BLOGPOST #1: INTRODUCTION TO LIES AND WHITE LIES

What's the difference between a lie and a white lie?
Many people doesn't know the difference between a lie and a white lie. White lies are normally just told as a joke or to protect someone from the truth, whereas lies are intended are intended to actually hurt someone. It may be hard to differentiate between the two though.
Example, the typical boyfriend and girlfriend situation, the woman asks the man if she looks fat in the outfit she is wearing. If he was to say yes, her happiness state will most likely drop, and then his would too because he will most likely get yelled at and normally people don't like being yelled at. Now, if he was to say no, she will be happy and he will be happy and she will be happy... so much happiness.

In an article entitled "We're all lying liars" from the site www.health.usnews.com, Ulchir Boser says that one study found that people tell two to three lies every 10 minutes, and even conservative estimates indicate that we lie at least once a day. Such incessant prevarication might be a necessary social evil, and researchers have recently discovered that some fibbing might actually be good for you. "We use lies to grease the wheels of social discourse," says University of Massachusetts psychologist Robert Feldman. "It's socially useful to tell lies."

Researchers have been studying deception for decades, trying to figure out why we tell lies. It turns out that we spin facts and make up fictions for all sorts of reasons. We might want to gain a raise or a reward, for example, or to protect friends or a lover.

Do these white lies have any influence on your later behavior? This question was explored in a set of studies by Jennifer Argo and Baba Shiv in the April, 2012 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. These researchers argued that in many cases, white lies have little effect on the teller later. However, in situations in which the policy of being honest is highlighted, liars often do nice things for the person they lied to.

According to an article entitled "The Ethics of Lying" from the site www.philosophy.about.com, Andrea Borghini states that in some circumstances, it seems better to tell a small lie than having someone worrying unnecessarily, or becoming sad, or losing momentum. While actions of this sort seems hard to endorse from the standpoint of a Kantian ethics, they provide one of the most clear-cut arguments in favour of Consequentialism.

These consequences may occur in people's relationships. It is potentially damaging your relationships. All relationships are based on trust. Lying damages that. Even if you never caught there is one person that always knows you're lying. You.

Overall, this article explains that white lies can be socially useful but you have to face some consequences. White lies aren't always right and it can dangerous.

"It's not too late to start being truthful, with yourself and others." says John Seeley. This statement states that you should be honest to yourself and everyone as much as possible. As the article stated above said that it is socially useful, still there are consequences behind those lies. White lie is just a name to differentiate the good ones and bad ones but still, a lie is lie.