Overview/Lying Sources

Lying

Ever feel like your talking to someone who isn't being completely honest? It happens frequently in social situations even if you do not realize it. If you do realize it however, you are left wondering why this person feels the need to play games with you. Why can't they just be honest? One of our intentions in this experimental was to find out what causes people to lie and how to tell if someone is lying.

How Kids Begin to Lie

For years, parents have voted "honesty" as the trait that they most wanted to see in their children. 98% of kids that were surveyed said lying was morally wrong and that honesty is important in a relationship. However, their actions don't reflect this data at all. So... what makes these kids act, by their own standards, immorally? Some kids are capable of starting to lie at a very young age depending on how bright they are. Dr. Victoria Talwar, an assistant professor at Montreal’s McGill University says, “Lying is related to intelligence”. For a child to lie, he first has to recognize the truth. Then, he has to think of an alternate reality and successfully sell this new reality to another person."Lying demands both advanced cognitive development and social skills that honesty simply doesn’t require", Talwar concluded. Most parents of children who lie believe that they will grow out of it once they get older. However the opposite is true. A child who learns early on to use lying to his advantage is very unlikely to grow out of it. Why would they? If they have gotten through their whole life so far on successful lies they would not see any plausible reason to stop. As kids move into upper levels of school, they are even more prone to lie. They learn they can manipulate the kids around them to gain a sense of control. They also figure out how to fool their own parents. Obviously, not all children will become manipulative, little lying machines. The point is, kids who figure out how to successfully lie and get away with it at an early age are not too likely to give it up as they get older.

"Encouraged to tell so many white lies and hearing so many others, children get comfortable with being disingenuous. Insincerity becomes a daily occurrence. "

Works Cited:
http://www.livescience.com/772-lie.html
http://nymag.com/news/features/43893/
http://www.catalogs.com/info/relationships/why-do-people-lie.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199609/the-real-truth-about-lying
http://www.blifaloo.com/info/lies.php
www.thetruthaboutdeception.com
http://www.improvingyourworld.com/relationships/lying_in_relationships_the_damage_it_does_002590.html
http://www.ministryhealth.net/mh_articles/063_manipulators_four_types.html http://www.catalogs.com/info/relationships/why-do-people-lie.html http://nymag.com/news/features/43893/
http://www.livescience.com/772-lie.html
http://www.livescience.com/451-stomach-lie.html http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/life-strategies/truth-about-lying-00000000012669/index.html http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v6n1/lying.html http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/detecting.aspx
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199609/the-real-truth-about-lying