-
Asked by miniscientist to Tom, Tim, Sarah, Derek, Dalya on 13 Jun 2011.
-
Tim Millar answered on 13 Jun 2011:
Probably to gain an advantage. If we are all in competition for everything, it would make sense to say just about anything to get your own way, part of survival of the fittest by any means.
Obviously this doesn’t happen all the time, but there maybe a survival reason behind everything we do.
-
-
Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 13 Jun 2011:
Tim’s right… it is because people *think* that they can gain an advantage. This sometimes works, but often the gain is only very short term, and often comes with a long-term disadvantage in terms of other people trusting them. However, the short-term is always more compelling, and so people succumb to the temptation, disregarding the long-term effects.
-
Sarah Thomas answered on 13 Jun 2011:
Well I guess there must be an evolutionary reason for it. Lying is a cognitive skill and humans are probably the only species on earth capable of it. I guess it could be a self preservation thing – lying to protect ourselves, to cover up mistakes and avoid punishment or other negative consequences.
-
Tom Crick answered on 13 Jun 2011:
Yeah, I think it tends to be a competitive or self-preservation action e.g. when people are frightened.
However, it is worth noting that the capacity to lie is found early in human development: children are able to lie convincingly at around 4-5 years old! But when children first learn how lying works, they lack the moral understanding of when to refrain from doing it. Hence they will sometimes tell outrageous and unbelievable lies, because they lack the conceptual framework to judge whether a statement is believable, or even to understand the concept of “believability”.
But it is behaviour that can be learnt and improved — some people are better liars that others!
Comments