Many people already know that people do lie every day in the life. Lies are slippery things, and endlessly various. Self-deception is one example of lying. Patrick Rothfuss said that “The best lies about me are the ones I told.” Also, Fyodor Dostoyevsky said that “Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.” These are famous quotes on self-deception. So, what is the self deception? Self deception is defined as the act of lying to yourself or of making yourself believe something that isn't really true. There is a familiar example which can show what is self-deception. The situation where even though he has told her several times he wants to break up, someone who convinces herself her boyfriend loves her can show who are lying oneself. Self-deception is one of the interesting topic to psychologists to study. Psychologists are trying to account for lying in evolutionary psychology.
Then why we are lying everyday? we can categorize motives for lying.
1)To avoid being punished. This is the most frequently mentioned motive by either children or adults. The punishment may be for a misdeed or for an accidental mistake.
2) To obtain a reward not otherwise readily obtainable. This is the second most commonly mentioned motive, by both children and adults.
3) To protect another person from being punished.
4) To protect oneself from the threat of physical harm. This is different from being punished, for a threat of harm is not for a misdeed. An example would be a child who is home alone telling a stranger at the door that his father is asleep now, and to come back later.
5) To win the admiration of others.
6) To get out of an awkward social situation. Examples are claiming to have a babysitter problem to get out of a dull party, or ending a telephone conversation by saying there is someone at the door.
7) To avoid embarrassment. The child who claims the wet seat resulted from water spilling, not from wetting her pants, is an example if the child did not fear punishment, only embarrassment.
8) To maintain privacy, without giving notification of the intention to maintain some information as private.
9) To exercise power over others, by controlling the information the target has.
3) To protect another person from being punished.
4) To protect oneself from the threat of physical harm. This is different from being punished, for a threat of harm is not for a misdeed. An example would be a child who is home alone telling a stranger at the door that his father is asleep now, and to come back later.
5) To win the admiration of others.
6) To get out of an awkward social situation. Examples are claiming to have a babysitter problem to get out of a dull party, or ending a telephone conversation by saying there is someone at the door.
7) To avoid embarrassment. The child who claims the wet seat resulted from water spilling, not from wetting her pants, is an example if the child did not fear punishment, only embarrassment.
8) To maintain privacy, without giving notification of the intention to maintain some information as private.
9) To exercise power over others, by controlling the information the target has.
As I mentioned before, In the view of evolutionary psychology, lie is the instinct of human created by evolving. Lying became acclimatized, society became the world where people compete to detect liar and to lie. Therefore, we can be a person deceived or a cheater. Sometimes we can not realize that we are lying and deceiving ourselves and them. For example, when children have not finished their homework, they said they did not it because it was too difficult to solve. However, this situation can be explained with the message that children are deceiving themselves by thinking they can not finish it because they did not have ability to process.
Lying helps us to gain confidence. Many experiments have shown that people do indeed burnish their estimation of their talent, autonomy, and rationality. One example is the Lake Wobegon effect, named after the mythical town in which all the children are above average： a majority of people rate themselves above average in any trait that matters to them. This example can show that we want to have our cushion to protect us from being hurt from the harsh realities: we have optimal margin of illusion to protect us. For example, scholars believes themselves they belong to the top 94% at their field. Similarly, 80% of America students believes that themselves they belong to the top 50% at leadership. By doing this, they can convince themselves and others. Also, lying enters into general use extensively and is deep-rooted in nature. Female lightning bug glows a fluorescent green. Male lightning bug is deceived and eaten when male lightning bug approached female lightning bug by expecting mating.
According to research, we have biased memories. People thought that they did cast a vote at the election, even though they did not cast a vote. Similarly, People thought that they donated, even though they did not. People think memories as pictures which fade out as over time, but memories are restructured and manipulated easily. In other words, people recreate their memories and do lie easily.
Intellectual evolution of human is established by lying is social intelligence hypothesis. In 1976, Nicholas Humphrey who is psychologist brought forward this view in Social Skill Of Intelligence. Man's remote ancestors are ensured their safety because they were a complex group compared to other primates. However, competition for food and mate became more fiercer. The more bigger a group is, the more complex lie is. Thanks to this process, intelligence of human is also developed. Self deception was favorable to survival and spread to an evolutionary process. Because of self deception we became 'born liar.'
Lying is not always a morally acceptable. Crime such as child molestation, sexual harassment or exploitation is no excuse or justification for lying. However, lying sometimes is a morally justifiable response to others. For example, If a doctor tells a bereaved husband that his wife died instantly because of the crash, rather than the truth that she spent her last hours in horrific pain. In this situation we undestand the doctor’s compassion. We call the lies we like ‘white lies’. White lies can be morally acceptable from the general principle of truthfulness.
‘The human capacity to lie is indispensable to the equilibrium of human consciousness and the development of man in society.’ said ’ says the literary critic and humanist philosopher George Steiner. Like it or not, we are all born liars. However we have to use lie at accurate circumstance. Even though we are born liars, we should not justify lying.
Redirect=Log&logNo=80066374523
http://book.naver.com/bookdb/book_detail.nhn?bid=7273379
Lake Wobegon effect http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=2067311&cid=42107&categoryId=42107
‘The human capacity to lie is indispensable to the equilibrium of human consciousness and the development of man in society.’ said ’ says the literary critic and humanist philosopher George Steiner. Like it or not, we are all born liars. However we have to use lie at accurate circumstance. Even though we are born liars, we should not justify lying.
(Why do people lie? - http://www.scribd.com/doc/56665617/2-Ekman-Paul-Lying-and-Deception-1997)
우리는 왜 자신을 속이도록 진화했을까? http://blog.aladin.co.kr/flows1/6612947
http://blog.naver.com/transminds?Redirect=Log&logNo=80066374523
http://book.naver.com/bookdb/book_detail.nhn?bid=7273379
Lake Wobegon effect http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=2067311&cid=42107&categoryId=42107
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