The Psychology of Lying: Motivations and Consequences

"Honesty is the best policy." is a proverb which we have learnt for many years. However, everyone told their first lie when they were kids. Telling a lie is a very strange habit because it is not needed to teach or learn but everyone knows it automatically. This essay will explain the reasons of why people lie, which are self-protection, making people feel better and family's education.

Self- protection is the major factor of telling lie. According to researchers, up to ninety percent people tell lies to protect themselves for dangers, punishments or some annoying activities.

People always like to hide the mistakes or sins that they have done by cheating other people. Even children also know how to create a lie when they want to cover their wrongs in front of the elders. This is because they want to escape something they do not want to do, or they want to wipe away some shameful things they have done before.

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There are two positive and negative aspects of telling lie for self-protection.The positive way is it help us to avoid from falling into the pitfalls and scams which are made by deceivers.While, its negative aspect is many people tend to cheat because they are irresponsible and want to avoid their punishments. To sum up, people always deceive in order to protect themselves. Sometimes it can be acceptable, but frequently, it is not allowed by society as it is regraded as pretext.

Secondly, telling lies can be to make other people feel better. This kind of lie is known as white lies. White lies are accepted but the public since it is good for everyone.

It is also created everyday when we are communicating. For example, we always praise people to make them feel comfortable and happy; however, sometimes the praises are not true. People also tell white lies to encourage some one who is depressed or prevent he or she from being upset about some things. Nevertheless, white lie are not useful for everyone as some people like to hear the truth rather than being lie to by others.In a nut shell, we should be careful when we are telling a white lie because it can be good to people, but sometime it also can make people become worse. Last but not least, family's education leads children to telling lies.

Family's education is every important to everyone when they are growing up. Nevertheless, if parents give wrong information or knowledge to their children, it will be bad for them. Some parents like telling lies ti their children. As a result, children will think that telling the lies is a norma skill that is used in conversation and communication. Then, they will get used to it and this bad habit will become a part of their lifestyle without notice as well.all in all, it is why many children like telling lies. To conclude, although telling lies is regraded as a bad conduct, sometime it is useful for us to solve some complicated problems in our life.