Lies are deliberate falsehoods communicated to deceive and mislead others. Like me claiming that I put a lot of work into that featured image. But there’s more to them than merely saying things that aren’t true. How do they manifest? What are the interpersonal dynamics behind them? Can lies and deception be detected? And how do people lie by telling the truth? Here are thirteen truths about lying I’ve collected so far.
1. Simple Rules
Elena Gorokhova grew up in Soviet Russia. In her memoir, she describes how she discovered the political deception surrounding her:
The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them.
Elena Gorokhova, A Mountain of Crumbs
2. Pinocchio Effect
It is tempting to think that lie detection by way of studying behavioural cues works. One of many indicators used to detect deception is the amount of words we produce. Known as the Pinocchio Effect, this idea is based on a study by Deepak Malhotra et al. of the Harvard Business School:
[T]hey discovered that liars tend to speak in more complex sentences in an attempt to win over their suspicious counterparts. It’s what W. C. Fields meant when he talked about baffling someone with bullshit. The researchers dubbed this the Pinocchio Effect because, just like Pinocchio’s nose, the number of words grew along with the lie. People who are lying are, understandably, more worried about being believed, so they work harder — too hard, as it were — at being believable.
Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference
3. Deception Detection
Intelligence analysts have a vital interest in detecting deceptions on a larger scale. Deception Detection is a structured analytic technique designed to help them vet their sources. Four acronyms guide them through the method:
Motive, Opportunity & Means (MOM) of the potential deceiver.
Past Opposition Practices (POP), that is the track record of our counterparts.
Manipulability of Sources (MOSES) when it comes to their vulnerability and people’s access to them.
Evaluation of Evidence (EVE), for example in terms of its credibility.
Source: Handbook of SATs
👉 If you want to learn more, I’ve written about this method in Deception Detection: How to Anticipate Deceit.
4. Bullshit Defined
It sounds like a lie, but it’s true. The scientific study of bullshit was famously trailblazed by philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt. Here’s the researcher making the distinction between a truthful person, a liar and a bullshitter:
When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false.
For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says.
He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.
Harry G. Frankfurt, On Bullshit
5. Self-Delusion Spiral
Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky is most famous for his novels Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. His ideas hit hard, like this one I’ve dubbed the Self-Delusion Spiral:
A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying — to others and to yourself.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
6. Loki’s Wager
Loki (the god from the original Norse mythology, not the former Thanos collaborator) was the name giver for this verbal fallacy called Loki’s Wager. His reputation was that of a cunning trickster who loved to play pranks on friends and foes. Here’s one you haven’t seen in a Marvel movie.
In a bet with the dwarf Brokkr, which he lost, Loki wagered his head, which he kept nonetheless. Don’t get me wrong, the god was happy to oblige and have his head severed from the rest of his body. But he insisted that, in doing so, Brokkr must not take parts of his neck. But where exactly do the neck end and the head begin? With this linguistic trick, Loki kept his head as the matter was discussed indefinitely.
When it comes to lying and deception, the devil can be in the detail. I took a deeper dive into this phenomenon in my article on 👉Loki’s Wager: How to Defeat the Devil in the Detail.
7. Disbelieving the Truth
Disbelieving the Truth is a lie detection error that happens when we mistake a person’s behaviour for a sign of deceit. An alleged robber might be nervous when talking about his whereabouts during the night in question. Not because he’s lying. But because he’s generally nervous when talking to people or afraid of being wrongfully imprisoned.
Here’s how this phenomenon can be exploited, according to psychologist Paul Elkman:
A clue to deceit may be set out deliberately by a con man to exploit his victim’s mistaken belief that he has caught the con man lying. Poker players reportedly use this trick, establishing what in poker lingo is called a “false tell.” For example, a player might for many hours deliberately cough when bluffing. The opponent, hopefully astute enough, soon recognizes this pattern of coughing and bluffing. In a crucial hand of the game when the stakes are raised, the deceiver coughs again, but this time he is not bluffing and so wins a wallet-breaking pot from his confused opponent.
8. Liar’s Dividend
The concept of the Liar’s Dividend suggests that in an environment where the line between truth and falsehood is blurred, it’s the liar who benefits the most. Here’s journalist Kelly McBride explaining the idea further:
Debunking fake or manipulated material like videos, audios or documents, ultimately could stoke belief in the fakery. As a result, even after the fake is exposed, it will be harder for the public to trust any information on that particular topic.
Source: Poynter
Unfortunately, it looks like teaching people to be sceptical of false information can have unintended negative consequences. They may just get better at questioning reality as a whole.
9. The Big Lie
The Big Lie is a sinister propaganda technique designed to distort facts and manipulate populations on a grand scale. Here’s how it works:
The idea is feeding the audience a lie so terrible, so overwhelming — and with such a maximum degree of certainty — that it is almost impossible to believe that one can lie about such a thing.
The trick here is that a properly arranged and well-devised big lie causes a deep emotional trauma in the listener or viewer. Later the trauma determines his or her beliefs that withstand all arguments of logic and reason.
Vladimir Yakovlev, Combat Propaganda
👉 On a related note, I wrote a whole article on Propaganda Techniques: How to Manipulate the Masses.
10. Othello Error
Desdemona has been cheating on Othello. Or so the general of the Venetian army thought. When Othello confronts Desdemona in Shakespeare’s tragic play, she denies having been unfaithful and cries. Tragically, her jealous husband takes her reaction as evidence of her guilt and kills her.
When making the Othello Error we fixate on the pre-conceived notion that someone is lying and ignore any signs of truth telling. The term was coined by Paul Ekman in his 1985 book Telling Lies. He notes that “simply observing an emotion does not tell you what caused that emotion”.
11. Paltering
The next time you talk to a used car salesman or listen in on a, let’s say, senate hearing, watch out for paltering. Paltering happens when we lie by telling the truth. That is we pick and choose statements that are technically true but are in fact misleading. Take this example:
Senator: Is your teacher evaluation program effective in identifying the best teachers?
Bureaucrat: We had good feedback from schools.
Senator: Are there any studies that show that the program does what it says it does?
Bureaucrat: Teachers who apply must show that they’re the best in the classroom.
No lies detected.
12. Deception Dilemma
The mere possibility of deception can be quite paranoia-inducing. Former intelligence analyst Richards J. Heuer gets to the heart of this Deception Dilemma:
If deception is done well, the analyst should not expect to see any evidence of it. If, on the other hand, it is expected, the analyst will find evidence of deception even when it is not there.
Richards J. Heuer
13. Preference Falsification
Personally, I enjoy workplace socialisation very much. There’s nothing better than hanging out with all your coworkers for a drink or five after you’ve spent the whole day with them in the office. It’s the single best thing since LinkedIn.
On an entirely unrelated note, let’s talk about Preference Falsification. This phenomenon occurs when we express opinions or beliefs that differ from our true preferences to conform to social norms, avoid conflict or gain acceptance. We hide our true beliefs in favour of what is perceived as socially acceptable or desirable.
People may publicly endorse ideas or behaviours they secretly despise, either because they fear social repercussions or because they believe their true preferences are in the minority. In other words, we lie about what we like. The concept is similar to the Abilene Paradox, which happens when a group acts against its members‘ preferences even though everyone secretly agrees on how wrong a decision is.
BONUS: Not Through Me
How do we cope with an influx of lies? The work of writer and Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn reflects themes of integrity and moral courage in the face of oppression. I found this line by him particularly striking:
You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Closing Thoughts
Lying is a tricky business — it’s not just about telling untruths, but understanding why we do it in the first place. Whether it’s a little white lie or a grand exaggeration, lies reveal some interesting things about human nature. While spotting a lie can be tough, knowing why people lie helps us all navigate the world of truth and deception.
