I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Disease Zone. It has scientists studying the causes and processes of illness . Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
eh, to protect themselves, to improve their lives, to steal…..
there are so many reasons to lie! I think most of my lying is just to avoid an argument. So I won’t tell my husband I just bought 3 new pairs of shoes, because I couldn’t be bothered in having an argument about why I needed the shoes!
People lie to protect themselves or to gain something. I think it’s very hard to grow up without telling a lie!
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Dear Sarahb; There are two kinds of lies; so called ‘black’ and ‘white’ lies. A white lie is considered mild and oftentimes kind of routine or not to hurt the feeling of others or mine.
An example of a white lie, when you meet a neighbor in the elevator in the morning, the conversation goes like this;
A) “Good morning, how are you?”
B) I am fine, thank you. And you?”
B is not fine. He had an argument with his wife and feel hurt inside but he doesn’t have to tell A about that! It is a lie, a white lie!
Black lie may be serious and could be a deadly one, sometimes. It is to cover up one’s fault maybe, to cheat someone or to make oneself look better, etc. Black lies can be done voluntarily or forced to do by someone else. We all know what the black lies are. Don’t we?
Some people say “Lies are lies whether it is black or white!” Lies has tendency of addiction in a way and it is best not to be practiced. One lie brings another bigger lie to cover it up, it is easy to make one ‘Lier!’
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Natasha and Soon have outlined some of the reasons why people may chose to lie, but I thought I’d have a look at the literature to see if there was a scientific reason why people lie. It might not surprise you, but there are HEAPS of studies on why people lie, probably because it happens all the time. What did surprise me though is that much of it is how to tell if someone is lying, or how their brain reacts when they are lying, rather than actually WHY we lie.
Why we lie seems to be linked to emotions, both ours and those of others. One study suggested that we are more likely to lie if we feel like our self-confidence is being threatened, another than we do it when we can see an advantage to be gained. But to me, these are *reasons* to lie, not actually WHY we lie.
I’m going to keep doing some searching and reading, because I would like to know if there is a physical reason, hard-wired into our brains, that people lie. If I find anything I will add it to the comments below.
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