.. So would you consider "lying" to your friend if you know he/she only got 3 days to live? Lying is not the problem. The intention of the lie is the problem.
Why lie with "bad" intention? Simply, it's to cover up the truth to suit ones goal. "David Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Hi, > > I'm a fairly recent M.A. graduate and constantly thinking of other > things that I wish I had time to research or that someone already had. > If there is a better place to post a suggestion please let me know. > > Since lying bugs me, and I hope it bugs a lot of people, I'm > particularly concerned with what might cause lying (drugs, situations, > mental state, environment, etc.). I'm concerned about it in all walks > of life but especially in professional situations, for instance, when > someone lies in order to make a sale, or a person does not get hired > in sales because the person seems too honest. This has strongly > impacted me as it seems that in some professions you must start off in > sales in order to get your foot in the door of a company. I've also > been told by knowledgable recruiters and aquaintences that telling > non-verifiable lies on resumes is a common professional act. > > I have the impression that such studies are few and far between (maybe > non-existant) after performing the following informal surveys. > > With no current access to academic search engines, I simply used > Google Web and Google Groups to search 3.7 BILLION web pages and posts > (ha, supposedly!) for phrases such as "...xxx has a positive > correlation with/to deception...", "...xxx correlates to deceptive > yyy...", "...xxx correlates to deception...", and so fourth. > > Please understand that I used quotes to pinpoint exact phrases in > order to search for relevant matches instead of words smattered > throughout a web page. My web searching skills might not be the best > but they are OK, and these are my results: > > "more apt to lie" Several matches but in mainly informal dialogue > "causes deception" Several matches but in unrelated or informal > dialogue > "Correlation with deceptive" 0 matches in Google Web and 0 on Google > Groups > "correlates to deceptive" 0/0 > "correlates to deception" 4/0 (these mentioned indicators but not > causation) > "correlates to increased deception" 0/0 > "Correlation with increased deception" 0/0 > "Correlation to increased deception" 0/0 > "correlates with lying" 0/0 > "correlates to lying" 1/0 (just how lie detectors work) > "Correlation with deceptive" 0/2 (just how lie detectors work) > "correlates to fabrications" 0/0 > "correlates with fabrications" 0/0 > "correlates to fabrication" 0/0 > "correlates with fabrication" 0/0 > "correlates to dishonesty" 0/0 > "correlates with dishonesty" 0/1 (just informal conversation) > "correlates to dishonest" 0/0 > "correlates with dishonest" 0/0 > "correlates to deceit" 0/0 > "correlates with deceit" 0/0 > "correlates to deceitful" 0/0 > "correlates with deceitful" 0/0 > "correlates to exaggeration" 0/0 > "correlates with exaggeration" 0/0 > > > In comparison, these results come up on other topics: > > "Correlation with obesity" 50/22 > "correlates to obesity" 12/1 > "Correlation with winning" 21/92 > "Correlation to winning" 18/89 > "Correlation with alcoholism" 2/4 > "Correlation to alcoholism" 1/6 > "correlates to IQ" 2/56 > "correlates with IQ" 82/149 > "correlates with strength" 73/8 > > There are 180,000+ web pages that contain the phrase "correlates with" > alone. But appending the most common synonyms for the word 'lying' to > several variations of the phrase 'correlates with' produce not one > relevant result. So lots of people care about correlates but not many > about lying. I'm not claiming that lying is the all that bad but I > think it deserves at least some attention, and I think that broad > acceptance of unchecked lying can threaten people's well being and > satisfaction. Bill Gates with all his money claimed in a High School > commencement speach that "life is not fair... ...get used to it," > which is one way of looking at life, but to hear that coming from the > most privledged and spoiled man in the world is screwed up. Not only > is it hypocritical but the attitude trickles down to other > professionals through his fame and his products which saturate > business. And I might add how Bill Gates got his start by purchasing > DOS from the real developer for nothing compared to how much Gates > sold it to IBM for, and Gates claimed that his company had produced > it. So, that's how capitalism CAN work, but it seems that many think > it's how everything is supposed to be, and I'm not sure if it is. > > MAYBE someone knows of such research locatable with an academic search > engine, but my contention is that lying is an under-rated epidemic, > based on my informal survey. If there is anyone out there interested > in this topic please drop me a line. > > Thanks, > > David Johnson > http://www.geocities.com/djohnson60004/ . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
