Tell All T He Lies You Want for Those Who Know Me Know the Truth
The devious art of lying past telling the truth
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The line between truth and lies is becoming ever murkier, finds Melissa Hogenboom. There'south even a word for a very different form of lying.
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It is no secret that politicians frequently lie, merely consider this – they can do so simply by telling the truth. Dislocated?
That statement becomes clearer when you realise that we've probably all done information technology. A classic example might be if your mum asks if y'all've finished your homework and you respond: "I've written an essay on Tennessee Williams for my English class." This may be true, merely it doesn't actually reply the question well-nigh whether your homework was done. That essay could accept been written long agone and you lot have misled your poor mother with a true statement. You might not take fifty-fifty started your homework yet.
Misleading past "telling the truth" is and so pervasive in daily life that a new term has recently been employed by psychologists to describe information technology: paltering. That it is so widespread in society now gives us more insight into the grey area between truth and lies, and perhaps fifty-fifty why nosotros lie at all.
Well-nigh of usa tell more than one lie per twenty-four hour period (Credit: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy)
We lie all the time, despite the fact that it costs u.s. considerably more than mental effort to lie than to tell the truth. US president Abraham Lincoln one time said that "no man has a good plenty retentivity to exist a successful liar".
In 1996 one researcher, Bella DePaulo even put a figure on it. She plant that each of us lies well-nigh one time or twice a day. She discovered this past asking participants for i calendar week to notation down each time they lied, even if they did so with a expert intention. Out of the 147 participants in her original written report, only seven said they didn't lie at all - and we can merely gauge if they were telling the truth.
Many of the lies were fairly innocent, or even kind, such as: "I told her that she looked proficient when I thought that she looked like a blimp." Some were to hide embarrassment, such as pretending a spouse had non been fired. DePaulo, a psychologist at the Academy of California Santa Barbara, says that the participants in her study were not enlightened of how many lies they told, partly because well-nigh were and then "ordinary and and then expected that we just don't notice them".
It is when individuals apply lies to manipulate others or to purposely mislead that it is more than worrying. And this happens more often than yous might retrieve.
The truth is non always what information technology seems (Credit: Chris Rout/Alamy)
When Todd Rogers and his colleagues were looking at how oftentimes politicians dodge questions during debates they realised something else was going on. By stating another true fact, they could get out of answering a question. They could even imply something was truthful when it was not. Politicians exercise this all the time, says Rogers, a behavioural scientist at Harvard Kennedy School. He and colleagues therefore set out to understand more about it.
He institute that paltering was an extremely common tactic of negotiation. Over one-half the 184 business executives in his written report admitted to using the tactic. The research also constitute that the person doing the paltering believed it was more than upstanding than lying outright.
The individuals who had been deceived, withal, did not distinguish between lying and paltering. "It probably leads to also much paltering as communicators recall that when disclosed, information technology will be somewhat ethical, whereas listeners come across it equally a lie," says Rogers.
Politicians normally manipulate the truth (Credit: Getty Images)
It is likewise difficult to spot a misleading "fact" when we hear something that on the face of it, sounds true. For instance, the Uk's Labour Party campaign video to lower the voting age said: "You lot're sixteen. Now y'all can become married, join the Army, work total-time." The BBC'southward reality check squad discovered that these facts practice non tell the whole truth.
"You can only join the Army aged sixteen or 17 with your parents' permission," the Reality Cheque team wrote. "At that age y'all also need your parents' permission to get married unless you do so in Scotland. Since 2013, xvi and 17-year-olds cannot work full-time in England, but can in the other iii home nations with some restrictions."
In another example, the then-presidential-nominee Donald Trump paltered during the presidential debates. He was questioned nearly a housing discrimination lawsuit early on in his career and stated that his visitor had given "no admission of guilt". While they may not have admitted information technology, an investigation by the New York Times plant that his company did discriminate based on race.
And even if we do spot misleading truths, social norms can forbid us from challenging whether or not they are deceptive. Take a at present infamous interview in the UK, where journalist Jeremy Paxman interviewed the politico Michael Howard (pictured below). He repeatedly asks Howard whether he "threatened to overrule" the then prisons governor. Howard in turn, continues to evade the question with other facts in a bizarre exchange that becomes increasingly awkward to watch. Non many of the states are comfortable challenging someone in that mode.
Paltering is a common negotiation tactic (Credit: BBC)
While it'due south common in politics, and so too is it in everyday life. Consider the estate agent who tells a potential heir-apparent that an unpopular property has had "lots of enquiries" when asked how many actual bids there have been. Or the used car salesman who says a auto started upwardly extremely well on a frosty forenoon, without disclosing that information technology broke down the week before. Both statements are truthful but mask the reality of the unpopular property and the dodgy machine.
Paltering is mayhap so commonplace because information technology is seen equally a useful tool. It happens considering we constantly have and then many competing goals, suggests Rogers. "We want to reach our narrow objective – [selling a business firm or car] – but we likewise want people to see us as ethical and honest." He says these ii goals are in tension and by paltering, people believe they are being more than ethical than outright lying. "Nosotros evidence evidence they are making a mistake," says Rogers.
We tin see the bug this sort of thinking can cause reflected in gild today. The public are clearly sick of being lied to and trust in politicians is plummeting. I 2016 poll found that the British public trust politicians less than estate agents, bankers and journalists.
And despite the fact that we at present frequently expect lies from those in power, information technology remains challenging to spot them in existent time, especially so if they prevarication past paltering. Psychologist Robert Feldman, author of The Liar in Your Life, sees this as worrying both on a personal and on a macro level. "When we're lied to by people in power, it ruins our confidence in political institutions – it makes the population very cynical about [their] real motivations."
Lying can and does clearly serve a devious social purpose. It tin can assistance someone paint a improve picture than the truth, or help a politician dodge an uncomfortable question. "It'south unethical and information technology makes our democracy worse. But it'southward how human being cognition works," says Rogers.
Unfortunately, the prevalence of lies might stem from the way we are brought upwards. Lies play a role in our social interactions from a very immature age. We tell young children about tooth fairies and Santa, or encourage a child to be grateful for an unwanted present. "We requite our kids very mixed messages," says Feldman. "What they ultimately larn is that fifty-fifty though honesty is the best policy, it'southward also at times fine and preferable to prevarication about things."
And then next time you hear a fact that sounds odd, or someone to be deflecting a question, exist aware that what you think is the truth may very well exist deceptive.
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Melissa Hogenboom is BBC Future'due south characteristic writer, she is @melissasuzanneh on twitter.
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Source: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20171114-the-disturbing-art-of-lying-by-telling-the-truth
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