Liar
 

Why do people tell lies ?

why can't you spell liar? :D
sorry i couldnt resist....there are many a reason to tell lies. Some reasons are bad, such as lying with intentions of blaming someone else for something you did, others are good, such as not telling your boyfriend you used to suck dog cock (that was a letter in a recent savage love column, i swear).

That kind of outlines purpose but WHY ?

To avoid something you don't want.

what is the difference between purpose and why?

why do people tell lies?
For their own good, surely?
Any reason to believe it is otherwise?

They feel the consequences of providing false information will be negligable or nonexistent, therefore doing things the right way is useless hassle.

well some lies are not for the liar's own good, some are for the person being lied to's own good.

I see purpose as more of the end result but not the force that drives a person to lie. I've been thinking about it the last couple days and I possibly believe it's FEAR. Not just fear but a strong emotion like fear, such as lust, hate etc.

I'm more interested in why you would ask this question. Have you recently been an unfortunate victim of lies?

As for why people lie - it's more useful to ask "Why wouldn't people lie?" This kind of question ... if people have the ability to convey information, they have the ability to lie. And when people have the ability to do something, they will usually end up doing it - especially if they aren't particularly concerned with or informed about the consequences of said lies. Simply put - they lie because they can, usually with impunity.

Lying is some SERIOUS FUCKING BUSINESS. Two years ago I met this guy who i thought was a really good person ect, and we became good friends. What i didnt know was that despite being super super intelligent, interesting and talented- this guy had the lying disease something chronic.
He lied about everything so convincingly and he was so smart that he remebered all his lies. We ended up sharing a house together. It was about this time that he told me that he had a brain tumour the size of a golf ball in his head, and that he maybe had a couple of weeks to live. He had CT scans to prove it. Everyone was so distraught and didnt know what to do. Anyway, he went away to visit this tribe of indigenous Australian aboriginies and apparently they did a miracle cure. It was around this time that i seriously started to doubt everything this dude had ever said. I soon started to find lots of evidence to support my thoughts. Everyone started cottoning on to what this guy was about. Then one week, this guy just changed his personality and became a completely different person.
The strange thing was that this guy was for his age a bit of a Doogie Howser. He had his shit together and was respected by everyone. Im still trying to work him out. I think that psycoanalysts would have a fucking field day with this guy.

several reasons people lie come to my mind readily:
0) creating a false image to get something they covet: Money/Sexual favors/whatever else
1) make up a story or alter the truth to avoid short-term problem; this of course does tend to snowball and cause more grief in the long run if you have to keep stacking lie upon lie.

"I never met a con man I didn't like."
(consummate liar)

SOme people lie so that they can fit more readily into a situation.Peer pressure can be a bitch at any level and if you want to fit in with others sometimes you change yourself a bit to do it, eg. everybody has seen this certain group in concert and you haven't but you say you have and they were great, you are now part of a set and sort of fit in (LIES, ALL LIES!!!)

I am lied to on a daily basis. I work around kids and they lie as easily as they breathe (about as often too). Not just kids though, media, companies etc.
On some days I see through it all, it's as if I have on lie xray. Other days I get sucked in... oh well.

Sometimes you tell lies becouse you dont want to hurt someones feelings. For instance your girlfriend is a fat cow, but you tell her she looks nice becouse you dont want to hut her feelings.

Because they can.
It's the only power a lot of people have, pitiful though it is.

insecurities
selfishness
cruelity
fear of conflict

An article about lying from yesterday's Fark.

It's reasonably long, so I won't copy and paste. Not very philiosophical...but an interesting read none-the-less.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/featur...rs/default.htm

I'm very honest about myself, I've got nothing to hide. As a general rule I don't lie... unless I really believe it's in someone else's best interests. Sometimes it's hard to be honest and simultaneously loyal to your friends.

Consider this article in Discover Magazine:
Lies and Nothing but the Lies
by Lauren Gravitz

Our penchant for bending truth is so pervasive that we delude even ourselves, says Robert S. Feldman, a psychologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He and his colleagues videotaped 121 pairs of unacquainted college students during 10-minute introductory conversations. The researchers then asked one student from each pair to watch the tape and report every instance in which he or she had lied. Before viewing the tapes, most of the subjects said they had been completely honest. But faced with the evidence, 60 percent realized they had fibbed at least once. Those who lied did so three times per conversation, on average, with one subject squeezing in 12. "We were surprised that the level of lying was quite high—and so were the students," Feldman says. He also found that men and women lied at roughly the same rate but apparently for different reasons. "Women tended to lie in order to make the people they were talking to feel better about themselves. Men tended to lie to make themselves look better," he says. One male student told a woman he was the lead singer in a rock band that had just signed a recording contract, although the band did not exist. The research has made Feldman wary of day-to-day conversation: "I'm more skeptical about what I hear, and I'm much more sensitive to what I say."

to turn things in their favor ? to avoid being put in a situation they dont like ? to avoid hurting hothers ? to avoid getting feelings they dont want? avoid pain, physicaly and psychologically

To avoid embarrassment
To avoid hurting someone's feelings
To avoid owning their own actions and the consequences
To cover up hurts
Habit

Because they can and they care more about themselves then the person/people they are lying to and hurting.

I was married to a liar and believe me, it cause nothing but pain and the break down of relationships! It is not worth it. I'd much rather have brutely honest.

Lying is a natural part of communication and I believe that it is appropriate for certain situations. These situations vary because they are all based on the individual. Personally, I lie when there is something that I truly do NOT want to admit to or have come back at me. I also will lie from time to time when I know that it will protect someone else.

That being said, I generally maintain a policy of high honesty because it is much more practical. First of all, honesty takes balls and more people respect that than you'd think. I've had teachers and police officers let me off the hook because I am honest with them. Secondly, people don't realize that the more you lie, the less effective your lies are. My honesty makes the lies that I do tell much more convincing because I maintain a shield of honesty.

Practice makes perfect. Lying only becomes less effective against people who have seen through your charade. Very good liars are incredible to watch - and to learn from.

In today's society, I consider lying a survival skill - you will need to be able to lie your way through many things unless you live a completely virtuous lifestyle. And of course, lying is only useful if it can be easily substituted for the truth, which requires both skill and luck.

I've never been big on lies as a general thing and dont think I do it much. Situations when I will lie are when the truth would hurt someone I care about (does my ass look like a truck in this) and stuff like that.

I dont do it for personal gain. I'd feel uncomfortable with that and theres not much I could get by lying that I couldnt get some other way.

Plus the fact that I'm a lousy liar too...

everyone lies because the truth sucks.

You dont wanna offend, so you lie
You wanna get laid, so you lie
You want something, so you lie
You dont want something to happen, so you lie
You dont wanna pay for something, so you lie
You dont wanna go to jail, so you lie
You dont want your wife to find out, so you lie
You dont want to do something, so you lie
You want to get out of something, so you lie.

Conclusion- humans=selfish, therefore, what the person wants, rules all, therefore, they are looking out for number one, and in an attempt to better their own life, they lie. :).



-makes things more interesting sometimes too :D