Overall, more than 25% of the participants involved claimed that lying was unethical 91-99% of the time and 7% believe that lying was unethical 100% of the time. Also, in total, more than 85% of participates believed that at lying is unethical at least half of the time.
One participants noted that although “lying is never ethical it is sometimes necessary”. To some extent I agree with this statement. If future research were to be done on this topic, it would be interesting to compare “ethical” behavior with behaviors of “necessity.”
Now for the final question…Do we hold others to the same standard of ethical behavior and lying as we hold ourselves?
The first 100 respondents of the survey responded accordingly:
Over 60% claimed to hold themselves to a higher ethical standard than they hold others, nearly 10% of which claimed they always hold themselves to a higher standard than others in their ethical behavior.
Over 30% claimed to hold themselves to the same ethical standard that they hold others
Less than 10% claimed to hold them themselves to a lower ethical standard than they hold others
According to the sample, it can be concluded that most people hold higher standards for themselves and expect less of others. Therefore, we are more likely to expect unethical behaviors (such as lying) from others than engage in unethical behaviors (such as lying) ourselves.
To what extent is this true? Is your behavior more ethical than those around you, or do most people simply have a personal bias?
Conclusions
Lying and ethical behaviors are topics that cannot be universally defined. Personal, cultural, situational, and other factors influence each individual’s perception of these terms.
Although there is a relationship between lying and ethical behavior, it is not clear. There are various situations in which something is considered either more of a lie or more of an unethical behavior.
Ambiguity, vagueness, nonverbal cues, and silence can all be defined as a lie or unethical behavior-however, various factors also vary this drastically.
We hold higher expectations for ourselves than we hold for others in regards to ethical behavior
So far I have explored how lying and ethical behavior are defined, the various perspectives, types, frequency, and potential factors that influence an individuals perception of the relationship between the two. Now I would like to investigate deeper into particular situations involving indirect and overlooked behaviors that are frequently debated as having false or unethical means.
Ambiguity& Vagueness
Ambiguity is language or behaviors that can be interpreted in more than one way or have more than one meaning. Where as vagueness refers to statements or behaviors lacking detail, purpose, or meaning. Some scholars believe ambiguity and vagueness are both unethical behavior and forms of lying because they “are attempts to avoid or circumvent the proof process”. (Johannesen 106) However, others believe intentional ambiguity and vagueness are necessary, accepted, and even beneficial for everyone to use.
Thomas Nilsen presents his moderate point of view by stating, “If ambiguity is unavoidable, it should be made explicit. Where vagueness is unavoidable the speaker should not claim more specificity than the terms warrant.” (Johannesen 108)
The following situations are examples of either ambiguous or vague behavior. First, participants were asked to determine if the following was a lie. In the next question they were asked to determine if the behavior was unethical without changing any previous responses.
Here are the results of 100 of the 150 participants in the study:
Behavior
% stated a “lie”
% stated unethical
Difference favor in %
Exaggerating the amount of time you spent doing a task
70%
37%
33% lie
CIA agent not disclosing mission details to spouse
37%
9%
28% lie
Misleading a friend so that you do not ruin her surprise birthday party
47%
2%
45% lie
“Exaggerating the amount of time you spent doing a task” is an of ambiguity while a “CIA agent not disclosing mission details to spouse” is more of a vague action. “Misleading a friend so that you do not ruin her surprise birthday party” can be interpreted as either vague or ambiguous depending on how the recipient is misled.
According to these three examples, individuals identified ambiguity as a lie to a greater degree of unethicality than that of vagueness. However, the majority believed that none of the three violated ethical behavior.
Nonverbal cues
Nonverbal behavior can be displayed through a variety of ways such as gestures, facial expressions, and even tone/pitch of voice.Is it a lie or unethical to act in a way that is contradictory to how we feel?
Here are the results of 100 of the 150 participants in the study:
Behavior
% stated a “lie”
% stated unethical
Difference favor in %
Behaving excited when receiving a gift you do not like
59%
7%
52% lie
Smiling and acting happy when you are truly mad
52%
10%
42% lie
Being super peppy in a customer service related job
19%
6%
13% lie
Overall nonverbal behaviors received less support of being considered as a lie or unethical than other situations in the survey. When asked, many people claimed these actions were harmless for reasons like “what you don’t know cant hurt you”. However, what if the person is able to read through your lies?
Can you think of situations where acting one way while feeling the opposite has damaged you (or another’s) reputation or credibility?
Silence
Two of the following situations were briefly reviewed in the previous post “Liar, Liar”. However, I believe it is important to acknowledge that silence is a type of nonverbal behavior that many overlook. We frequently intentionally avoid communication even when we know an answer or solution to avert undesirable circumstances. However, several scholars such as Adrienne Rich claim that, “Lying is done with words and also with silence.” (Rich)
Here are the results of 100 of the 150 participants in the study:
Behavior
% stated a “lie”
% stated unethical
Difference favor in %
Avoiding responding to a conversation (in person or via phone/computer) and acting busy
77%
25%
52% lie
Failing to disclose to a romantic partner that you have HIV
90%
95%
5% unethical
Remain silent in a group when police ask who started a fight(you are the only one who knows the answer)
57%
64%
7% unethical
A majority of participants in all three situations believed that failure to speak was in fact a lie. However, it is interesting that of the 9 situations reviewed both “failing to disclose to a romantic partner that you have HIV” and “remaining silent in a group when police ask who started a fight” were the only two that received higher percentages for unethical behavior than lying.
Of the 20 situation presented, only 4 were seen to be more of an unethical behavior than a lie. The other two circumstances were: “copying answers during a university exam” and “drinking alcohol underage”. According to the data, silence in certain circumstances is the most agreed upon type of lie.
Sources
Johannesen, Richard. Ethics in Human Communication, Sixth Edition. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 2008. Print.
Rich, Adrienne. On Lies, Secrets, and Silence. New York: Norton, 1975. Print.
If intentional, how would you justify your behavior?
A study done by Robert Feldman and his colleagues in 2002 revealed that 60 percent of people lied at least once during a 10-minute conversation and told an average of 2 to 3 lies. However, the most interesting part of this is that many of the lies were unintentional and the communicator did not know he/she lied until observing a recording of their behavior after the conversation was completed. (Forrest, 2002)
Feldman was not the first researcher to investigate this type of behavior. A similar study conducted in 1975 by communication researchers Turner, Edgley, and Olmstead found that nearly 2/3 of our verbal communication in each conversation includes some type of lying or controlling information disclosed. (Turner, 1975)
Therefore, it can be inferred that lying is not only common, but occurs more frequently that we realize.
However, based on the study above this brings about the dilemma…should concealing information be considered lying?
As a matter of fact, there are two major types of lying defined.
Lies of commission: false statement
Lies of omission: withholding the truth
When reflecting on information gathered from the definitions provided by various sources, it is clear that most people tend to focus on lies of commission. Although the degree of importance among lies of commission vary, most tend to recognize false statements (or lies of commission) as a lie.
On the other hand the results found in my study on lies of omission seemed to vary much more.
When asked “Under what circumstances makes lying an ethical choice?”, respondents included,
Lying when there is no tangible consequence such as details excluded from story
People can’t read your thoughts so you have the choice to tell them or not to
If you cannot tell the truth then just don’t say anything.
This is conclusive with the viewpoints of modern day scholars. For example, Solicitor General and Harvard Law School Professor Charles Friend states that although asserting true what we believe to be false is always wrong, withholding a truth which another needs may be perfectly permissible. He justifies this making a direct claim that withholding truth is not lying (Johannesen).
Since many seem to disregard lies of omission as “real lies”, than when is withholding information a lie?Investigating this concept, I asked participants to answer the following:
Would you consider the following to be a lie?
“Misleading a friend so that you do not ruin her surprise birthday party” Only 46 percent of people considered this to be a lie.
Also when asked to consider if….
“Remaining silent in a group when police ask who started a fight and you are the only one who knows the answer” Only 56 percent of participants saw this as a lie.
In contrast, over 90 percent of participated agreed that “Failing to disclose to a romantic partner that you have HIV” was a lie.
According to the universal definition, both are three examples are lies of omission. So why did participants view them differently? Results from the study found that the number one factor (over 80% of participants) in determining whether or not a lying is ethical is relationship closeness. Not only did people claim that lying was ethical in this situation to avoid harm in relationships, some even claimed it would benefit the relationship.
For example, one participant claimed, “Lying is not always negative. We all do it and it helps us maintain and build relationships”
This participant would agree most with author David Nyberg’s position that lying is an essential component of our ability to “resolve problems of coordination among individual who differ” and “florish as persons.” (Johannesen, 105). In regards to relationship closeness, Nyberg highlights that it is also important to reflect on if the relationship is voluntary or involuntary. His viewpoint concludes that it is more important to tell the truth in voluntary (which are usually closer) relationships, than in involuntary relationships. This is in deep contrast to Jeremy Bentham’s Universalist ideas in which everyone has equal value.
In addition to relational closeness, the study found that power differences such as boss-employee, parent-child relationships were also highly influential, while factors such as age and society status were less important. Less than 20 percent of people found age or ethnic differences to be a contributing factor to the ethicality of lying.
Power difference (ex. boss-employee, parent-child)
65.66%
65
Ethnic differences
20.20%
20
Status (ex.politician, celebrity, athlete)
33.33%
33
None
17.17%
17
Overall, less than 15% of participants claimed that outside factors such as relationship closeness, age, sex, power differences, ethic difference, or status of individual did not alter their perceptions of the ethicality of lying. Therefore, we can conclude that most people believe different ethical standards apply based on various situational factors involved in the lie.
Here is a video from the popular 1997 Comedy “Liar, Liar”. IN the clip, Jim Carey displays his inability to lie (both lies of omission and lies of commission).
What would you do if you could not like for a week? Day? Or even a 10 minute conversation….
Sources
Forrest, James, and Benjamin Happ. “Self-Presentation and Verbal Deception: Do Self-Presenters Lie More?” Basic and Applied Social Psychology 24.2 (2002): 163-70. Print.
Johannesen, Richard. Ethics in Human Communication, Sixth Edition. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 2008. Print.
Turner, Ronny, Charles Edgley, and Glen Olmsted. “Information Control in Conversations: Honesty Is Not Always the Best Policy.” Kansas Journal of Sociology 11.1 (1975): 69-89. Print.
Now that I have identified the universal definitions of lying and ethical behavior, as well as the perceptions from the general public, I will investigate various viewpoints from scholars.
Aristotle
In regards to lying and ethical behavior, Aristotle relies on the concept of moral virtue. Overall he believes that lying to oneself or others interferes with intellectual knowledge because it hinders ones ability to make accurate judgment. However, he did not believe that lying was necessarily always unethical or morally wrong. Aristotle argued that it is an individual’s responsibility to reflect on the possible outcomes and consequences of the lie and “balance he rightness and wrongness.” However, Aristotle did warn against the dangers of lying in excess. (Levine)
Kant
Kant’s views of lying are much different than Aristotle’s. He argued that since there is no way to reasonably universalize lying, it is immoral. After analyzing Kant’s Categorical Imperative, it is clear he believes that humans should always be treated as ends. Therefore, it can be assumed that despite the result of a lie leading to more satisfaction than an alternative circumstance, it is always unethical because its ends are unknown.
I found this conclusion particularly interesting because based in my research his claim that “There is no way to reasonably universalize lying” seems to hold true. However, does something become automatically “immoral” or “unethical” simply because it cannot be universalized?
Utilitarian Perspective
This perspective claims “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” (Johannesen, 87) In other words, outcomes or consequences of an action are what is important and nothing is inherently good or bad…including lying.
Strong supporters of this view include John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. As Bentham states, lying is ethical as long as it promotes the greatest happiness for greatest number of people.
Although not identical, the Utilitarian perspective has similarities to the Aristotelian view in that lying is justifiable and at times, can be the ethical choice.
Based on the study..who do we agree with the most?
Of the 150 participants involved, at least some agreed with each of these viewpoints. Therefore, no perspective listed above was unrecognized. Kant’s perspective had the least amount of support-only about 5 percent of people believed that lying was always unethical. Although the vast majority claimed lying could be ethical, it was not for the reasoning to promote the greatest good for the greatest number. The more common factor relied on principles of ones physical safety, following laws, and avoiding emotional harm to individuals. Although it can be argued that this is similar to Aristotelian perspective, recent scholars have provided perspectives that align closer to the study results.
For example, Carl Wellman argues “Lying is wrong except to save a human life or to spare hurt feelings over unimportant matters.” (Johannesen, 103)
Although there is much popularity to this argument, it is not entirely clear. Just like many of the other perspectives, it is not simply a “black” or “white” explanation.When reviewing this perspective, a few things to consider may be:
What do we consider as an “unimportant matter?” Is the importance of the matter decided by the person communicating the lie? The receiver? Or as the law would define as a “reasonable” person would believe?
Whose human life are you saving? What if the human life you are saving puts another human life in danger? Does it matter if this human is considered “good” or “ethical” themselves?
How do you know sparing hurt feelings will not hurt an individual in the future? What if lying delays the “hurt” and the information revealed at a later date results in “hurting” them more?
Sources
Johannesen, Richard. Ethics in Human Communication, Sixth Edition. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 2008. Print.
According to an estimate made by the Global Language Monitor, there were about 1,025,110 words defined in the English language as of January 2014. Although each word is given a definition, some words are certainty more difficult to define than others. In order to investigate the relationship between individuals’ perceptions of behaving unethically and lying, we must define what these concepts mean.
Common universal definitions of ethical behavior:
Merriam-Webster: conforming to accepted standards of conduct
Dictionary.com:moral principles or values given to govern a particular culture or group
Urban dictionary: Morality with loopholes
Common universal definitions of lying
Merriam-Webster: marked by or containing falsehood
Dictionary.com:false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood
Urban dictionary: ability to use the least amount of information (from the given truth), bend it to your will, add some bullshit to it, and add a dash of charm/reality-distortion field, while slowly changing the topic
In order to get a better idea of what “ethical behavior” and “lying” mean, I collected data from 150 participants through an online survey as well as informal personal interviews. These answers were placed into a word cloud that combined like terms. The larger the term, the more frequently it was used in the definition.
Analysis-Ethical Behavior
Based on the results, participants used both similar and differing phrases as compared to common sources in order to define ethical behavior. For example, “Right” was overwhelming the most popular word used by research participants, however it is not seen in any of the common definitions. On the other hand, words such as “Moral” and “Values” were frequently used in both circumstances.
By combining the most frequently used terms I would define ethical behavior as: Acts displayed by oneself (own) that treats others in a moral or right manner
Analysis-Lying
Based on the results, participants defined lying using both similar and different terms as well. Although both perspectives included ideas of “statements”, “information”, and “truth”, research participants did not seem to place emphasis on the concept of “falsehood“.
By combining the most frequently used terms I would define lying as: Purposely saying things that are not true
Reflect…
Which definitions do you agree with most? Do you believe that the common definitions provided are essentially the same as those provided by research participants? How may the general public view “ethical behavior” and “lying” differently than what is “universally” defined?
How would you define the act oflying? How would you define ethical behavior?
Can telling a lie be considered ethical behavior?
The perception of lying in ethics is a topic that has been explored for centuries by numerous scholars. However, little research has been done to explore how we define the relationship between ethical behavior and lying in modern day. Therefore, I have sought out to find explanations for several questions in regards to the ethics of lying.
My primary purposes of research include the following:
1. How do we define lying and ethical behavior in modern day? Which scholars perspectives both (modern day and ancient) do we agree/disagree with most?
2. Is lying always unethical? If not, in what circumstances is it acceptable?
3. What are the major factors that influence ones perceptions of the ethicality of lying?
4. Are behaviors such as deception, ambiguity, vagueness, nonverbal cues, silence, etc, considered to be unethical behavior or lying?
5. Do we hold others to the same standard of ethical behavior and lying as we hold ourselves?
In order to draw conclusions to this investigation, I have conducted primary research including surveys and informal personal interviews as well as secondary research including scholarly journals, various proposed theories, internet research, and textbook material.
The Ethics of Lying 