Why Do People Lie?

Reporter Seo Yea-weon

seoyeaweon@naver.com

According to American psychologist Paul Ekman, a person tells about 200 lies a day. Although there may be differences between individuals, the common argument is that 'people have difficulty spending a day without lying.' You might wonder how a person can tell so many lies. Well, just think of the small lies that parents tell their children, "Mom's fine" and "Dad's not sick," as well as the white lies they say about Santa's existence to protect their kids' childhood innocence. Or think about how you might laugh at your boss' terrible jokes, and always say "I'm fine" to people around you. On a serious note, however, it is really necessary to think rationally at this point. Am I genuinely fine when I say I am fine? Asking this question made me realize that I live by lying more than I thought, and the argument that people lie 200 times a day also makes sense. Telling small lies may not be a big problem, but if you tell them out of habit, they can cause serious problems.

First, it is because of the addiction caused by the joy and happiness felt in the act of lying itself. A typical example is a story of 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf', who surprises people by lying to them that a wolf has appeared and feels joy by having fun with their reactions. In this way, when you lie, you feel joy and pride looking at the other person's reaction and this causes you to gradually increase the number of lies you tell or the scale of lying.

The second reason, which I personally agree with about why people lie the most, is to lie as a means of escaping a crisis. The problem is that the essential cause and situation cannot be solved. You may avoid an immediate crisis, but just because it does not affect you immediately does not mean you have solved the problem completely. Besides, continually lying to avoid situations can lead to disconnection of interpersonal relationships and severe depression.

Lastly, some people are just pathological liers. More than lying for a purpose, they believe their lies to be true. People who lie are characterized by not feeling guilty or regret because they think the fictional world is true. At this rate, it is likely to lead to serious events such as crimes.

You can think that lying is bad based on what I have said so far, but you can also think that lying was a kind of survival tool in prehistoric times. Primitive humans were able to lie enough as an escape from danger, such as pretending to be a tree to avoid being eaten by predators. It is humans who set the standards of good and evil or right and wrong in the first place, and it is also humans who cross between them. What is truly good, and what is evil? If so, is lying right, or is even telling white lies unacceptably wrong? This is something we need to think about.