Lying has been utilized as a means of deception since before humans existed. Animals have been shown to exhibit primitive forms of deception for ages, but as humans came about, different forms of lying started to emerge as well. As people became more intelligent over time, our means of deception through lying quickly followed suit. Many authors, scientists, philosophers, and political theorists have dissected and pondered upon the reasons why people lie, the factors that lead to lying, and the resulting consequences of lying on a mass scale. What exactly makes someone a liar can be attributed to many factors and symptoms of a society that is made up of a lot of liars. So, what exactly are the processes by which people develop into liars... And how can individuals and societies be protected from being deceived? The answer to these questions rests within the work and research that several authors have conducted over time. As I evaluate and interpret their research, I will attempt to compare their theories, methods, and conclusions in answering the ultimate question of what processes lead to an individual becoming a liar.
When trying to determine the processes that make someone a liar, it’s best to establish a possible origin. In Daniel Dol’s “The Darker Side of Imagination,” he asserts that language is one of the key roots of advanced forms of lying carried out between people. While it’s not “the origin” of lying amongst humans and animals, language seems to be instrumental in the development of many extensive forms of deception. He states, “You can only lie to those with whom you share a language, and among those you can only lie to those who trust you to tell the truth” (Dol 1). Trust is key when it comes to someone attempting to lie to another. When lying, an individual has to conceal certain signs that they might be being deceptive, whether it’s facial expressions or certain body movements, however when they have the full trust of the person they’re trying to deceive, they don’t have to rely on a conscious effort to conceal any signs of deceptions. With that said, people who aren’t trusted by many others, especially on behalf of exposed lies, will have a much tougher time using language to deceive others. Without language or any advanced form of communication, humans could still lie or deceive one another, but it would be in a much more limited capacity. Dol uses apes as an example of this. When an ape might be attempting to deceive another ape, it might hide something that is there to make it appear that it isn’t. With humans and our use of language, we can make it look like something is there when it isn’t (Dol 1). Language can be used in many ways to present a lie, along with all the forms of lying that come with it. Among those forms include the “free-loader.” While this type of liar isn’t as sinister as some of the others, this is among the more common. Freeloaders receive credit for things they’ve put little to no effort into. This type of liar typically capitalizes on group projects or group activities (Dol 2). While language initially doesn’t present itself as a process that leads to the development of liars, it makes a lot of sense that it is a primary process. While lying in almost all forms is mostly not tolerated by society, it’s not always used to the advantage of the individual lying, but in most cases, the liar is usually being advantaged, while the victim is simultaneously disadvantaged.
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While millions of liars exist within society, we as nations rely heavily on the truth and the good word of those we associate with. In “Thoughtfulness, Deceit, and Trust,” Professor Sisela Bok asks us to picture a society in which no one's ‘word and gesture’ could be trusted. If no one, especially governments could trust each other, societies across the globe would collapse (Bok 4). She couldn’t be more correct in this regard. Societies and people within societies that seek to coexist rely on at least a minimal level of trust. With more trust, comes more prosperity with everyone involved. Lying negatively affects not just the ones being lied to, but the liars themselves as well. Bok affirms several times that a root to continued lying can result from the power the liar receives from lying (Bok 6). When someone benefits from deceiving another, they have a sense of control over that person and that can easily give the liar a reason to not just keep lying to their initial victim, but to anyone they can. Nobody likes being lied to, but that’s especially true for the ones who lie the most. Bok states, “They would prefer, in other words, a ‘free-rider’ status, giving them the benefits of lying without the risks of being lied to” (Bok 7). Even they can acknowledge at least to themselves the damage or pain that comes with lying. Some liars will even use the lying that takes in a lot of society as an excuse or as a means to rationalize the lying they do. However, people who do those might use lying as a way of self-defense. If they feel that society is mostly corrupt, they might outweigh the advantages and disadvantages of lying simply so they can protect themselves, rather than lying for “self-serving” purposes. Bok raises a good point when she asserts that a liar knowing that they lied affects their state of mind (Bok 7). They might question their integrity, self-worth, etc. Even if they don’t question those things, the extended consequences of their lies could take a toll on their mental state. When you lie to someone, it doesn’t just impact them, it could also impact other people that the victim interacts with. If someone intentionally passes false information to another, they in turn might pass that same false information to others causing an unpredictable chain of events, whether negative or positive. All lies, even seemingly harmless white lies, carry weight and consequences. As Bok implied, the liar acquires a certain power when they successfully carry out their deception. Nobody ever likes being lied to, especially the liars, but what these people fail to understand is the power that the truth holds over the lie. With no truth or integrity, a society will always struggle to function. Lies will always be undesirable in a rational civilization, and the power that comes with it is quickly extinguished when the truth is inevitably revealed.
By establishing the processes that make someone into a liar, we’ve affirmed that language as well as the concept of power resulting from lying are key processes. However, these processes don’t account for the biological or physiological reasons as to why we lie. People lie for many reasons, whether it’s for self-beneficial reasons, to get out of trouble, or even to help another person, but regardless of the reason behind the lie, the exact root of the lying itself rests within our brains. In “The Brain Adapts to Dishonesty,” the answer to the origin of why individuals lie and then continue to lie is vividly characterized. “Many dishonest acts are speculatively traced back to a sequence of smaller transgressions that gradually escalated” (11). To provide an example, if you knock over just one domino, every domino in its path will be knocked over as well. What started with just one collapsing domino was quickly followed by a hundred more. It’s almost as if lying becomes an addiction. Someone can find themselves saying a couple of white lies at the start, but then end up committing fraud or other more sinister lies. Lying, despite the purpose, has been proven to give us a form of arousal from a neurological standpoint (11). The real question rests in why lies escalate. The results of several experiments performed by Neil Garrett and his team confirm that the escalation of lying is heavily present in those who commit ‘self-serving’ lies. They did however find that lying without substantial escalation with those who were lying to benefit another person (12). So, if someone is lying for a friend to maybe get them invited to a party that they otherwise wouldn’t have been invited to, that person’s lying will most likely not escalate much further in that regard. However, if the person lied to get themselves invited to the party, there’s an extraordinarily strong chance they’ll commit a similar lie to get themselves invited to future events. Garrett and his team determined that decreased activity in the brain around the amygdala is hugely attributed to why some people lie more than others, at least from a neurological standpoint. People with higher activity in that region were found to be less inclined to lie (13). As previously stated, many people lie for various reasons, but all of those lies can be traced back to the brain itself. At the end of their studies, Garrett and his team concluded that the escalation of lying was heavily tied to lies that fulfilled a self-serving purpose (14).
While all the authors approached the concept of lying with different theories and varying perspectives, I found that all of them were very credible, despite some being stronger than others. A lot of theories paralleled one another as well as supporting some of the things other authors were saying. Through means of language, a desire for power, and just the simple happenings within our brains, these just make up some of the processes in which we become liars. Though how can individuals and societies protect themselves from those who live for nothing else, but to deceive others? There are many ways. A key way would be for those to be not overly trusting to the point where they ignore obvious cues of lying. It would be unhealthy for someone to live their life not trusting a single person, while it would be unwise for someone to go about their lives trusting every single person they interact with. I think it would be best for those to find themselves somewhere in between the two. Societies as a whole can protect themselves from sinister lying by continuing to condone it from a public standpoint. In a society in which its government protects those in power from the consequences of the lies they tell, then the people within this nation will find that as a means to rationalize for themselves to lie. Liars to be held accountable, and we as humans need to hold anyone and everyone accountable for the lies they tell.
Of all the articles, I found that “The Brain Adapts to Dishonesty” and “The Darker Side of Imagination” had the strongest arguments. I think it's important to emphasize how the evolution of language has directly led to the evolution of deception, as well as why lying escalates significantly after the first lies are told. Of all the issues in the world, many aren’t so quick to think about the impact that lying holds, but it’s still a serious problem. Throughout human history, lying has gotten people killed, falsely imprisoned, put in debt, sent to war, and so on. If everyone was completely honest with one another, it would be a strange world indeed, but one where the lives of others aren’t destroyed on behalf of deception. Many processes are responsible for people developing into liars, but just because many lie without feeling an ounce of remorse, it doesn’t mean that the rest of us should follow suit. We all owe it to one another to be honest, and not deprive others of the truth. Over time, perhaps the concept of lying will one day be viewed as ancient history, but our word is only as strong as our will.
Citations
- Dol, Daniel. 'The Darker Side of Imagination.' The Instruction of Imagination: Language as a Communication Technology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Print.
- Bok, Sisela. “II. Truthfulness, Deceit, and Trust.” Lying: Moral Choice in Private and Public Life. New York: Vintage Books, 1978. Print
- Garrett, Neil, Stephanie C. Lazzaro, Dan Ariely and Tali Sharot. “The brain adapts to dishonesty.” Nature Neuroscience. 19, 1727-1732 (2016). Web.
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