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People lie when they don't want someone else to know the truth. Why? There could be a lot of reasons for that. Off the top of my head I'd say someone did something bad that they know there would be consequences for if it was found out. Other times they just want to be something other than what they are because they aren't happy with themselves.
The white lie can be self-serving — told to create or maintain social status, to make the liar look better or to save him or her from embarrassment, blame or punishment, or to avoid feeling hurt.
Or the white lie can be kind-hearted — told with the intent of making another person look or feel better, or to spare them from blame, embarrassment, punishment, embarrassment, or from getting their feelings hurt.
A “strategic lie” is told when one someone (or a group) sets out to deceive another for personal gain. This is the kind that involves adultery, theft, fraud, political or personal manipulation of others, and so on, the kind that does serious harm.
There is an in-between. When someone avoids telling someone else something that they need to know — in order to save their feelings — and then later it gets found out. And it causes a kind of damage that would never have occurred in the first place if the information had been known. This is the source of many of life’s most dysfunctional dramas, and the stock in trade of soap operas.
People also lie because they are stupid. They don't realise that what they are saying is illogical or incongruent - something is either not possible or the evidence contradicts it.
Or they may assume that the other person is stupid, and won't notice the inconsistencies.
An example. I was paying a trainer to train a stallion to walk quietly regardless of heavy and erratic traffic on the road. The payment included board and shoeing.
When it came time to pay, he wanted the whole amount. I gave him all but the cost of the shoeing.
"It's $70 short," he said.
"That's because he hasn't had his hooves trimmed or shod."
"Yes, he has. The shoes fell off."
"Then why are there no nail holes and the hooves too long?"
"Oh, have it your own way!"
His was strategic lying, an attempt to con me.
Or the white lie can be kind-hearted — told with the intent of making another person look or feel better, or to spare them from blame, embarrassment, punishment, embarrassment, or from getting their feelings hurt.
A “strategic lie” is told when one someone (or a group) sets out to deceive another for personal gain. This is the kind that involves adultery, theft, fraud, political or personal manipulation of others, and so on, the kind that does serious harm.
There is an in-between. When someone avoids telling someone else something that they need to know — in order to save their feelings — and then later it gets found out. And it causes a kind of damage that would never have occurred in the first place if the information had been known. This is the source of many of life’s most dysfunctional dramas, and the stock in trade of soap operas.
People also lie because they are stupid. They don't realise that what they are saying is illogical or incongruent - something is either not possible or the evidence contradicts it.
Or they may assume that the other person is stupid, and won't notice the inconsistencies.
An example. I was paying a trainer to train a stallion to walk quietly regardless of heavy and erratic traffic on the road. The payment included board and shoeing.
When it came time to pay, he wanted the whole amount. I gave him all but the cost of the shoeing.
"It's $70 short," he said.
"That's because he hasn't had his hooves trimmed or shod."
"Yes, he has. The shoes fell off."
"Then why are there no nail holes and the hooves too long?"
"Oh, have it your own way!"
His was strategic lying, an attempt to con me.
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