decisions based off of that information. This is a situation where lying could result in a number of different consequences. Most importantly, your trust with that person could be lost.

An example of this sort of lying would be if your roommate had given you his portion of the electric bill, and you were to go pay it, but instead you went and spent it on something else. Then the next week when your electric turns off, due to your nonpayment, and your roommate verifies with you that you went and paid it, and you say yes. Overall, lies under this category I would consider to be morally bad/wrong.

Lying for the Greater Good

Lastly, these are the kind of lies a person tells in order to avoid something bad from happening, as a result of telling the truth. Withholding information from someone, such as a person who is asking whether or not your store has cameras or not, so that they can properly plan a robbery. I think that with the information I have presented, the moral costs that would be associated with a lie in cases like this one, are definitely outweighed by the moral good brought about by telling the lie.

Clearly, lying is an issue worth examining, as many people believe it is a bigger problem in today’s world than it has ever been. In comparison with Voirst’s essay, “The Truth About Lying,” I found that through a bunch of my research, that most people agree with Voirst’s view on lying. I too, agreed with most, if not all, of what she had presented in her essay. Like Voirst mentioned, if the lie does more good than harm, I don’t see the problem in telling the lie. Overall, I have come to the conclusion that lying isn’t always considered to be immoral. Just like most things, there is a time and place for telling lies.

Works Cited Borghini, Andrea. “The Ethics of Lying.” Web Boser, Ulrich. “We’re All Lying Liars: Why People Tell Lies, and Why White Lies Can Be OK.” Web. 18 May 2009. “Lying is Immoral.” Simply Philosophy. Web. 13 July 2012. Viorst, Judith. “The Truth About Lying.” Redbook magazine. March 1981.

10 Reasons Why People Lie

The invention of lying probably dates back to the invention of communication itself. It can be said that lying is, in fact, a basic need for social existence. A lie can serve a lot of purposes. We take a look upon the most common reasons for which people resort to lying.

1. To Please

In order to maintain the pleasantness of any social situation, people have to lie. Questions like ‘How do I look?’, ‘Am I getting Fat?’ or ‘Did you like my gift?’ are bound to fetch lies.

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2. To Save Your Own Face

You have got to accept that there are certain truths about everyone that are best kept hidden. It is much easier to simply lie than to share embarrassing truths about oneself.

3. To Avoid Favours

The percentage of people who are always on the ready to help is fairly low. Most of the population would simply lie rather than actually be of use to somebody else.

4. To Avoid Long Conversations

Sometime truth can invite a long discourse of unneeded advice, further questions or criticism. The crisis of time is universal to all people and some people have no other option than lying to avoid long conversations.

5. To Boast

Though these lies are more or less harmless, they are way too common. Some people have this need to feel better about themselves which they try to suffice by painting a better picture of themselves in front of others.

6. To Get Benefits

It is no secret that everyone lies a little bit in an interview or to get an interview. The lure of other worldly things and benefits can also prompt people to lie.

7. To Evade Punishment

This point needs no explanation as we all lied to our teachers in school to avoid punishment. People lie to their superiors, parents or spouse to avoid any kind of punishment or penalty.

8. To Gel In

The social needs of people often make them tell lies. Many people succumb to peer pressure and fabricate lies about themselves just to fit in better.

9. To Prove a Point

Some adamant people may easily resort to lying just to prove their point. This adamant class of people can also get quite creative when it comes to lying.

10. To Influence

Lies can be a small part of big schemes of conniving people. People can get really elaborate with lies in order to change an opinion of someone. Lying is so common that some people even lie just for the sake of it. The reasons for lying are as vast as the human imagination and no list can possibly encompass all the reasons for which humans lie.

Updated: Mar 22, 2023
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Purpose and Origin of Deception in Human Communication. (2016, Mar 17). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/truth-or-lie-essay

Purpose and Origin of Deception in Human Communication essay
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