Briefly [an excerpt provided by Google - presumably unavailable in China] {edit... I now see TJ has provided a link regarding Google in China. I shall investigate the truth of his claim}: A lie is a type of deception in the form of an untruthful statement, especially with the intention to deceive others, often with the further intention to maintain a secret or reputation, protect someone's feelings or to avoid a punishment or repercussion for one's actions. To lie is to state something that one knows to be false or that one does not honestly believe to be true with the intention that a person will take it for the truth. A liar is a person who is lying, who has previously lied, or who tends by nature to lie repeatedly - even when not necessary.
Lying is typically used to refer to deceptions in oral or written communication. Other forms of deception, such as disguises or forgeries, are generally not considered lies, though the underlying intent may be the same. However, even a true statement can be used to deceive. In this situation, it is the intent of being overall untruthful rather than the truthfulness of any individual statement that is considered the lie.
Serious lies (such as perjury, fraud, and defamation) are punishable by law.
Contents [hide]
1 Classification
1.1 Types of lie
1.1.1 Big Lie
1.1.2 Careful speaking
1.1.3 Compliments and false reassurances
1.1.4 Bluffing
1.1.5 Barefaced lie
1.1.6 Contextual lie
1.1.7 Economical with the truth
1.1.8 Emergency lie
1.1.9 Exaggeration
1.1.10 Fabrication
1.1.11 Jocose lie
1.1.12 Lie-to-children
1.1.13 Lying by obsolete signage
1.1.14 Lying by omission
1.1.15 Lying in trade
1.1.16 Lying through your teeth
1.1.17 Misleading/dissembling
1.1.18 Noble lie
1.1.19 Perjury
1.1.20 Puffery
1.1.21 White lie
1.2 Augustine's taxonomy of lies
2 Love and war
3 Development of lying
4 Psychology of lying
5 Morality of lying
6 Belief systems
6.1 Lying in the Bible
6.2 Lying in the Qur'an
6.3 Lying in Buddhism
6.4 Lying in Paganism
7 Consequences of lying
8 Deception and lies in other species
9 Paradoxes about lying
10 Lie detection
11 Representations of lying in fiction
12 Covering up lies
13 See also
14 References
15 Sources
16 External links
[edit]Classification
[edit]Types of lie
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The various types of lies include the following:
[edit]Big Lie
Main article: Big Lie
A lie which attempts to trick the victim into believing something major which will likely be contradicted by some information the victim already possesses, or by their common sense. When the lie is of sufficient magnitude it may succeed due to the victim's reluctance to believe that an untruth on such a grand scale would indeed be fabricated. The term is originally attributed to Adolf Hitler.
[edit]Careful speaking
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Careful speaking is distinct from the above in that the speaker wishes to avoid imparting certain information or admitting certain facts and, additionally, does not want to 'lie' when doing so. Careful speaking involves using carefully-phrased statements to give a 'half-answer': one that does not actually 'answer' the question, but still provides an appropriate (and accurate) answer based on that question. As with 'misleading', above, 'careful speaking' is not outright lying.
[edit]Compliments and false reassurances
"That looks very nice on you." White lies or exaggerations intended to please the other person. "Everything is going to be all right".
[edit]Bluffing
To bluff is to pretend to have a capability or intention one does not actually possess. Bluffing is an act of deception that is rarely seen as immoral when it takes place in the context of a game where this kind of deception is consented to in advance by the players. For instance, a gambler who deceives other players into thinking he has different cards to those he really holds, or an athlete who hints he will move left and then dodges right is not considered to be lying (also known as a feint). In these situations, deception is acceptable and is commonly expected as a tactic.
[edit]Barefaced lie
A barefaced (or bald-faced) lie is one that is obviously a lie to those hearing it. The phrase comes from 17th-century British usage referring to those without facial hair as being seen as particularly forthright and outwardly honest, and therefore more likely to get away with telling a significant lie. A variation that has been in use almost as long is bold-faced lie, referring to a lie told with a straight and confident face (hence "bold-faced"), usually with the corresponding tone of voice and emphatic body language of one confidently speaking the truth.[1]
[edit]Contextual lie
One can state part of the truth out of context, knowing that without complete information, it gives a false impression. Likewise, one can actually state accurate facts, yet deceive with them. To say "yeah, that's right, I ate all the white chocolate, by myself" utilizing a sarcastic, offended tone, may cause the listener to assume the speaker did not mean what he said, when in fact he did.
[edit]Economical with the truth
Economical with the truth is popularly used as a euphemism for deceit, whether by volunteering false information (i.e., lying) or by deliberately holding back relevant facts. More literally, it describes a careful use of facts so as not to reveal too much information.
[edit]Emergency lie
An emergency lie is a strategic lie told when the truth may not be told because, for example, harm to a third party would result. For example, a neighbor might lie to an enraged wife about the whereabouts of her unfaithful husband, because said wife might reasonably be expected to inflict physical injury should she encounter her husband in person. Alternatively, an emergency lie could denote a (temporary) lie told to a second person because of the presence of a third.
[edit]Exaggeration
An exaggeration (or hyperbole) occurs when the most fundamental aspects of a statement are true, but only to a certain degree. It is also seen as "stretching the truth" or making something appear more powerful, meaningful, or real than it actually is.
[edit]Fabrication
A fabrication is a lie told when someone submits a statement as truth, without knowing for certain whether or not it actually is true. Although the statement may be possible or plausible, it is not based on fact. Rather, it is something made up, or it is a misrepresentation of the truth. Examples of fabrication: A person giving directions to a tourist when the person doesn't actually know the directions. Often propaganda is classified as a fabrication.
[edit]Jocose lie
Jocose (cf. jocular) lies are lies meant in jest, intended to be understood as such by all present parties. Teasing and sarcasm are examples. A more elaborate instance is seen in some storytelling traditions, where the humour comes from the storyteller's insistence that the story is the absolute truth, despite all evidence to the contrary (i.e., tall tale). There is debate about whether these are "real" lies, and different philosophers hold different views (see below).
The Crick Crack Club in London organise a yearly 'Grand Lying Contest' with the winner being awarded the coveted "Hodja Cup" (named for the Mulla Nasreddin: "The truth is something I have never spoken."). The winner in 2010 was Hugh Lupton.
[edit]Lie-to-children
Main article: Lie-to-children
A lie-to-children is a lie, often a platitude, which may use euphemism(s), which is told to make an adult subject acceptable to children. Common examples include "The stork brought you" (in reference to childbirth) and the existence of Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny.
[edit]Lying by obsolete signage
Examples are the continued use of old stationery that has printed information such as a previous telephone number, or advertising that remains painted on a wall after an enterprise has ceased business.
[edit]Lying by omission
One lies by omission by omitting an important fact, deliberately leaving another person with a misconception. Lying by omission includes failures to correct pre-existing misconceptions. An example is when the seller of a car declares it has been serviced regularly but does not tell that a fault was reported at the last service. Propaganda is an example of lying by omission.
[edit]Lying in trade
The seller of a product or service may advertise untrue facts about the product or service in order to gain sales, especially by competitive advantage. Many countries have enacted Consumer protection laws intended to combat such fraud. An example is the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act that holds a seller liable for omission of any material fact that the buyer relies upon.
[edit]Lying through your teeth
When one lies face-to-face with the intended recipient. This also may be an expression describing the act of lying with a smile or other patronizing tone or body language.
[edit]Misleading/dissembling
A misleading statement is one where there is no outright lie, but still retains the purpose of getting someone to believe in an untruth. "Dissembling" likewise describes the presentation of facts in a way that is literally true, but intentionally misleading.
[edit]Noble lie
A noble lie is one that would normally cause discord if uncovered, but offers some benefit to the liar and assists in an orderly society, therefore, potentially beneficial to others. It is often told to maintain law, order and safety.
[edit]Perjury
Perjury is the act of lying or making verifiably false statements on a material matter under oath or affirmation in a court of law, or in any of various sworn statements in writing. Perjury is a crime, because the witness has sworn to tell the truth and, for the credibility of the court to remain intact, witness testimony must be relied on as truthful.
[edit]Puffery
Puffery is an exaggerated claim typically found in advertising and publicity announcements, such as "the highest quality at the lowest price," or "always votes in the best interest of all the people." Such statements are unlikely to be true - but cannot be proven false and so do not violate trade laws, especially as the consumer is expected to be able to tell that it is not the absolute truth.
[edit]White lie
A white lie is a statement that is not true that is used to try to cover up something. A white lie would cause only relatively minor discord if it were uncovered, and typically offers some benefit to the hearer. White lies are often used to avoid offense, such as complimenting something one finds unattractive. In this case, the lie is told to avoid the harmful realistic implications of the truth. As a concept, it is largely defined by local custom and cannot be clearly separated from other lies with any authority.
The exact definition of a white lie cannot truly be made since one's opinion of what constitutes a white lie may be different from person to person. While there could be many examples in different societies of what constitutes a white lie, many pertain to holiday and religious traditions in North America.
Some psychologists and medical professionals consider it "ok" to use white lies in our daily lives. While many different opinions may exist, the existence of white lies in American society is apparent. [2]
[edit]Augustine's taxonomy of lies
Augustine of Hippo wrote two books about lying: On Lying (De Mendacio) and Against Lying (Contra Mendacio).[3] He describes each book in his later work, Retractions. Based on the location of De Mendacio in Retractions, it appears to have been written about A.D. 395.[4] The first work, On Lying, begins: "Magna quæstio est de Mendacio" (There is a great question about Lying). From his text, it can be derived that St. Augustine divided lies into eight categories, listed in order of descending severity:
Lies in religious teaching.
Lies that harm others and help no one.
Lies that harm others and help someone.
Lies told for the pleasure of lying.
Lies told to "please others in smooth discourse."
Lies that harm no one and that save someone's life.
Lies that harm no one and that save someone's "purity."
Lies that harm no one and that help someone.
Augustine wrote that lies told in jest, or by someone who believes or opines the lie to be true are not, in fact, lies.
[edit]Love and war
The cliché "All is fair in love and war"[5][6] finds justification for lies used to gain advantage in these situations. Sun Tzu declared that "All warfare is based on deception." Machiavelli advised in the Prince "never to attempt to win by force what can be won by deception," and Thomas Hobbes wrote in Leviathan: "In war, force and fraud are the two cardinal virtues."
[edit]Development of lying
Lying refers to the act by which one deliberately makes a false statement with intent to install false beliefs into the mind of the recipient (Lee, 2007). Lie-telling abilities emerge as early as 3 years of age and develop rapidly with age. School-age children can control their non-verbal expressive behaviour. To be successful in deceiving, a lie-teller must be able to produce a false statement and ensure consistency between the lie and subsequent statements. The ability to maintain consistency between statements during deceptions is referred to as semantic leakage control. Children between 3–5 years are incapable of semantic leakage control, and it is not until age 7 that children have full understanding of semantic leakage control. Semantic leakage control increases with age due to developing cognitive sophistication. It is possible that children’s ability to maintain their lies may be influenced by their increased ability to monitor statement discrepancies as they become older. The majority of children between the ages of 6 and 11 years of age who transgress will lie to conceal their transgressions, and their ability to maintain their lies increases with age. Lee states that children who had an understanding of second order beliefs were more likely to sustain their deception. Second order belief is a belief not about something in the world, but about someone else’s belief. Children can manipulate others’ mental states in order to tease or deceive more effectively. They can console and in general coordinate their actions with the belief and desires of their interaction partners (Miller, 2009). Three year olds typically fail the false belief task, 4 year olds show some success and 5 year olds typically succeed. False belief is evidence that children realize that beliefs are mental representations and not direct reflections of reality. Miller advocates that first order belief refers directly to some event in the work and reflects reality accurately. Miller also advocates that children are able to come to the conclusion that adequate evidence results in knowledge, inadequate evidence or no evidence results in ignorance, and inconsistent evidence results in ambiguity. First order reasoning deals with a single target for belief (A) second order reasoning deals with two targets (A and B). Miller poses that children typically demonstrate second-order understanding before they master self-presentation, a finding that suggests that the cognitive competence is necessary. By 5 years of age children can make accurate judgments about how the reactions of others can elicit various social emotions. Seven year olds are capable of using first order information to judge emotions. It is only around age 9 that children really begin to understand the importance of second-order. Verbal expressive behaviour is the semantic content of the statements children make during deception including the lie and statements made in the same context. Nonverbal expressive behaviour refers to vocal facial expression and body language (Lee & Talwar, 2002). Lee & Talwar propose that at three years of age, you are equally likely to confess lie or say nothing.
[edit]Psychology of lying
The capacity to lie is noted early and nearly universally in human development. Social psychology and developmental psychology are concerned with the theory of mind, which people employ to simulate another's reaction to their story and determine if a lie will be believable. The most commonly cited milestone, what is known as Machiavellian intelligence, is at the age of about four and a half years, when children begin to be able to lie convincingly. Before this, they seem simply unable to comprehend why others don't see the same view of events that they do — and seem to assume that there is only one point of view, which is their own.
Young children learn from experience that stating an untruth can avoid punishment for misdeeds, before they develop the theory of mind necessary to understand why it works. In this stage of development, children will sometimes tell outrageous and unbelievable lies, because they lack the conceptual framework to judge whether a statement is believable, or even to understand the concept of believability.
When children first learn how lying works, they lack the moral understanding of when to refrain from doing it. This takes years of watching people tell lies, and the results of these lies, to develop a proper understanding. Propensity to lie varies greatly between children, some doing so habitually and others being habitually honest. Habits in this regard are likely to change in early adulthood.
Those with Parkinson's disease show difficulties in deceiving others, difficulties that link to prefrontal hypometabolism. This suggests a link between the capacity for dishonesty and integrity of prefrontal functioning.[7]
Pseudologia fantastica is a term applied by psychiatrists to the behaviour of habitual or compulsive lying.
Mythomania is the condition where there is an excessive or abnormal propensity for lying and exaggerating.[8]
A recent study found that lying takes longer than telling the truth.[9] Or, as Chief Joseph succinctly put it, "It does not require many words to speak the truth." [10]
[edit]Morality of lying
The philosophers Saint Augustine, as well as St. Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant, condemned all lying. However, Thomas Aquinas also had an argument for lying. According to all three, there are no circumstances in which one may lie. One must be murdered, suffer torture, or endure any other hardship, rather than lie, even if the only way to protect oneself is to lie. Each of these philosophers gave several arguments against lying, all compatible with each other. Among the more important arguments are:
Lying is a perversion of the natural faculty of speech, the natural end of which is to communicate the thoughts of the speaker.
When one lies, one undermines trust in society.
[edit]Belief systems
It is alleged[11] that some belief systems may find lying to be justified. Leo Tolstoy is cited[12] as describing religious institutions as "the product of deception [and] lies for a good purpose".
[edit]Lying in the Bible
The Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible both contain statements that God cannot lie (Num 23:19[13], Hab. 2:3[14], Heb 6:13–18[15]). However, what would be perceived as examples of God lying can be found[16] in both testaments (2 Thes 2:11[17][18], 1 Kings 22:23[19], Ezek. 14:9[20]).
Various passages of the Bible feature exchanges that are conditionally critical of lying (Prov 6:16–19, Ps. 5:6), (Lev 19:11, Pr. 14:5, Pr. 30:6, Zep 3:13 ), (Isa 28:15, Da 11:27). Most famously, in the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not bear false witness" (Exodus 20:2-17, Deuteronomy 5:6-21), Ex. 23.1 · Mt. 19.18 · Mk. 10.19 · Lk. 18.20 a specific reference to perjury.
Other passages feature exchanges where lying seems to be conditionally promoted. (However some Christians would argue that lying is never promoted, but that even those who are righteous in God's eyes sin sometimes.) Old Testament accounts of lying include:[21]
Rahab lied to the king of Jericho about hiding the Hebrew spies (Joshua 2:4–5) and was not killed with those who were disobedient because of her faith (Hebrews 11:31).
Delilah repeatedly accused Samson of lying to her (Jg. 16:10, 13) as she interrogated him about the source of his strength.
Abraham instructs his wife, Sarah, to lie to the Egyptians and say that she is his sister (Gen 12:10), which leads to the Lord punishing the Egyptians (Gen 12:17–19). However, it can be argued that this was not actually a lie as she was, in fact, his half-sister (During the time of Abraham, it was not unheard of for one to marry their half-brother or half-sister). Regardless, Sarah was knowingly omitting the fact that she was Abraham's wife—a lie of omission.
In the New Testament, Jesus refers to the Devil as the father of lies (John 8:44) and Paul commands Christians "Do not lie to one another" (Colossians 3:9, Cf.Leviticus 19:11). St. John the Revelator reports that God said "..all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." [Rev 21:8]
Whereas most Christian theologians conclude that the Bible does not contain any intentional untruths, some scholars believe differently. Among those who conclude that the Bible contains lies and intentional untruths is Thomas Jefferson. He edited his own version of the Bible and omitted what he considered to be falsehoods. In describing the Bible, Jefferson wrote of "so much untruth, charlatanism and imposture", "roguery", "dupes and impostors", "corruptor" and "falsifications".[22] Biblically , it is unknown whether Adam or Eve was the first to lie. God had said not to eat the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, but when Satan querries Eve, she says that God has said not not even as to touch the fruit, lest they die, however this instruction to not eat the fruit was given to Adam prior to Eve's creation, so there is no way to know if Eve's statement was repetition of an incorrect addition by Adam to her on God's instructions, or if her incorrect addition was self-generated.
[edit]Lying in the Qur'an
The Qur'an says that God (Allah), knows the secrets of all peoples hearts [23] and when somebody lies.[24] Therefore according to the Qur'an, God cannot be fooled by lies[25] and those who lie not only destroy their souls[24] but the lie will be destroyed by the truth.[26] Liars will be called to account on the Day of Judgement[27] and God will not guide them.[28] In at least three different places, Qur'an 45:7, 51:10 and 52:11, the Qur'an indicates that liars will suffer.
The following are particularly noted for punishment: idolaters (liars against God),[29] liars who disunite believers,[30] those who lie that all good things are for themselves,[31] hypocrites,[32] those who lie against God when invited to Islam[33] or who treat God's signs as falsehoods[34].
[edit]Lying in Buddhism
"For a liar who has violated the one law (of truthfulness) who holds in scorn the hereafter, there is no evil that he cannot do."[35]
[edit]Lying in Paganism
In Gestaþáttr, one of the sections within the Eddaic poem Hávamál, Odin states that it is advisable, when dealing with "a false foe who lies," to tell lies oneself.[36]
[edit]Consequences of lying
Once a lie has been told there can be two alternative consequences: it may be discovered or remain undiscovered.
Under some circumstances, discovery of a lie may discredit other statements by the same speaker and can lead to social or legal sanctions against the speaker, such as ostracizing or conviction for perjury. When a lie is discovered, the state of mind and behaviour of the lie teller (liar) is no longer predictable.
The discoverer of a lie may also be convinced or coerced to collaborate with the liar, becoming part of a conspiracy. They may |
