Why do people habitually lie

My data collected during interviews with children and from questionnaires completed by adults suggests that telling lies occurs at least in part for one of nine reasons:. To avoid being punished. This is the most frequently mentioned motivation for telling lies by both children and adults. To obtain a reward not otherwise readily obtainable. This is the second most commonly mentioned motive, by both children and adults.

An example of this is falsely claiming work experience during a job interview to increase chances of hire. To protect another person from being punished.

As with lying to avoid personal punishment, motive does not change with intent. To protect oneself from the threat of physical harm. This is different from being punished, for the threat of harm is not for a misdeed. Compulsive liars lie out of habit; they usually know they are lying but seem unable to do anything to stop it. They are manipulative and usually have a goal in mind when they tell lies.

They have little or no concern for others and are not concerned with how their lies affect the other person s. Individuals with APD can often believe their own lies to the point where they can become reality for them. Because they believe their own lies, they have no difficulty lying about their alleged experiences, incidents or illnesses. They have been known to pass lie detector tests. When confronted, they tend to become defensive and will not admit to telling falsehoods.

They also engage in a great deal of exaggeration and continually change their stories. A compulsive liar appears to develop their habit of lying in childhood. And I'm reminded that the bettyconfidential. I manage to make it through almost an entire workday without a lie.

I pull this off by not making phone calls — it's easier to be truthful if you don't actually have to speak with people. I do answer a few e-mails, though: A study from Cornell University tells me that people lie in only about 14 percent of e-mails, compared with 27 percent of face-to-face interactions and 37 percent of phone calls.

Apparently the permanence of typed messages scares us into truthfulness: They can be used as evidence against us. The next evening, I accompany my husband to a work-related black-tie function. I try to limit the lying, but it's hopeless.

I spend the night sashaying through one social deceit after another. I ask "How are you? It's half true: There is a new puppy, but she's sleeping happily. I invoke Feldman's social-smoothing theory so as not to feel too guilty for last night's lies — after all, I don't want to jeopardize my husband's job, right? Trouble is, now I notice I'm lying to my family, too. One of my teenage stepdaughters arrives for a visit, and my husband sits down at the computer to find something fun to do.

I have a cold and would rather read a book. That's true enough. We don't see his kids very often, after all. But then I blurt out, "I'd love to go! I tell what ought to be truth. That night, as we take our seats, I get a taste of what I can only assume is karmic retribution. Turns out this is Cub Scout Appreciation Night, and not only are we surrounded by 8-year-olds in triangular scarves, the arena has given them all cowbells, horns, and clackers.

Head throbbing, I smile stoically. In the midst of the morning rush, I tap out an e-mail saying I have dropped an important package in FedEx. It's really still on the kitchen counter. I stop myself before hitting send. This is the most harmless of lies — a simple housekeeping matter that will be true soon.

But for once, honesty prevails. When I push the send button a few hours later, after the FedEx drop, I feel a distinctly virtuous glow. Still patting myself on the back for yesterday's honesty, I head out to pick up my son and his friend from school. Kant claimed that it would be wrong to lie to a murderer knocking at your door , asking if his intended victim is inside; for a utilitarian, the awful consequences of telling the murderer the truth make lying the right thing to do. How can we discern the consequences of our actions, given the difficulty of predicting complex outcomes?

What happens to my moral integrity if I habitually lie about small matters, or always find reasons why telling the truth is inconvenient? If lying undermines the trust essential for social co-operation, and thereby threatens the healthy functioning of our institutions, where does that leave us today? Submitting this familiar term to philosophical analysis, Frankfurt distinguished the liar, who seeks to conceal the truth to gain advantage, from the bullshitter, who seeks to persuade others without regard for truth or falsity.

Whereas the liar tries to present lies as truth, the bullshitter scoffs at both and only wants to manipulate. On this view, Richard Nixon was a liar, whereas Donald Trump is a bullshitter. Frankfurt claimed that bullshit is a corrosive force in our culture, corrupting social institutions, public opinion, even democratic politics — a process fuelled by the circulation of misinformation and disinformation online inadvertent versus deliberate distortions or denials of truthful information or reliable knowledge.

Please explain: Why do people lie? Associate Professor Robert Sinnerbrink.