Lying
We All Do It
Why do we lie? It seems unreasonable to lie. Take the path of deception instead of the truth. Surely the truth brings more advantages in our long term relationships, yet we still lie. We take the path of deception. So why do we lie? What motivates us to lie? It could be cost-benefit analysis but as Dan Ariely tells us, the cost-benefit analysis doesn’t apply. People make rash decisions and spur of the moment lies when the lie costs them more than it would ever benefit them. For instance, Enron, an ex-corporation, committed fraud and not only destroyed their own lives but every life associated with it. So the cost, lifetime in jail, heavily outweighed the benefits, money.
This brings us to our motivations. If we are gonna lie, or cheat, we do it for one reason. To gain something. Every time we lie, we do so to gain something. Whether or not we get that thing, we convince ourselves that we need to lie to obtain it. Enron did this when they committed fraud. They wanted to gain money and thought they needed to lie to do it. What’s interesting about lying, is what we tell ourselves to justify lying. Culture, mob mentality, and wrongful behavior from another party are common reasons why we lie.
Culture plays a big part in our choices. It also influences our likelihood to lie. This is because culture doesn’t disappear. Once an act is set in motion, it will likely continue to persist. One example is racism. Racism came to the US from England. The English were known to hate the Scottish and perceived them as lesser. Considering that the Scottish and English have more in common than other ethnicities, it’s surprising that they could identify and hate someone who was Scottish. This behavior traveled to the US during the colonial period and continued to persist for centuries. Since culture is so powerful that it can affect centuries of people, it’s clear that it can influence people to lie. Someone raised in the suburbs is less likely to lie than someone raised in the slums because the culture in the suburbs encourages truthfulness whereas the slums often encourage lying. For instance, the saying “snitches get stitches” is not something you often hear in the suburbs.
Mob mentality is another justification for lying. We often will do things because we see others doing it. If we see someone cheating, we will be more likely to follow suit because they did it. A study was conducted by Ariely in which he gave a group of math problems. Every problem they solved within 5 minutes would grant them a dollar. He had an actor say he was finished in the first minute and say that he finished all the problems. In one scenario he had them wear the logo of the college where he conducted the experiment and in another, the actor didn’t. When the actor wore the school colors more people joined him in lying and almost none did when he wore different school colors. This shows the mob mentality at work. When we see people who we associate with lying or cheating, we will often follow suit because “everyone is doing it.”
Another reason we often lie is that we feel wronged by someone. When someone treats us badly or is rude, we feel better about taking advantage of them because “they deserved it.” Ariely conducted another experiment with the math problems again. However, this time he did it in public and would purposely overpay them and see if they gave the change back. Almost everyone gave it back. Then he changed it so that when giving the random person instructions he would take a phone call. Taking a phone call while talking to someone is often seen as rude. As a result, most people kept the change because “they deserve it” after getting treated badly.
In all these scenarios we had something to gain from lying. Since we wanted to gain something, we convinced ourselves that it was okay. Whether “they deserved it,” “everyone is doing it,” or it was culture-based. We had some reason to lie. There are tons of reasons to lie but these few give us some insight into how humans operate. We justify lying, encouraged to lie or feel morally obligated to induce karma. Whether we lie or not, we know one thing. We have all lied at one time or another.
