Through extensive empirical studies of adults' and children's motives for lying, researcher Paul Ekman compiled a list of nine different reasons people lie. According to Ekman, common reasons people lie are to avoid punishment and to obtain rewards. People also lie to protect others from punishment, to protect themselves and others from the threat of physical harm, to get out of an awkward social situation, to avoid embarrassment, to maintain privacy and to exercise power over others. people lie to maintain their privacy. Philosopher David Nyberg has also recognized the privacy motive, noting that "we have learned to use deception ... to gain and protect privacy."
Psychologist Robert Feldman cites self-esteem as one of the biggest culprits in our lying ways: "We find that as soon as people feel that their self-esteem is threatened, they immediately begin to lie at higher levels." Feldman believes many lies are simply for the purpose of maintaining social contacts by avoiding insults or discord. Small lies that avoid conflict are probably the most common sort of lie...and avoiding conflict is a top motivator for deception.
http://www.blifaloo.com/info/lying-why.php
topic
Lying is instinct of human
what I hope to learn from this source
reasons being categorized
final thoughts
There are a lot of motives for lying. The most common reasons people lie because they want to protect themselves and avoid threatened self-esteem.
