BLOGPOST #3: "TELL ME, WHY LIE?"

People lie all the time. Well, not always, it's just that they need it to escape their own troubles and problems. Black lies and White lies are just the same, whether they're big or small. They're still lies wherever you look at it. I experienced when I was a kid, I always lie whenever I break a glass. I'm scared because, if my mother will know about this, she will scold and shout at me for breaking it. So, to escape this situation, I will lie and tell her that I don't know what happened and maybe a kid knocked it off somehow. So, why lie?

I read an article entitled "Why We Lie " on the site www.livescience.com by Robin Lloyd which states that some lies are not really harmful. Some researchers said that lying is the best approach for protecting privacy, ourselves, and others from malice. 

University of Massachusetts psychologist Robert Feldman said, "It's tied in with self-esteem.We find that as soon as people feel that their self-esteem is threatened, they immediately begin to lie at higher levels." People lie because they don't want to be stepped down by other people. They have this genuinely pride in themselves. They always thought that they are higher than other people so, when someone comes in who is better than themselves, they're scared. They lie by saying they're better.

Men lie no more than women, but they tend to lie to make themselves look better, while women are more likely to lie to make the other person feel better. For example, Donna who is a very fat lady asked Lily, her friend, if she looks fat in her dress. Lily, as all women would normally do, would say she looks pretty in her dress, leaving the unanswered. She doesn't want to hurt her friend's feelings.

Extroverts tend to lie more than introverts, Feldman found in similar research involving a job-interview situation. Feldman said that People should become more aware of the extent to which we tend to lie and that honesty yields more genuine relationships and trust. The default ought to be to be honest and accurate ... We're better off if honesty is the norm. It's like the old saying: honesty is the best policy.

Another article I read entitled, "Lie" from the site online.wsj.com by Dan Ariely. Stated that, Everybody has the capacity to be dishonest, and almost everybody cheats—just by a little. Except for a few people  at the top and bottom, the behavior of almost everyone is driven by two opposing motivations. On the one hand, we want to benefit from cheating and get as much money and glory as possible; on the other hand, we want to view ourselves as honest honorable people.

Dan Ariely said that, "Nearly everyone cheats a little if given the opportunity." We are not perfect that's why all of us cheats or tell lies. It's part of our human life, most likely it is normal. But it is not normal to make it as a hobby. It all depends in a situation because sometimes lying and cheating can be effective and sometimes are not.