cause and effect essay about lying

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Six Kamala Harris claims fact-checked

Kamala Harris has been holding rallies across the US as she campaigns against Donald Trump, and will appear in Milwaukee on Tuesday ahead of her headline speech at the Democratic National Convention later in the week.

She has made a series of claims contrasting their records on the economy, healthcare, abortion and immigration.

BBC Verify has been examining them.

Is Trump planning to cut Social Security and Medicare?

CLAIM : “Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare.”

VERDICT : This is misleading. In this campaign, Trump has said repeatedly he would not do this, although he has suggested he would in the past.

Social Security provides a source of income when you retire or if you cannot work due to a disability.

Medicare is a US government programme which provides healthcare coverage for millions of Americans who are retired or disabled.

“I will not cut 1 cent from Social Security or Medicare,” Trump said at a rally on 5 August.

And in his 20 point policy platform , one of the pledges is: “Fight for and protect Social Security and Medicare with no cuts.”

However, during his time as president Trump proposed several budgets which would have cut elements of Medicare, such as eliminating the programme advising recipients how to sign up for benefits. None of these budget proposals was enacted.

He also has made comments about cutting Social Security in the past.

In an interview in March this year , on entitlement programs such as Social Security Trump said: "There’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting."

However, he later clarified the comments, saying: “I will never do anything that will hurt or jeopardise Social Security or Medicare.”

Is inflation down?

CLAIM : “Inflation is down under 3%.”

VERDICT : That figure is correct but some context is needed here.

Inflation, which is the increase in the price of something over time, is down from a peak of 9.1% under the Biden administration and it is higher than when Mr Trump left office.

When President Biden took office in January 2021, inflation was 1.4% but it rose significantly during the first two years of his administration.

This trend is comparable with many Western countries which saw high inflation in 2021 and 2022, as global supply chain issues as a consequence of Covid and the war in Ukraine contributed to rising prices.

While the Biden administration had limited control over these external factors, some economists say that their 2021 American Rescue Plan, worth $1.9tn (£1.5tn), also contributed to rising prices.

How many jobs has the Biden administration created?

CLAIM : “We have created 16 million new jobs.”

VERDICT : That is roughly correct. 15.8 million jobs have been added under the Biden administration, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, when the Biden government entered the White House in January 2021, the US was recovering from the Covid pandemic, which crippled the economy and during which more than 20 million jobs were lost.

“Many of the jobs would have come back if Trump had won in 2020 - but the American Rescue Plan played a major role in the speed and aggressiveness of the labour market recovery,” says Professor Mark Strain, an economist at Georgetown University.

Since President Biden came into office, job growth has been strong, surpassing the pre-pandemic levels seen under Trump.

However, weaker than expected job growth in July led to fears of a sudden downturn in the US economy and stock markets were hit as a result , but they have since stabilised.

Did Trump drive the US economy into the ground?

CLAIM : “He froze in the face of the COVID crisis. He drove our economy into the ground.”

VERDICT : The US economy did take a big hit during the pandemic, like most countries, but it also bounced back under Trump.

You can see from the graph above that there was a dramatic collapse in economic growth in the US during the Covid pandemic.

However following the pandemic, the US economy bounced back under Trump.

He implemented a series of measures to help it recover, including financial assistance for small businesses.

During Trump’s four years in office (Jan 2017- Jan 2021), the average annual growth rate of the US economy was 2.3%.

Under the Biden administration, this figure has been 2.2% - so almost the same.

Did Trump tank the immigration deal?

CLAIM : "We had a chance to pass the toughest bipartisan border security bill in decades but Donald Trump tanked the deal."

VERDICT : Trump was publicly against the Biden administration's immigration bill, but voting on it was up to Congress.

The immigration bill aimed to tighten asylum standards, increase spending on Border Patrol, and allow for the automatic closure of the southern border to illegal crossings if a certain daily threshold was reached.

It failed to pass a vote in February with the majority of lawmakers in the US Senate opposing it.

Trump did not have a vote as he was not an elected official at the time, but he did call for his Republican allies to oppose it.

Trump also took credit when the bill failed, saying it was “horrendous” as he thought it was not tough enough on immigration.

At a Fox News event in February 2024, he said he was against the deal as passing it would have “made it much better for the opposing side”.

The bill was blocked in the Senate for a second time in May.

Did Trump ban abortions?

CLAIM : “In more than 20 states, there is a Trump abortion ban, many with no exceptions, even for rape and incest... be sure if he were to win, he would sign a national abortion ban"

VERDICT : Bans were enacted by states after Trump left office but, as president, he appointed three justices to the Supreme Court who voted to overturn Roe v Wade. Trump has said he would not sign a national abortion ban.

Roe v. Wade protected the federal Constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years until it was overturned in June 2022.

As a result, 22 states currently ban abortion or restrict the procedure to earlier in pregnancy than was set by Roe v. Wade. In 14 of those states, abortion is banned in almost all circumstances with 10 not even making an exception for rape or incest.

During his campaign, he has declined to back a national abortion ban and said he believes the issue should be left to individual states.

Additional reporting by Gerry Georgieva.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-warnings-from-democrats-about-project-2025-and-donald-trump

Fact-checking warnings from Democrats about Project 2025 and Donald Trump

This fact check originally appeared on PolitiFact .

Project 2025 has a starring role in this week’s Democratic National Convention.

And it was front and center on Night 1.

WATCH: Hauling large copy of Project 2025, Michigan state Sen. McMorrow speaks at 2024 DNC

“This is Project 2025,” Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, said as she laid a hardbound copy of the 900-page document on the lectern. “Over the next four nights, you are going to hear a lot about what is in this 900-page document. Why? Because this is the Republican blueprint for a second Trump term.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has warned Americans about “Trump’s Project 2025” agenda — even though former President Donald Trump doesn’t claim the conservative presidential transition document.

“Donald Trump wants to take our country backward,” Harris said July 23 in Milwaukee. “He and his extreme Project 2025 agenda will weaken the middle class. Like, we know we got to take this seriously, and can you believe they put that thing in writing?”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has joined in on the talking point.

“Don’t believe (Trump) when he’s playing dumb about this Project 2025. He knows exactly what it’ll do,” Walz said Aug. 9 in Glendale, Arizona.

Trump’s campaign has worked to build distance from the project, which the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, led with contributions from dozens of conservative groups.

Much of the plan calls for extensive executive-branch overhauls and draws on both long-standing conservative principles, such as tax cuts, and more recent culture war issues. It lays out recommendations for disbanding the Commerce and Education departments, eliminating certain climate protections and consolidating more power to the president.

Project 2025 offers a sweeping vision for a Republican-led executive branch, and some of its policies mirror Trump’s 2024 agenda, But Harris and her presidential campaign have at times gone too far in describing what the project calls for and how closely the plans overlap with Trump’s campaign.

PolitiFact researched Harris’ warnings about how the plan would affect reproductive rights, federal entitlement programs and education, just as we did for President Joe Biden’s Project 2025 rhetoric. Here’s what the project does and doesn’t call for, and how it squares with Trump’s positions.

Are Trump and Project 2025 connected?

To distance himself from Project 2025 amid the Democratic attacks, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he “knows nothing” about it and has “no idea” who is in charge of it. (CNN identified at least 140 former advisers from the Trump administration who have been involved.)

The Heritage Foundation sought contributions from more than 100 conservative organizations for its policy vision for the next Republican presidency, which was published in 2023.

Project 2025 is now winding down some of its policy operations, and director Paul Dans, a former Trump administration official, is stepping down, The Washington Post reported July 30. Trump campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita denounced the document.

WATCH: A look at the Project 2025 plan to reshape government and Trump’s links to its authors

However, Project 2025 contributors include a number of high-ranking officials from Trump’s first administration, including former White House adviser Peter Navarro and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

A recently released recording of Russell Vought, a Project 2025 author and the former director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, showed Vought saying Trump’s “very supportive of what we do.” He said Trump was only distancing himself because Democrats were making a bogeyman out of the document.

Project 2025 wouldn’t ban abortion outright, but would curtail access

The Harris campaign shared a graphic on X that claimed “Trump’s Project 2025 plan for workers” would “go after birth control and ban abortion nationwide.”

The plan doesn’t call to ban abortion nationwide, though its recommendations could curtail some contraceptives and limit abortion access.

What’s known about Trump’s abortion agenda neither lines up with Harris’ description nor Project 2025’s wish list.

Project 2025 says the Department of Health and Human Services Department should “return to being known as the Department of Life by explicitly rejecting the notion that abortion is health care.”

It recommends that the Food and Drug Administration reverse its 2000 approval of mifepristone, the first pill taken in a two-drug regimen for a medication abortion. Medication is the most common form of abortion in the U.S. — accounting for around 63 percent in 2023.

If mifepristone were to remain approved, Project 2025 recommends new rules, such as cutting its use from 10 weeks into pregnancy to seven. It would have to be provided to patients in person — part of the group’s efforts to limit access to the drug by mail. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to mifepristone’s FDA approval over procedural grounds.

WATCH: Trump’s plans for health care and reproductive rights if he returns to White House The manual also calls for the Justice Department to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act on mifepristone, which bans the mailing of “obscene” materials. Abortion access supporters fear that a strict interpretation of the law could go further to ban mailing the materials used in procedural abortions, such as surgical instruments and equipment.

The plan proposes withholding federal money from states that don’t report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention how many abortions take place within their borders. The plan also would prohibit abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid funds. It also calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that the training of medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, omits abortion training.

The document says some forms of emergency contraception — particularly Ella, a pill that can be taken within five days of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy — should be excluded from no-cost coverage. The Affordable Care Act requires most private health insurers to cover recommended preventive services, which involves a range of birth control methods, including emergency contraception.

Trump has recently said states should decide abortion regulations and that he wouldn’t block access to contraceptives. Trump said during his June 27 debate with Biden that he wouldn’t ban mifepristone after the Supreme Court “approved” it. But the court rejected the lawsuit based on standing, not the case’s merits. He has not weighed in on the Comstock Act or said whether he supports it being used to block abortion medication, or other kinds of abortions.

Project 2025 doesn’t call for cutting Social Security, but proposes some changes to Medicare

“When you read (Project 2025),” Harris told a crowd July 23 in Wisconsin, “you will see, Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare.”

The Project 2025 document does not call for Social Security cuts. None of its 10 references to Social Security addresses plans for cutting the program.

Harris also misleads about Trump’s Social Security views.

In his earlier campaigns and before he was a politician, Trump said about a half-dozen times that he’s open to major overhauls of Social Security, including cuts and privatization. More recently, in a March 2024 CNBC interview, Trump said of entitlement programs such as Social Security, “There’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” However, he quickly walked that statement back, and his CNBC comment stands at odds with essentially everything else Trump has said during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump’s campaign website says that not “a single penny” should be cut from Social Security. We rated Harris’ claim that Trump intends to cut Social Security Mostly False.

Project 2025 does propose changes to Medicare, including making Medicare Advantage, the private insurance offering in Medicare, the “default” enrollment option. Unlike Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans have provider networks and can also require prior authorization, meaning that the plan can approve or deny certain services. Original Medicare plans don’t have prior authorization requirements.

The manual also calls for repealing health policies enacted under Biden, such as the Inflation Reduction Act. The law enabled Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers for the first time in history, and recently resulted in an agreement with drug companies to lower the prices of 10 expensive prescriptions for Medicare enrollees.

Trump, however, has said repeatedly during the 2024 presidential campaign that he will not cut Medicare.

Project 2025 would eliminate the Education Department, which Trump supports

The Harris campaign said Project 2025 would “eliminate the U.S. Department of Education” — and that’s accurate. Project 2025 says federal education policy “should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.” The plan scales back the federal government’s role in education policy and devolves the functions that remain to other agencies.

Aside from eliminating the department, the project also proposes scrapping the Biden administration’s Title IX revision, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also would let states opt out of federal education programs and calls for passing a federal parents’ bill of rights similar to ones passed in some Republican-led state legislatures.

Republicans, including Trump, have pledged to close the department, which gained its status in 1979 within Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s presidential Cabinet.

In one of his Agenda 47 policy videos, Trump promised to close the department and “to send all education work and needs back to the states.” Eliminating the department would have to go through Congress.

What Project 2025, Trump would do on overtime pay

In the graphic, the Harris campaign says Project 2025 allows “employers to stop paying workers for overtime work.”

The plan doesn’t call for banning overtime wages. It recommends changes to some Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, regulations and to overtime rules. Some changes, if enacted, could result in some people losing overtime protections, experts told us.

The document proposes that the Labor Department maintain an overtime threshold “that does not punish businesses in lower-cost regions (e.g., the southeast United States).” This threshold is the amount of money executive, administrative or professional employees need to make for an employer to exempt them from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In 2019, the Trump’s administration finalized a rule that expanded overtime pay eligibility to most salaried workers earning less than about $35,568, which it said made about 1.3 million more workers eligible for overtime pay. The Trump-era threshold is high enough to cover most line workers in lower-cost regions, Project 2025 said.

The Biden administration raised that threshold to $43,888 beginning July 1, and that will rise to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. That would grant overtime eligibility to about 4 million workers, the Labor Department said.

It’s unclear how many workers Project 2025’s proposal to return to the Trump-era overtime threshold in some parts of the country would affect, but experts said some would presumably lose the right to overtime wages.

Other overtime proposals in Project 2025’s plan include allowing some workers to choose to accumulate paid time off instead of overtime pay, or to work more hours in one week and fewer in the next, rather than receive overtime.

Trump’s past with overtime pay is complicated. In 2016, the Obama administration said it would raise the overtime to salaried workers earning less than $47,476 a year, about double the exemption level set in 2004 of $23,660 a year.

But when a judge blocked the Obama rule, the Trump administration didn’t challenge the court ruling. Instead it set its own overtime threshold, which raised the amount, but by less than Obama.

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Lying Cause and Effect

Updated 26 July 2023

Subject Movies ,  Lifestyle

Downloads 61

Category Sociology ,  Life

Topic Lie ,  Dishonesty ,  Habits

The concept of lying can be used to define deceit

People are influenced by this behavior to make up stories in a variety of situations. Most of the time, individuals tell lies to advance important interests. Despite this, those who depend on lying develop a habit that they are unable to break. For instance, after participating in prohibited activities, kids frequently lie to their parents. Given the intricacy of lying, it's crucial to comprehend its causes and consequences. Therefore, it is crucial to comprehend how falsehoods affect society causally. Specifically, lying develops out of fear or a wish to manipulate other people. People tell lies to avoid trouble and also to access things they would miss if they told the truth.

Causative Factors

Human beings tend to lie due to the fear of their actions' consequences. For example, the modern society relies on legal frameworks that encompass severe punishments for wrongdoers. For instance, a thief may lie that they did not engage in theft for fear of being taken to jail. In the family setup, children tell lies to avoid being punished by their parents. Telling the truth in some instances can subject an individual in trouble. The fear of facing the outcomes of wrong activities is a major reason why lies are common today. The idea of covering up issues is embraced by people who fear the consequences of their actions, hence opting to tell lies (Sudbrink 62). Based on the above issues, one effect of lying is that it enables people to be unaccountable for their actions. Lying is considered to be an unethical practice that lacks morality.

Manipulation

Lies also stem from the desire to manipulate others to engage in activities that favor the liar. This concept is also applicable when a liar seeks to influence other people not to carry out activities or decisions that are likely to harm them. Most common lies in the world today revolve around issues such as power, money, sex, status, and love. Liars use the manipulation concept to gain favors since they cannot get them if they employ truthfulness. For example, most married men lie that they are bachelors in pursuit of extramarital affairs. Unmarried women on the receiving end up giving in after learning that they share the same status with the men involved. The chances of missing a sexual encounter are high for a married man who tells the truth regarding his marital status. On a different perspective, liars manipulate their friends to get money from them. Some people can feign illnesses just to get financial assistance from their friends or relatives. The main idea is giving reasons that seem credible, while the reason for borrowing money is quite different (Lupoli et al. 1029). A vast majority of liars tells love-related lies to benefit from their potential partners. To be precise, numerous lies revolve around love compared to other issues. The phrase I love you is used to stir up the other person's emotions for them to be easily manipulated. For example, men who wrong their wives frequently lie that they cannot betray them because of love. Lies make it easy for people to benefit from their manipulations, thereby causing more suffering to the victims. One negative effect of being untruthful is that if lies are detected, trust gets lost between both parties. In as much as people value telling lies, they ought to consider the consequences of their lies if detected.

Counterargument

Due to the complexity of lying, counterarguments have been raised on the causal aspects. Apart from the fear and manipulation aspects, it is believed that lying is a habit that people embrace. Proponents of this factor believe that some people tell lies even when they are not in fear. Most liars are used to the habit of being untruthful to the point of embracing lies in all situations. The habit of lying is compared to an addiction that liars cannot avoid. Thus, seasoned liars adopt an untruthful life simply because they are used to benefitting from lies (Vrij 32). The habitual aspect creates pathological liars who tell lies, regardless of the situation at hand. This aspect enables pathological liars to bend the truth regarding some issues because they find comfort in doing so. Thus, lying becomes a routine that cannot be evaded. Thus, there exist people who tell lies even when they are not likely to face danger. Compulsive lying causes emotional and psychological harm to those on the receiving end. Based on the above insights, it is evident that adopting the lying habit can force one to become a seasoned liar in any situation.

Lying is the idea of being untruthful to either evade negative effects of one's actions or to manipulate others. The aspect of fear influences many people to lie about their actions to escape the consequences involved. Lies are also utilized to manipulate other people. Proponents of these ideas describe lying as a habitual practice. Most people indulge themselves into lying as a common practice that ends up making them pathological liars. Regardless of the causative factors, lying is portrayed as a negative practice which affects those being lied to.

Works Cited

Lupoli, Matthew J. et al. "Lying Because We Care: Compassion Increases Prosocial Lying." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, vol. 146, no. 7, 2017, pp. 1026-1042.

Sudbrink, Laurie. Leading with Grit: Inspiring Action and Accountability with Generosity, Respect, Integrity, and Truth. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, 2015. Print.

Vrij, Aldert. Detecting Lies and Deceit: Pitfalls and Opportunities. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2008. Print.

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Causes and Effects of Lying | Consequences of lying – Short Essay for Students

December 11, 2019 by Study Mentor Leave a Comment

No matter how careful we try to be about our everyday whereabouts, no person can possibly stay one hundred percent honest throughout their lives, and at one point of their life or the other, in one way or the other, it happens that they resort to lying for some reason- either big or small.

But nobody differentiates between lies as such, because whether big or small, a lie is always a lie, and it can be never undone or unsaid. Thus, the harm caused by lying can be described as irreversible, and therefore, we must be extremely careful about the consequences which can possibly stem from one seemingly small act of us lying for certain purposes.

Lying can also take the form of a disease, as some people can eventually become compulsive liars, as they constantly turn to lying, even if it serves no special purpose. Therefore, we must also be careful about the frequency of the act of lying we resort to.

There are several biological cues to lying as well- as in, there are certain specific non-verbal communication cues which might expose when someone is lying or not. These eventually led to the invention of a scientific device called the ‘polygraph’, or more commonly, the lie detector, which claims to accurately detect when one person is lying or not through certain bodily indicators such as changes in skin temperature, rate of heart beat, etc.

However, the accuracy of all such measures is highly debatable. Lying is an indispensable part of human life and we can try to analyse the cause by first studying the causes and effects of why people resort to the act of telling lies, which will be briefly described in this essay.

Table of Contents

Causes – why do people lie?

The most common reason for which people lie is the urgent need to hide truth. Day in and day out, many occasions take place which force us into certain situations where we cannot possibly disclose the truth, and therefore we necessarily need to conceal it from other people or institutions- either wholly, or partially. A lot of such times, lying, or hiding the truth is not very harmful and it can be quite easily overlooked.

However, hiding the truth, especially from the authorities can more than often land us and our close associates into troubles. For such reasons, lying to higher authorities such as one’s teachers or professors at educational institutes, one’s boss at the workplace, and especially the police, etc. is highly detrimental, and shall be avoided at all costs. Moreover, we also lie to save ourselves from different kinds of trouble, and, for convenience.

The most common lie of telling the teacher that you have forgotten to bring your notebook to class for escaping the consequences of not finishing the homework clearly demonstrates this factor evidently. We always want to gain all sort of benefits possible and therefore we also tend to lie to hide some undesirable facts about ourselves and show ourselves in a better light. This is also a part of our impression management.

For example, in interviews and similar situations, we try to only disclose the favourable information about us and hide the undesirable ones, so that the interviewers (or other people, in general) like us more than they would have if they had known the hidden set of facts.

Creating a good impression serves as one of the major motivations for us to lie. Also, people lie for the good of others as well, for instance, when they do not want to hurt someone or even themselves. Although this aims at not causing anyone any harm, but even this technique can very often backfire.

When we try to hide some truth from someone else to not cause them any pain, we are essentially not equipping them with the opportunity of dealing with their own problems. In this way, by wanting to not cause anyone discomforts, we somehow, maybe even unintentionally, cause them more harm than good. Therefore, even in this way, lying serves us no good at all.

Effects – what happens when we lie?

There are many adverse consequences of lying, but perhaps the most severe of all of those are the loss of face, or the decline in the reputation of the person who is lying. If a person is known to be a frequent liar, his or her reputation falls under severe criticism.

This can eventually lead to even graver consequences, for example, such people will never be possibly believed wholeheartedly by the others, no matter how genuine they later become in their endeavors. Thus, lying can jeopardize not just our present but also our future and can have certain long-lasting consequences.

Moreover, lying can land us into the exact trouble we have been trying to avoid by lying in the first place. If people come to know or get a hint about us lying about something, then they are also likely to play along and eventually cause us harm and tricking us into believing their innocence.

This is yet another adverse effect of lying. Apart from these, lying can also cause suspicion among others and lead to miscommunication and a certain degree of misunderstanding. This can prove to be very harmful, especially in interpersonal relationships, and therefore, lying to one’s close and loved ones are never advisable.

Lying can also make us question our self-worth and create a feeling of guilt and unease within our own self. This can also drive people to frustration, anxiety, paranoia, grief, and even clinical depression. This might be the worst effect of lying, as it hampers our self-image to a great extent, and distorts how we see and treat ourselves.

If we eventually lose the confidence in ourselves, then it might become even more likely that we will continue to use lies as our defence mechanism. Lying can also make us underestimate or overestimate people and their capabilities.

People are almost always lying about their identities, sometimes in a small degree and other times in far greater degrees. Therefore, we can perhaps never discover the real person beneath all the masks they wear in the form of such lying. Furthermore, lying need not be solely verbal.

Conveying false or untrue facts or messages through body gestures or expressions can also be counted as lying, and these are equally, if not more harmful to us. There is no possible way to stop lying. There is also no possible advice we can give someone to discourage them from lying in the future.

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Beneficial deception in parental guidance.

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In many professional sports, there is an increase in the number of athletes using banned substances to improve their performance. What are the causes of the phenomenon and what are some of the possible solutions?

Some people feel that entertainers are paid too much money. do you agree or disagree which other types of job should be highly paid, some people believe that studying at college or university is important for a successful career. others think that it is better to quit school and find work to gain experience for a successful professional life. discuss both these views and give your opinion., since the 18th century technological advances have replaced people in the workplace. with today’s technology this process is happening at a greater rate. technology is increasingly responsible for unemployment. to what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement, some people think the government should spend more money on sport facilities for top athletes. other people think the government should spend more money on sport facilities for everybody. discuss both views.

Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Lying — The Negative Impact of Lying: Why Lying is Bad

The Negative Impact of Lying: Why Lying is Bad

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Published: Sep 12, 2023

Words: 584 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

1. eroding trust, 2. breakdown of relationships, 3. damage to personal integrity, 4. consequences for mental health, 5. distrust in society, 6. legal and ethical implications, 7. missed opportunities for growth.

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A Guide to Writing a Cause and Effect Essay

In your academic career, you’ll write a lot of essays. You’ll write some to inform your readers about a topic and others to analyze an idea. Some will argue for or against a specific position, while others will persuade the reader to take action. Authors use various strategies to achieve each of these goals, and one of the strategies they use to inform readers is the cause and effect essay .

As its name implies, a cause and effect essay explains how certain causes result in specific effects. Knowing how to write an effective cause and effect essay is an important skill for students in just about every academic field to develop. Give your writing extra polish Grammarly helps you communicate confidently Write with Grammarly

What is a cause and effect essay?

A cause and effect essay is a type of expository essay that explores its topic by discussing the issue’s causes and consequences. For example, a cause and effect essay about deforestation’s role in climate change might discuss a few of deforestation’s specific causes, like a demand for wood and the clearing of land for grazing pastures, and then explain how these causes create effects that contribute to climate change. 

As with other types of expository essays, the purpose of a cause and effect essay is to educate the reader. As an expository essay writer, think of yourself as the informed explainer who gives their readers the information they need to think critically about a topic and reach their own conclusions. Your goal isn’t to persuade, argue, or entertain your readers—although there are instances when authors of argumentative and persuasive essays use cause and effect rhetoric in their writing. It’s also possible to write a creative essay using the cause and effect format. However, within the realm of academic essay writing , a cause and effect essay is an expository piece of writing. 

Cause and effect essays are similar to other kinds of expository essays in that they present facts in a clear, logical format. They employ an objective, analytical tone and stay away from flowery and inciting language. This is how they differ from argumentative, persuasive, and descriptive essays. You might use the passive voice more frequently in cause and effect essays than in other kinds of essays, especially in cause and effect essays you write for your science courses. 

How to structure a cause and effect essay

Structurally, a cause and effect essay is similar to other types of essays. It starts with an introduction paragraph where you hook your reader, state your thesis, and give a quick preview of the points you’ll make to support your thesis. 

Following the introduction, each point supporting your thesis has its own section. Each section can be as short as one paragraph or contain a few paragraphs, depending on how much information you need to convey and whether your essay must adhere to a word count or page limit. There are a few different ways to organize your essay’s body paragraphs. You can discuss each cause, section by section, and then discuss each effect afterward (if there is only one effect, include just a single section about it). Alternatively, you can discuss each cause and effect pair individually, giving each pair its own section. 

The best structure for your essay depends on a few factors:

• How many causes you’re including
• How many effects you’re including
• The essay length requirement, if applicable
• How closely related the causes and effects are to each other

For example, if your essay is about a single effect with multiple causes, it might be most logical to discuss all the causes first and then write a section on their shared effect. Or if the causes and effects are more isolated from each other and you need room to explain how they fit into the bigger picture, the logical choice might be to give each cause and effect pair its own section and then tie them together in your essay’s conclusion.

As with other kinds of academic writing, the most logical structure is typically the best approach. If you aren’t sure how to structure your essay, ask your instructor for guidance. 

After writing the body paragraphs, write your essay’s conclusion . This final section summarizes the points you made in the body, underscores your thesis, and brings your essay’s position to a logical conclusion. 

How to write a cause and effect essay

To write a cause and effect essay, follow the same writing process that you follow when you’re doing other kinds of writing. Start with brainstorming your topic and jotting down any insights you have, questions you want to answer, associations you plan to make between topics, and facts you intend to reference. 

After brainstorming , take your notes and create an organized outline . Remember, your essay outline is a guideline for you to follow as you write, not a final script your essay has to follow. List each section as a header in your outline and below it write down the bullet points you plan to cover within that section. Outlining makes it easy to visualize how your final essay will look and to determine where each body paragraph logically fits into the structure. 

Once your outline is finished, it’s time to write! But before you dive into your first draft, nail down your thesis statement , if you haven’t already. This is a concise and informative statement that tells the reader exactly what your essay is about. It goes in your introduction paragraph, and each body paragraph that follows should support this statement. 

With your thesis statement prepared, write your body paragraphs using your notes from your brainstorming session. Remember what kind of essay you’re writing and frame its body paragraphs accordingly—if a supporting paragraph doesn’t clearly show how its subject is a cause leading to a specific effect, reframe it to fit this format. Remember, you’re only on the first draft, and there will be time to revise it later. 

Once you’re finished writing, give your essay time to cool off. Ideally, take about twenty-four hours before you edit it. When you go back and edit, pay close attention to how you’ve presented each cause and effect. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is the relationship between each cause and associated effect clear?
• Are the causes and effects presented in a logical, coherent manner?
• Does this essay make my position clear?
• Does the essay leave the reader room to draw their own conclusion, or does it attempt to persuade or convince them of my position?

With the answers to these questions in mind, revise your essay to ensure that the content is presented in the clearest, most logical way possible. At this stage, also make sure your essay’s tone is appropriate and that there are not any glaring spelling or grammatical errors. You’ll check for these again when you proofread; the editing stage is primarily for revising your essay’s content. 

With a clean, revised second draft in hand, give it another proofread for grammatical mistakes. Grammarly can help you with this. Once it’s cleaned up, you’re ready to submit your work. 

Example outline of a cause and effect essay

As we mentioned above, there are a few different ways to structure a cause and effect essay. Here is one: 

• Introduction

This format isn’t ideal for every essay, though. In some cases, a format like this makes the content clearer:

When you’re revising your essay, feel free to play around with the format and see which makes more sense for the information you’re writing about. You’ll likely use each of these formats in different essays depending on their specific content. 

Cause and effect essay FAQs

A cause and effect essay is an expository essay that explains the relationships between specific conditions and their consequences, often within the context of a big-picture issue. These conditions are known as “causes,” and their consequences are known as “effects.” 

What is the purpose of a cause and effect essay?

The purpose of a cause and effect essay is to educate the reader about how specific conditions are linked to certain repercussions. 

How do you structure a cause and effect essay?

There are a few different ways to structure a cause and effect essay. Here are two of the most common: 

cause and effects of lying

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The Effect of Telling Lies on Belief in the Truth

Danielle polage.

a Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA, USA

The current study looks at the effect of telling lies, in contrast to simply planning lies, on participants’ belief in the truth. Participants planned and told a lie, planned to tell a lie but didn’t tell it, told an unplanned lie, or neither planned nor told a lie (control) about events that did not actually happen to them. Participants attempted to convince researchers that all of the stories told were true. Results show that telling a lie plays a more important role in inflating belief scores than simply preparing the script of a lie. Cognitive dissonance may lead to motivated forgetting of information that does not align with the lie. This research suggests that telling lies may lead to confusion as to the veracity of the lie leading to inflated belief scores.

Garry, Manning, Loftus, and Sherman (1996) showed that participants who initially reported that certain childhood events had not happened, but then imagined they had happened, increased their confidence in the false events. This now famous effect is commonly referred to as the ‘imagination inflation’ effect, because it has been shown that through imagining an event their belief in the event becomes more likely, or their belief in the event becomes inflated. Since then, other studies have shown that imagination is not the only way to increase belief in counter-factual events. Studies have demonstrated an inflation effect by exposing participants to the false information using a variety of paradigms such as paraphrasing ( Sharman, Garry, & Beuke, 2004 ) and explanations ( Sharman, Manning, & Garry, 2005 ). Studies have also shown that making up information, or what researchers call “confabulating” information, results in memory failure for the truth. In Chrobak and Zaragoza (2008) , participants were asked to describe entire fictitious events that they had never witnessed. Results show that over time, half of the participants developed false memories of these fictitious events. Pickel (2004) showed that participants who fabricated descriptions of a videotaped robbery suspect had trouble remembering the actual suspect and also confused their made up details with the truth. It appears that almost any task that increases the familiarity with and requires participants to mentally engage with the false information might lead to an inflation of belief effect. Many studies have looked at the effect on memory of creating false information; however, few studies have looked at the effect of intentional lying on memory for the truth. Polage (2012) demonstrated that deliberate lying can lead to “fabrication inflation” in which participants increase their likelihood ratings for self-created events after lying about them.

It is very likely that liars use their imagination to create false stories, but lying is more than just creating a false story. Dictionary.com defines a lie as “a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive” ( “Lie,” 2017 ). This definition involves two components: the first involves the veracity of the information and the second involves the deceptive intent of the speaker. Therefore, in order for a person to tell a lie, there must be evidence of both components of the definition. Liars must first construct false stories and then try to convince others that their stories are true. The current research examines whether the deliberate attempt to deceive plays a role in belief inflation or whether lying is simply another means of exposing participants to false information. To the author’s knowledge, there is no literature looking at the effect of telling, versus simply creating, a lie on likelihood to believe.

According to the Source or Reality Monitoring (RM) approach, source confusion occurs when people create perceptual and sensory details of false events that are similar to real memories ( Johnson & Raye, 1981 ). When participants answer questions about the false event, whether in writing or speaking, the memory for the false event becomes more detailed and more similar to true event memories increasing the likelihood that the person will believe it. The exposure will also increase familiarity and fluency with the memory which is also thought to increase belief in the false memory ( Garry & Wade, 2005 ). According to Vrij, Granhag, and Mann (2010) , good liars look to the listener to determine whether they feel they are being believed and try to tell simple, plausible, and realistic lies that would not contradict anything the observer might know. Implausible events are unlikely to be believed ( Pezdek, Finger, & Hodge, 1997 ), but memories of detailed, plausible events from one’s past might be confused with true events leading to an inflation effect.

If lying was simply another means of exposure to false information resulting in source confusion, then whether the lie was told would make no difference. But lies, unlike imagination, paraphrasing, guessing, and confabulating, must be communicated with the intention to deceive. So, what effect does the telling of a lie have on belief? Previous studies suggest contradictory outcomes. According to the Source Monitoring framework memories rich in detail might be considered true in the absence of memory for the cognitive operations used to create those memories. But, telling lies is effortful. Langleben et al. (2002) observed that the brain is more active during lie telling than it is while telling the truth. Zuckerman, DePaulo, and Rosenthal (1981) suggest that liars must maintain internal consistency (such as avoiding contradicting oneself) and external consistency (making sure the lies don’t contradict what others know to be true) and therefore lying requires more cognitive effort than telling the truth. One would expect this cognitively demanding task to be remembered, so even though the content of the memory might be remembered, so would the act of creating the lie. Any familiarity with the content of the lie could be correctly attributed to lying. Telling a lie without pre-planning would be especially cognitively demanding. Walczyk, Mahoney, Doverspike, and Griffith-Ross (2009) and Greene, O’Hair, Cody, and Yen (1985) point out that it takes less time to deliver a prepared lie than it does to tell the truth as the response is simply the delivery of a memorized script. DePaulo et al.’s (2003) meta-analysis reported that less time to plan a lie is related to greater cognitive effort. Regurgitating planned lies is less cognitively demanding than creating and telling lies on the spot. In terms of memory for cognitive processing, the increase in cognitive demand for the told lies should serve as a cue to distinguish between false and true memories and result in a decrease in belief in the lie. If memory for cognitive operations significantly impacts source monitoring, one would expect the told only group to show a lower inflation effect than told lies that were prepared first.

Although telling lies is cognitively demanding, several lines of research suggest that other aspects of telling a lie might increase source monitoring errors and lead to higher rates of fabrication inflation. Polage (2012) found that participants who reported feeling more uncomfortable about lying were more likely to believe their self-generated lies. It is possible that the negative affect involved in lying induces dissonance, which later becomes self-deception. Cognitive dissonance ( Festinger, 1957 ) arises when one’s beliefs and actions contradict each other. An easy way to avoid the discomfort of having lied, is to believe that the lie is the truth. Shu, Gino, and Bazerman (2011) demonstrated how cognitive dissonance can result in memory change. Their study found that participants who first read an honor code and later cheated were less likely to remember the components of the honor code than were those who didn’t cheat. They suggest their results are due to motivated forgetting of the rules in an attempt to preserve one’s moral self-image after behaving unethically. Kouchaki and Gino (2016) also found that after engaging in unethical behavior, participants’ memories for their past unethical actions were impaired. The authors believe that the psychological distress and discomfort of their misdeeds caused the memories to become less clear and vivid than memories of ethical actions. They also suggest that this “unethical amnesia” could lead people to repeat acts of dishonesty. Polage found that those who lied frequently were much more likely to believe their lies than those who lied less often. It is possible that people revise their memories to reduce cognitive dissonance. Participants who find themselves uncertain as to the true source of the lied-about information and who are also motivated to want to believe the lie, may lower their decision criterion required to accept the lie as true ( Hekkanen & McEvoy, 2002 ) and if successful this strategy may be repeated.

Another important difference between simply planning a lie and telling a lie is that until a lie is communicated to someone else, the liars are free to continually update and change their versions of their stories. A lie becomes a lie when it is shared. The goal of lying is to be believed. Good liars track the reactions of their audience and modify their stories and behavior to maintain the lie ( Buller & Burgoon, 1996 ; Vrij et al., 2010 ). Once shared, liars should “stick with” their lie in order to avoid detection. So, although both planning and telling lies could provide the content of the lie, sharing the lie provides the motivation to remember the lie exactly as it was told in order to avoid detection. Wade, Garry, Nash, and Harper (2010) showed that false memories are affected by an “anchoring effect” in that the first version of the false event is most influential in memory distortion. The version of the story they created first became “truth” to them. Similarly, the first version of the event told should anchor the memory; the liar must then remember the details of the told lies to maintain the falsehood. The lie that was shared is now public and the liar could be motivated to commit it to memory, believe it, and accept it as collective “truth”.

So although the source monitoring literature might suggest that awareness of cognitive operations while telling a lie might lead to less inflation, studies suggesting that discomfort, lax criterion, motivated forgetting, cognitive dissonance, and maintenance of consistency could lead to higher levels of source confusion when a lie is shared.

Finally, it is possible that the act of simply speaking the lie out loud while trying to convince the other person they are telling the truth might help liars remember the content of the lie. Hopkins and Edwards (1972) showed that memory for words that were pronounced was better than for words that were studied silently. Therefore, speaking some lies out loud versus simply thinking about others might make the unspoken lies less memorable than those that were spoken. Saying the information out loud can increase memory for that information which would suggest that the content of the spoken lies will be more memorable.

In summary, fabricating a lie likely uses many techniques such as imagination and counterfactual thinking that have been shown to result in inflated belief in the false event. Lying differs however, in that lies are told to another person with the intention of deceiving the listener. Both planning and telling lies will result in created content for the lie which could inflate belief in the created content. However, in terms of ability to source monitor, telling a lie is thought to be more effortful and the cognitive effort could be remembered, especially in the absence of pre-planning the lie when the cognitive effort is greatest. If the creation of the lie is remembered, then familiarity with the content of the lie can be attributed to self-generation of the lie and belief in the lie should decrease. However, if cognitive dissonance is induced, motivated forgetting of having lied could counteract memory for cognitive operations and increase the likelihood of the lie being accepted as true. Lying to another person cements the lie as public truth providing the liar motivation to remember the lie and want to believe it. In the absence of clear counter memories, the liar may be more likely to accept the lie as truth and inflate their belief in the lie. Told lies might be more simple and plausible which could further increase the likelihood of believing the lie. Finally, telling a lie also benefits from the effects of speaking information aloud which has been shown to improve memory for the content of the lie and could make the source judgment more difficult. It is therefore expected that both planning and telling a lie should provide the content of a lie, but that telling a lie could lead to stronger impairments in ability to source monitor due to discomfort, motivated forgetting, and lax criterion. Telling a prepared lie should result in all of the impairments of planning and telling the lies such as rehearsal of the lie, cognitive dissonance, motivated forgetting and belief in public record, but in addition should result in an even more difficult source monitoring decision than either planning or telling alone due to repetition of the memory and decreased memory for cognitive operations (due to the decreased effort needed to tell a pre-planned lie). It is therefore expected that planning and telling a lie will have an additive effect and should result in the highest inflation effect. The current study compares the effects of planning and telling lies on belief in the lie and anticipates main effects for both planning and telling a lie, with the highest fabrication occuring for lies that are both planned and told.

Participants

Fifty-two undergraduate students from Central Washington University participated in the first session of the study, four did not return for the second session, and data from three participants was discarded due to participants repeatedly not following the lying prompts. The resulting 45 participants were used in the final analyses.

Participants' experiences were measured using the Life Events Inventory (LEI; Garry et al., 1996 ). The full inventory contains 60 items that ask whether a particular event happened to the participant before the age of 10. The participant rated whether each event happened using a Likert-type scale anchored at 1 (definitely did not happen) to 8 (definitely did happen). The LEI was administered twice, approximately 2 weeks apart. The pretest consisted of 21 of the 60 items from the original. Pretest responses were used to get baseline ratings of four target items to be used in the study. The ideal score for each of the four target items was a score of 2 which indicated participants were quite confident the events in question had not happened, however, the placement of the score on the scale still allowed for movement in both directions and avoided a floor effect. After selecting items with an initial rating score of 2, scores of 3 were utilized, then 1 and, finally, as a last resort, an item with a score of 4 was chosen. After selecting the four events, they were randomly assigned to one of the four event conditions (Lie 1, Lie 2, Lie 3, or Lie 4 described later). The posttest scores were used in order to compute a change score from pre-test to posttest. The posttest consisted of 42 items (the original 21 items plus 21 new items that served as distractors).

Participants were also given the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES; Bernstein & Putnam, 1986 ) with the intent of using it as a covariate. The DES consists of 27 items that ask the participant to estimate how often an experience happens to them. For example, one question states, "Some people have the experience of driving a car and suddenly realizing that they don't remember what has happened during all or part of the trip." The participant is asked to estimate what percentage of the time this happens to them. Because its relationship to the dependent variables was not significant, it will not be discussed further in this paper.

The study was a within subjects repeated measures design with two independent variables. The first independent variable was whether the lie event was planned (or not) and the second independent variable was whether the lie event was told (or not). The dependent variable was the change in ratings score from LEI 1 to LEI2 taken two weeks later.

After receiving informed consent, participants were given the LEI to complete. After completing the LEI, participants were given instructions to read while the experimenter excused herself to use the bathroom. In reality, the researcher went into a neighboring room in order to score the LEI pretest and select which four life events would be used in the experiment. The experimenter randomly assigned the four events to be either prepared and told (Lie 1), not prepared but told (Lie 2), prepared but not told (Lie 3), or not prepared and not told (control).

The instructions provided to the participants included a cover story that explained that the study was designed in order to determine whether it was possible to tell whether someone is lying. They were told they would be asked about some events that may or may not have happened to them and that the interviewer would try to determine whether they were lying. The instructions further explained that the participants would be given items to describe to the interviewer and that they would be told whether to say that the event did or did not occur before the age of 10. So, whether the event happened or not, the participant was to follow the prompting of the interviewer. Participants were told that they should be as sincere as possible as the idea was to convince the interviewer that the event actually happened. If the event actually happened before the age of 10 and they were told to say that it happened, they were asked to include factual information. If the event did not occur before the age of 10 and they were told to say that it did happen, they were asked to tell a feasible story in order to convince the interviewer that the event actually happened.

When the experimenter finished scoring the LEI, she returned to the room and read the instructions with the participant to ensure they were understood. Then, she gave the participant an eight-item "events list" that the participant was asked to write stories about; this was the "prepared" manipulation. The events are listed in the Appendix in the order given to the participants. Note that the two lies come from the participants' LEI pretest scores and were randomly chosen from the four items that received a 2 (3, 1, or 4) score. The same six filler items were used for all participants and were not selected based on the ratings given on the first LEI; two “yes” responses which were likely to be true for most participants and four “no” responses, two of which were likely to be false and two of which were likely to be true for most participants. For each event on the list that participants would claim to be true, they were asked to answer eight follow-up questions: (1) What were you doing right before this event occurred? (2) Where were you? (3) Who were you with? (4) How old were you? (5) What time of day was it? (6) How did you feel about this event? (7) What happened right after the event? (8) Are there any other details important to this story? For the “no” responses, participants were asked to answer "How do you know that you never _______?". The “no” responses were not of interest to this study, but served as a counterbalance measure to avoid all “yes” responses. Participants were given as much time as they needed to complete this part of the experiment, and they generally finished in about 20-30 minutes. When they finished writing about the various events (i.e., "preparing" their lies), they summoned the experimenter from the adjoining room in order to do the next part of the study: the oral interview.

For the interview (the "told" manipulation), participants were asked to discuss a variety of events including Lie 1 (the same event they "prepared") and Lie 2 from the LEI pretest (which was not prepared but had to be created on the spot). For each event, participants were either asked to "Please tell me about the time that you __________" or to tell the interviewer "How do you know that you never _______?". The instructions were the same in the oral interview as for the written /prepared portion. They were directed to answer according to the interviewer’s prompt even if their response was not true. The same eight follow-up questions used in the writing session were used as prompts in the interview in the same order. The interview session also took about 20-30 minutes. After the interview was completed, they were reminded to return in two weeks for the second session.

At the second session, approximately 2 weeks later, participants were run singly or in small groups. They were asked to complete the LEI posttest which consisted of 42 events, repeating all 21 from the pretest in addition to 21 previously unpresented events from the original LEI. They were then provided with complete disclosure.

Results and Discussion

The LEI pretest scores were subtracted from posttest scores on the four target events. Therefore, there were four change scores per participant: Lie 1 (prepared and told), Lie 2 (not prepared but told), Lie 3 (prepared but not told), and control (neither prepared nor told). If participants increased in their belief in the lie, their change scores should be positive. The mean (standard deviation) change scores are presented in Table 1 (below).

Note . Shared subscripts indicate a significant difference at p < .008.

Telling a lie about an event ( M = 1.27) did increase the belief that the event did occur relative to not telling a lie ( M = 0.62; F (1, 44) = 5.05, p = .03, η 2 = .103). There was no main effect for preparation of the lie ( F (1, 44) = 1.66, p = .20, η 2 = .036). There was no significant interaction between preparing the event and lying about it ( F (1, 44) = 0.06, p = .81, η 2 = .001). Planned within subject t-test comparisons were conducted using a protected alpha level to test the hypothesis that planning combined with telling would increase inflation effects as compared to simply telling or planning alone. Results demonstrated that the planned and told group caused significantly higher inflation scores than the planned only group. There was no significant difference between planning or not planning told lies (See Table 1 ). The results demonstrate that telling a lie to another person in an effort to deceive, and not simply creating a lie, increases belief in the lied about event. Telling lies, whether planned or not, resulted in the highest change scores.

These results support previous results ( Polage, 2012 ) demonstrating that telling lies is yet another paradigm in the long list of methods used to inflate belief in false, self-generated information (imagining: Garry et al., 1996 ; paraphrasing: Sharman et al., 2004 ; explanations: Sharman et al., 2005 ; confabulating: Chrobak & Zaragoza, 2008 ; Pickel, 2004 ). It is likely that constructing a lie uses many similar processes as other inflation tasks which result in detailed memories and increased fluency with the memory; however, the current results suggest that it is the telling of the lie and not just the creation of the lie that drives fabrication inflation. As Vrij et al. (2010) suggests, good liars tell simple, plausible, and realistic lies which should be easier to believe than complicated, unrealistic lies. Attempting to be believable constrains realism that would not be present when simply imagining an event. So, although forming a lie may involve imagery, it may also differ from simple imagination in which there is no external pressure to be believable. Lying also cements the lie as public truth providing the liar motivation to remember the lie and want to believe it. In the absence of clear counter memories, the liar may be more likely to accept the lie as truth and inflate their belief in the lie.

But telling a lie is thought to be effortful ( Langleben et al., 2002 ; Zuckerman et al., 1981 ) which should result in the correct attribution of even a clear and realistic memory as having been fabricated. So why would the told lies show higher inflation than lies that weren’t told? It was expected that the unplanned told lies would have been most difficult to generate ( DePaulo et al., 2003 ; Greene et al., 1985 ; Walczyk et al., 2009 ) resulting in the strongest cues for cognitive operations; however, this assumed that participants would use great effort to create a lie without pre-planning. According to Leins, Fisher, and Ross (2013) , however, liars may not be working that much harder than truth tellers because one of the main strategies liars use is to recycle true stories. So, similar to telling a preplanned lie that is simply retrieved from memory and hence less cognitively demanding, recycling a true story would not be particularly cognitively demanding and would not result in a strong memory for cognitive operations. If the lie event was already stored in memory, there would be no additional cognitive resources devoted to creating unplanned lies. This could explain why there was no additional benefit of planning the lies in advance in comparison to telling them on the spot. The strategy used for creating the lie determines how cognitively demanding lie telling is and this variability could affect memory for cognitive operations across participants. Polage (2004) showed wide variability in belief in the lie, in that some decreased their belief in the lie and some came to fully believe in it. It was assumed that the source monitoring decision would benefit from the effort involved in telling a lie, however, some lies told might require extreme effort to create while others require less effort than remembering an old true memory. In fact, Memon et al. (2010) found an increase in cognitive operations when participants were telling the truth, so telling the truth can also be cognitively demanding, sometimes more so than lying. In addition, Verschuere, Spruyt, Meijer, and Otgaar (2011) found that lying was less demanding when liars lied more frequently, and that the lying response became more dominant with repeated use. So, lying may be easier for some participants than others. Polage (2012) found that those who lied more often were more likely to show fabrication inflation. As lying increases, the process of lying might get easier, using less cognitive resources to create lies. Also, proficient liars might simply have more preplanned lies available in memory. In the absence of memory for the cognitive demands of lying, the other aspects of telling lies that decrease source monitoring ability may have caused participants to increase their belief in the lies.

Polage (2012) found that those who felt more guilt lying, lied more often and were more likely to believe the lies. These results seem contradictory as you would expect those who feel more guilty lying to do so less often, however, results on cognitive dissonance, suggest that those who feel guilty about lying but do so often are likely to experience psychological discomfort or cognitive dissonance ( Festinger, 1957 ). Believing they didn’t lie is one strategy that can decrease cognitive dissonance and motivated forgetting of having lied or denying information that might go against their preferred reality is one way to bring their beliefs in line with their actions. Shu et al. (2011) and Kouchaki and Gino (2016) showed that cognitive dissonance can result in forgetting of unethical actions. It is possible that participants in this study were faced with whether to believe in an event they have already told someone else was true and of which they have detailed memory. Motivated forgetting could impair memories that contradicted having lied and they may find themselves less certain of the truth. Since motivated liars should maintain consistency and stick with the version of the story that was first made public ( Wade et al., 2010 ) they may increase their doubt in the truth. The change in belief for lies that were told was on average 1.27 points on an 8 point scale which suggests that fabrication inflation may cause a slow eroding of belief, which over time might continue to increase if the lie is maintained and reinforced by others.

Finally, one cannot discount that verbal lying has the memorial benefits of speaking out loud which has been shown to improve memory ( Hopkins & Edwards, 1972 ). It is also possible that the liars were maintaining the lie, but that no memory change actually occurred. When studying deception this is always a concern as we don’t know if participants are believing the lie, trying to dupe the researcher, or even responding to perceived demand characteristics. These are possibilities that cannot be overlooked.

In summary, the current results showed that telling a lie, in contrast to simply planning a lie, resulted in fabrication inflation and led liars to increase their belief in lies told with the intention of deceiving. Based on previous literature, I suggest that the simple, plausible event details that seem familiar and true might increase in belief in the lie. Although one might remember the cognitive effort used to create the memory and reject it as false, it is also possible that proficient liars or those who use recycled versions of the truth might not remember creating a lie. It is also possible that the desire to reduce cognitive dissonance by using lax criterion and motivated forgetting of information that contradicts public “truth”, combined with the negative affect of lying can reduce the liar’s ability or desire to effectively source monitor.

As this is the first study that directly compares telling versus planning a lie, it raises many questions that need to be addressed in future research. The results support the idea that telling a lie results in fabrication inflation but it does not answer the question of why the effect occurs. For example, are participants motivated to remember the content of the lie in order to remain consistent? If motivation to believe affects memory for the truth, one would expect the lies told to be similar over time. Do participants change their “told” lies to be more realistic and hence more believable than their planned only lies (to others and potentially to themselves)? Future research should examine the level of detail provided in the lie stories to determine whether liars do attempt to “keep it simple” as Vrij et al. (2010) suggests and whether the level of detail has an effect on memory. The interview sessions in the current study were not video-recorded and were therefore not able to be analyzed for content. Future research might attempt to examine the consistency of the stories and rate them on Criteria Based Content Analysis (CBCA; Steller & Koehnken, 1989 ) elements. It is possible that stories that score higher on CBCA may result in more memory distortion.

The effects of lying on belief have been relatively unexplored and the current study suggests that the intentionally deceptive component of lying, not just the creation of the lie, affects belief in the lie. These results suggest that belief change may occur as a result of a deliberate lie and that liars become less confident in the truth after lying. Given that the average person lies at least once a day ( Serota & Levine, 2015 ), the effects of lying on false beliefs have repercussions that affect everyone and continued research into related variables and their effects should be conducted. Although the lies told in this study were low stakes lies, it is possible that the factors associated with lying that might increase source monitoring errors such as discomfort and motivated forgetting would be even stronger in high stakes lies such as those involving perjury and coerced false confessions. This research therefore has applications both to everyday experiences and psychology and law topics.

Acknowledgments

The author has no support to report.

Dr. Danielle Polage is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Central Washington University. She specializes in memory research, particularly false memories, lying, and other psychology and law issues.

Appendix: Questions and Participant Instructions That Were Used During the Written and Oral Interviews

Note. The participants were asked to follow the instructions whether the event had or had not actually happened to them. Lies 1-4 were based on their responses to the LEI 1. The other events were filler questions given to all participants.

Funding: This research was partially supported by the Office of the Dean, College of the Sciences, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, Washington.

Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist.

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They lie and try to make something else up as if they were actually saying the truth. For instance, an old friend of mine that moved lied to his teacher about his homework, so he told her a lie that he was busy and could do it but he was actually playing video games all day. He was playing all day so he didn’t do his homework but he lied to his teacher that he was busy with some family stuff. Similarly, my sister once lied to my mom about her going to watch a soccer game, but instead she went with her boyfriend to party. Teenagers just lied to make an excuse of anything or lied saying they are telling the truth to someone. They use lies as a way to get out of a situation.

Examples Of Lying In The Great Gatsby

Telling the truth can have some consequences, but a lie can cause more damage in a relationship once it has been figured out. People believe that by just lying, a problem is solved, but problems start when lies are told. Lying destroys relationships and truth builds honest relationships which, can last forever. In both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Rob Marshall’s Chicago, characters lie because they feel that it is easier. However, lying leads to a downward- spiral. The society we live in can either lead us to a complicated relationship with the truth or easygoing. The problem with constantly telling lies is that it starts off with one, then leads to another until everything you say is a lie. Being truthful

Argumentative Essay On Pretty Little Liars

The book, “Pretty Little Liars”, made me reflect, to why people lie. To tell you the truth everyone lies, many just lie to lie. Many also have their reasons to why they lie, either if it’s for a good cause or a bad cause. For example,

The Morality of Lies and Deception

We lie all the time, lying is not something new to our culture. We lie to our parents, we lie to our friends, we even lie to our significant other, but why do we do it? There is not one set reason on why we lie but they can vary from an insignificant reason to something more nefarious. A good operational definition of a lie is “A lie is a false statement to a person or group made by another person or group who knows it is not the whole truth, intentionally.” (Freitas-Magalhães) We have been raised to know that lying is usually a bad thing, and it’s better to tell the truth, not to mention the circumstances get exponentially worse if you are caught lying. No one wants to be labeled as a liar, or untrustworthy. This may sound unorthodox but I personally think lying is perfectly fine; depending on the situation. If you have a prima-facie duty to be dishonest it’s perfectly acceptable. Ross says a prima facie duty or obligation is an actual duty. “One’s actual duty is what one ought to do all things considered.” (Carson) I’m not the only one who finds this too be true. Ross would also agree with me, He says “Lying is permissible or obligatory when the duty not to lie conflicts with a more important or equal important prima facie duty.” (Carson) As I was doing research on this topic I did read one extremely compelling argument on why we ought not to lie. Aristotle basically said a person who makes a defense for lying could never be trusted. (King.)

Teenagers Do Their Share Of Lying Analysis

Some people think lying is okay, others think it’s not. However, those who think all lying is not okay are being hypocritical. Everyone has lied at least once in their life. Lies in general are a part of daily life. Many people lie for various reasons.One of the most common reasons is to protect someone. There are also lies used to cause harm and lies in the interest of the liar. All in all, many people agree that lying is sometimes acceptable when protecting someone from emotional, physical, and mental harm.

Virtue Ethics And Immanuel Kant's Virtue Ethics

Everyday people are faced with situations that they have to weigh their emotions out and decide if what their actions agree with their own internal moral code. Everyone faces challenges where they want to be successful, but at the same time want to be virtuous. To be virtuous means to have a morally good character. (Webster Dictionary) These issues are something that philosophers have been attempting to find the ethically correct answer to for centuries. One ethical dilemma that people are faced with daily is lying. A lie is an intentional false statement. Many people feel the need to lie to make themselves feel better or to get out of something they have done wrong. It is clear that in those situations it is morally wrong to lie, but what

Truth vs. Lie Essay

Liars have rumors spread around about how they lie all the time. Nobody wants to talk to them because they won't know if they are lying to them or not. They aren't trusted as much as people who don't lie. Liars never get very far in life and always have a reputation of lying. It's much better to tell the truth and have friends who trust them, rather than lying and having rumors spread around making no one like them.

Cause and Effect Essay - Plagiarism and Cheating

School systems today are so lenient in their rules, guidelines and consequences; thus causing cheating, copying or forgeries to be frequently used. Many students take advantage of copying someone else's work whenever they are given the chance. Other times, students will simply have someone else do their work and turn it in as their own, not realizing the effects this behavior can create. This creates a lack of creativity, no sense of responsibility and the students will never acquire new knowledge. These practices of cheating, copying and forgery by students are unethical and should be brought to the surface whenever possible.

Cheating And Cheating

First, lying is an aggressively debated topic, and most people believe that lying can be good or bad depending on the situation.

Telling A Lie Essay

Self-protection is the main factor of telling lies. According to some, people tell lies to shield themselves from danger, punishment, or from an activity they

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• Dol, Daniel. 'The Darker Side of Imagination.' The Instruction of Imagination: Language as a Communication Technology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Print.
• Bok, Sisela. “II. Truthfulness, Deceit, and Trust.” Lying: Moral Choice in Private and Public Life. New York: Vintage Books, 1978. Print
• Garrett, Neil, Stephanie C. Lazzaro, Dan Ariely and Tali Sharot. “The brain adapts to dishonesty.” Nature Neuroscience. 19, 1727-1732 (2016). Web.

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How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay: Full Guide

Ever wondered how things are connected in our world? Think of the butterfly effect—where a butterfly's wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas. It's a quirky idea, but it shows how events are intertwined. Writing a cause and effect essay is like unraveling these connections, connecting the dots to reveal how things influence each other and shape our experiences.

In this guide, experts from our paper writing service will explore the concept of causality and share practical tips for creating great cause and effect essays. These essays won't just provide information—they'll leave a lasting impression on your readers.

What Is a Cause and Effect Essay

A cause and effect essay is a form of writing that aims to explore and explain the relationships between different events, actions, or circumstances. The central idea is to investigate why certain things happen (causes) and what results from those occurrences (effects). It's like peeling back the layers to reveal the interconnectedness of events, understanding the domino effect in the narrative of life.

Here's a breakdown of the key components:

• Causes: These are the factors or events that initiate a particular situation. They are the reasons behind why something occurs. For instance, if you're exploring the cause of obesity, factors like unhealthy eating habits and lack of physical activity could be identified as causes.
• Effects: The effects are the outcomes or consequences that result from the identified causes. Following the obesity example, effects could include health issues, reduced quality of life, or increased healthcare costs.
• Connection: The heart of a cause and effect essay lies in demonstrating the link between causes and effects. It's not just about listing events but explaining how one event leads to another in a logical and coherent manner.

When crafting such an essay, you're essentially acting as a storyteller and investigator rolled into one. Your goal is to guide the reader through the web of interconnected events, providing insights into the 'why' and 'what happens next.'

How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay with Easy Steps

Understanding how to write a cause and effect essay is like putting together a puzzle. Here are ten simple steps to help you write an engaging essay that looks into how things are connected.

1. Select a Specific Topic

• Choose a cause and effect relationship that sparks your interest.
• Ensure your topic is focused and manageable for a thorough exploration.

2. Explore Causal Links

• Conduct thorough research to uncover hidden connections and supporting evidence.
• Look beyond the obvious to identify intricate relationships between causes and effects.

3. Craft a Clear Thesis Statement

• Develop a precise thesis that clearly articulates the main cause and the resulting effects.
• Your thesis serves as the roadmap for your essay, guiding readers through your analysis.

4. Organize Chronologically or by Significance

• Structure your essay in a logical order, either chronologically or by the significance of events.
• This organization enhances clarity and helps readers follow the cause-and-effect progression.

5. Utilize Transitional Phrases

• Employ transition words and phrases to ensure seamless flow between causes and effects.
• Clear transitions enhance readability and strengthen the coherence of your essay.

6. Support Arguments with Credible Evidence

• Back up your claims with relevant data, examples, and statistics.
• Strong evidence adds credibility to your analysis and reinforces the cause-and-effect relationships you present.

7. Illustrate Chain Reactions

• Show how a single cause can trigger a chain of effects, and vice versa.
• Illustrate the ripple effects to emphasize the complexity of the relationships.

8. Analyze Root Causes

• Move beyond surface-level explanations and explore the underlying factors contributing to the cause-and-effect scenario.
• Deep analysis adds depth and nuance to your essay.

9. Consider Alternative Causes

• Address potential counterarguments to showcase a comprehensive understanding.
• Acknowledging alternative causes strengthens your essay's overall credibility.

10. Conclude with Impact

• Summarize key points and emphasize the broader significance of your analysis.
• Leave your readers with a thought-provoking conclusion that ties together the cause-and-effect relationships explored in your essay.

Cause and Effect Essay Structure Types

When setting up your essay, you can choose from different structures to make it organized. Let's look at two common types of cause and effect essay structures:

• Block Structure:

The block structure is a clear and organized way to present causes and effects in your essay. Here, you dedicate one section to discussing all the causes, covering multiple causes within each category. After that, you have another section to explore all the effects. This separation makes your ideas easy to understand.

Using the block structure allows you to dive deep into each category, thoroughly looking at causes and effects separately. It's handy when you want to give a detailed analysis and show the importance of each part of the causal relationship. This way, readers can fully grasp each element before moving on.

• Chain Structure:

On the other hand, the chain structure focuses on how events are connected and create ripple effects. It highlights how one cause leads to a specific effect, and that effect becomes the cause of more effects in an ongoing chain. This method is potent for illustrating the complexity of causal relationships.

The chain structure works well when you want to emphasize the sequence of events or deal with intricate cause-and-effect scenarios. It allows you to show how actions trigger a series of reactions, displaying the domino effect that leads to a specific outcome.

Regardless of the structural style you choose, if you require assistance with your academic paper, reach out to us with your ' write my paper for me ' request. Our experienced team is ready to tailor your paper to your specific requirements and ensure its excellence.

Cause and Effect Essay Outline

Creating an effective cause and effect essay begins with a well-structured outline. This roadmap helps you organize your thoughts, maintain a logical flow, and ensure that your essay effectively conveys the causal relationships between events. Below, we'll outline the key components of the essay along with examples:

I. Introduction

• Hook: Start with an engaging statement or fact. Example: 'Did you know that stress can significantly impact your overall health?'
• Background Information: Provide context for your topic. Example: 'In today's fast-paced world, stress has become an increasingly prevalent issue.'
• Thesis Statement: Clearly state the main cause and its corresponding effects. Example: 'This essay will explore the causes of stress and their profound negative effects on physical and mental health.'

II. Body Paragraphs

• Topic Sentence: Introduce the first cause you'll discuss. Example: 'One major cause of stress is heavy workload.'
• Supporting Details: Provide evidence and examples to support the cause. Example: 'For instance, individuals juggling multiple job responsibilities and tight deadlines often experience heightened stress levels.'
• Transition: Link to the next cause or move on to the effects.
• Topic Sentence: Introduce the first effect. Example: 'The effects of chronic stress on physical health can be devastating.'
• Supporting Details: Present data or examples illustrating the impact. Example: 'Studies have shown that prolonged stress can lead to cardiovascular problems, including hypertension and heart disease.'
• Transition: Connect to the next effect or cause.

C. Causes (Continued)

• Topic Sentence: Introduce the next cause in a new cause and effect paragraph. Example: 'Another significant cause of stress is financial strain.'
• Supporting Details: Explain how this cause manifests and its implications. Example: 'Financial instability often results in anxiety, as individuals worry about bills, debts, and their financial future.'
• Transition: Prepare to discuss the corresponding effects.

D. Effects (Continued)

• Topic Sentence: Discuss the effects related to financial strain. Example: 'The psychological effects of financial stress can be profound.'
• Supporting Details: Offer real-life examples or psychological insights. Example: 'Depression and anxiety are common consequences of constant financial worries, affecting both mental well-being and daily life.'

III. Conclusion

• Restate Thesis: Summarize the main cause and effects. Example: 'In summary, the heavy workload and financial strain can lead to stress, impacting both physical and mental health.'
• Closing Thoughts: Reflect on the broader significance of your analysis. Example: 'Understanding these causal relationships emphasizes the importance of stress management and financial planning in maintaining a balanced and healthy life.'

Cause and Effect Essay Examples

To help you grasp cause and effect essay writing with clarity, we have prepared two distinct essay examples that will guide you through the intricacies of both block and chain structures. Additionally, should you ever find yourself requiring assistance with academic writing or descriptive essays examples , simply send us your ' write my research paper ' request. Our expert writers are here to provide the support you need!

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Cause and Effect Essay Topics

Choosing a good topic starts with recognizing cause and effect key words. Here are 10 interesting topics that let you dig into fascinating connections and their important consequences:

• The Relationship Between Lack of Exercise and Mental Health in Older Adults
• Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Workplace Productivity
• The Impact of Cyberbullying on Adolescents' Emotional Well-being
• Influence of Social Media Advertising on Consumer Purchasing Decisions
• Consequences of Oil Spills on Coastal Ecosystems
• How Noise Pollution Affects Concentration and Academic Performance in Schools
• The Connection Between Fast-Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity
• Effects of Urbanization on Water Quality in Local Rivers
• The Relationship Between Indoor Plants and Air Quality in Homes
• Impact of Plastic Pollution on Wildlife in Urban Environments
• The Effect of Meditation on Stress Reduction in College Students
• How Increased Screen Time Affects Teenagers' Attention Span
• The Impact of Single-Use Plastics on Marine Microorganisms
• The Relationship Between Smartphone Use and Sleep Quality in Adults
• Effects of High-Fructose Corn Syrup on Metabolic Health
• The Consequences of Deforestation on Local Biodiversity
• Influence of Social Media Comparison on Body Dissatisfaction in Adolescents
• The Connection Between Air Pollution and Respiratory Health in Urban Areas
• Effects of Excessive Gaming on Academic Performance in High School Students
• The Impact of Fast Food Consumption on Childhood Obesity Rates

Final Words

Knowing what a cause and effect essay is and how to write it helps you uncover connections in different topics. With this guide, you can share your ideas in a clear and impactful way.

Meanwhile, if you're in need of a reaction paper example , rest assured we have you covered as well. So, seize this opportunity, put your thoughts on paper logically, and witness your essays leaving a lasting and influential mark.

Let's Turn Those 'What Ifs' into 'A+ Ifs'!

Don't procrastinate when you can cause an effect on your grades right now!

Daniel Parker

is a seasoned educational writer focusing on scholarship guidance, research papers, and various forms of academic essays including reflective and narrative essays. His expertise also extends to detailed case studies. A scholar with a background in English Literature and Education, Daniel’s work on EssayPro blog aims to support students in achieving academic excellence and securing scholarships. His hobbies include reading classic literature and participating in academic forums.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

Paragraph on Effects of Telling Lies – by Anand

Introduction:

Lying is a negative habit which is easily influenced by people so as to either get away with something or to keep things on an even keel.

There are some people who are pathological liars. They lie for anything and everything. On the other hand, there are people who lie occasionally to escape guilt. Whatever the case, lying is not a healthy habit and it is something which has been taught to us since childhood by our parents to be wrong. People who lie are conscious of the fact that they are lying and this makes them even guiltier.

Causes of Telling Lies:

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There are many reasons why people tell lies. The primary reason is to escape guilt. People lie to others so that the blame which is on their head shifts to that of the other person. By this, people try to get away with the guilt which they have actually committed. Another reason why people lie is when they come under pressure.

The pressure that is pushed upon them often makes them lie. For instance, a teenager who craves for acceptance in his social circle will go to the extent of lying about his personal things so as to remain part of the group. Another cause for lying is to avoid an unpleasant situation which could be avoided by simply lying.

Consequences of Telling Lies:

Lying has many effects on both the person who is lying and to the person who is being lied to. Lying is falsely saying something to someone when one knows that it is not the truth. Thus, by lying, one is misleading the other person who might suffer some injury or harm in the process. Sometimes, lying might also lead to the actual blame being shifted upon another person who is completely innocent and might not even be aware of the situation.

This causes unnecessary prejudice and inconvenience. Lying also has psychological effect on the person who lies. Such a person always remains nervous because of his guilt. That person tends to take hasty decisions and remain distracted almost all the time.

How to Overcome the Habit of Telling Lies?

The habit of telling lies can be overcome by self-restraint. An individual can exercise self-restraint so that whenever he feels like lying, he stops himself from doing so and tells the truth. Also, another way to stop lying is by trying to not indulge in any negative activities which might later push us to lie to others. One must always understand that lies always affect the people close by. It might also lead to hurt or injury to others. Thus, the aforementioned factors should stop the person from lying.

Conclusion:

Thus, there are many negative effects of telling lies. It is important that an individual understands the consequences of lying and thereby stops to do the same. This would help make him a better individual and person in the society.

Related Articles:

• Short Paragraph on Why Lying is Bad
• Short Paragraph on Lying (420 Words)
• Short Paragraph on Honesty is the Best Policy
• Paragraph on Seasoning Life with Happiness and Joy – by Anand

The Psychology and Impact of Lying and Self-Deception

Lying is often natural, but it can become pathological..

Posted January 29, 2024 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

• Lying affects self-esteem and emotions, leading to negative psychological consequences.
• Self-deception shapes reality, influencing choices and beliefs both positively and negatively.
• Awareness of the cost of lying can lead to more honest, healthier communication practices.

"The essence of lying is in deception, not in words; a lie may be told by silence, by equivocation, by the accent on a syllable, by a glance of the eyes, attaching a peculiar significance to a word, and in countless other ways." — St. Augustine

This is a two-part series, and in the first, I will deal with the complexity of lying and self-deception .

The psychology of lying is a complex and contradictory field, and the process is significant for our survival. Important emotional and social costs of deception have been revealed recently in studies, on nature and the fabric of our societal interactions (Preuter et al., 2023). In psychotherapy and psychological treatment, the therapeutic effect of expectations has been repeatedly studied, and it turns out that expectation is a significant factor influencing the outcome of psychological treatments (Sirigatti, Stefanile, & Nardone, 2008), and the effectiveness of therapy is built on the expectation by the patient that it will work (Wampold, 2001). Researchers are even looking into ways to evoke and encourage this kind of helpful self-deception (Gibson, 2021, 2022; Nardone, 2015; Nardone & Watzlawick, 1990).

Many types of ‘lying’ also involve self-deception – whether it's justifying our choices or shaping our reality to fit our desires – and play an important role in how we perceive and interact with the world around us. In evolution, the art of deception, more commonly known as lying, is described in Aesop's fable "The Fox and the Grapes". The fox, known for being clever, is used to show a common specific form of self-deception. The story goes that the fox essentially tries to reach some grapes but can't, and in the end, the fox gives up and walks away, saying the grapes weren't that good anyway, an experience we can all probably relate to. This mental trick of downplaying something we can't have is a common form of helpful self-deception. It helps to eliminate the frustration of not getting what we want. The fact that the clever fox is the main character demonstrates how self-deception can be useful for avoiding the discomfort of unmet desires. Logically, it's about deciding to believe a comforting lie instead of a painful truth.

This process is also essential for survival and social interaction. After all, who wants to tell their partner or best friend (who is thrilled with themselves having spent hours cooking a meal for you) that the meal was not to your taste and barely edible? Do we all tell a good lie, rather than accept a painful truth at times? In prehistoric eras, where physical survival was the primary objective, the ability to deceive a predator or a rival could mean the difference between life and death. This aspect of lying as a survival tool is widely recognized in evolutionary biology and is essential in the process of finding a mate and competition for resources, even to this day (Nardone; 2015, Smith & Johnson, 2020).

The clothes and makeup we wear, the way we speak, and the things we pay attention to in our conversations with ourselves and others, are all subtle forms of 'massaging' reality to our liking and our advantage, whether we like to believe it or not (Elster, 1979). This can be observed in certain professions, and even in forms of psychological treatment. In some therapies, whether the patient gets better or not, either outcome can be justified by the therapist as having an explanation based on their model of therapy and in that case, either way, their theory or model wins. This is a form of non-falsifiable reality (Popper, 1959) in which the reality proves itself and there preferred reality remains intact.

Social Change

As humans moved to more complex social structures, the role of lying became more intricate as it began to serve as a tool for resource acquisition. An individual proficient in the art of deception might secure a larger share of resources, enhancing their chances of survival, promotion and reproduction. This perspective is well observed in evolutionary psychology , which suggests that deceptive behaviours could be favoured in certain competitive contexts (Brown & Green, 2021) and even promoted in capitalist societies. Social scientists and evolutionary psychologists argue that this aspect of lying even plays a significant role in the development of social cognition and could be a driving force behind the evolution of human intelligence (Lee & Wilson, 2019).

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

The self-fulfilling prophecy, a term first coined by sociologist Robert K. Merton (1957), is a prediction that causes a prophecy itself to become true due to the positive feedback between belief and behaviour. In other words, a fictitious, belief about a situation evokes a new behaviour, which makes the originally false belief come true.

Merton's concept has been widely influential and is a key concept in the sociology of knowledge, showing how beliefs and perceptions, whether true or false, can shape social reality. It's particularly relevant in understanding social dynamics where people's expectations (self-deceptions) about others can lead to those expectations being realized. We also see this in contexts like the placebo effect in medicine, where believing in a fake or sugar pill can make you feel better. This is even used practically by pharmaceutical companies to market male and female pills in different colours, altering their effectiveness based on gendered colour expectation (Kirsch, 2010).

Lies in Educational Settings

A study known as "Pygmalion in the Classroom" is a seminal text in educational psychology, (Rosenthal and Jacobson, 1968). Rosenthal and Jacobson told teachers that some of their students were expected to be "intellectual bloomers" based on a fictitious test. Despite the test being non-predictive, the students who were labelled as "bloomers" showed significant academic improvement over time, attributed to the change in the teachers' expectations and behaviours towards these students. This work has had a profound impact on education and it highlights the importance of teacher expectations in student performance and there are numerous more that have shown this (Jussim & Harber, 2005; Rist, 1970; Rubie-Davies, 2006; Weinstein, Marshall, Sharp, & Botkin, 1987; Babad, Inbar, & Rosenthal, 1982).

Self-Deception

Self-deception isn't only about positive beliefs; it can be negative too, like in a paranoid state, believing that nobody cares about you. Our past experiences have a big impact on our self-deception. For instance, someone with lots of insecurities might see every situation as proof that they're not worthy. Recent psychological studies have cast new light on this age-old behaviour, revealing the hidden emotional and social costs of deception. A pivotal study in the British Journal of Social Psychology (2024) found that manipulatively lying to others, regardless of its purpose, leads to a decrease in self-esteem and an increase in negative emotions for the person telling the lie (PsyPost, 2024).

Social Connections and Deception

Complementing these emotional aspects, another study focused on lying's impact on social relationships. Researchers analysed a large dataset of naturalistic conversations, part of the CANDOR corpus, to understand how deception affects interpersonal connections. CANDOR corpus, "Causal Analysis Using Natural Language and Domain Ontologies for Requirements," is a specialized dataset designed for use in natural language processing, particularly in the field of requirements engineering. This corpus is designed to aid in the extraction and analysis of causal relationships from natural language texts, specifically focusing on requirements engineering documents The findings were clear: engaging in certain kinds of deception was linked to reduced feelings of closeness and trustworthiness with conversation partners underscoring the importance of honesty in nurturing and maintaining meaningful social bonds (Nature, 2024).

Lying, however, emerges from all of these studies not as a straightforward matter of moral right or wrong, but as a complex spectrum of behaviours with varied implications and necessities. It's a nuanced dance between truth and deception, where the reality we perceive and create is shaped by more than just our spoken words but also through the unseen emotional and psychological processes of the lies and deceptions we bring to bear on influencing it.

These are artefacts of human psychology, biology and existence. Whether we like to admit it or not, they exist, and we therefore must learn to use them effectively to survive and thrive as individuals and as social groups. Studies on lying challenge us to rethink our relationship with honesty, deception, and the nature of our social reality. Understanding the emotional costs of lying manipulatively in a way that discriminates unjustly or that increases net suffering should lead us to a more conscious communication. Honesty is not just a moral choice but a path to better mental health and stronger social connections, just as learning to use self-deception about ourselves and the world around us can propel us beyond ourselves.

Think for one minute about the Olympic athlete who must tell themselves and convince themselves, without any concrete evidence, that they will win gold at the next Olympics, all done to make climbing up on a bike and cycling 95km on a cold wet winter's day and sticking to a punishing schedule for the subsequent four years doable.

Babad, E., Inbar, J., & Rosenthal, R. (1982). Pygmalion, Galatea, and the Golem: Investigations of biased and unbiased teachers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74 (4), 459-474. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.74.4.459

Elster, J. (1979). Ulysses and the Sirens. Norton. NY

Gibson, P. (Escaping The Anxiety Trap. Strategic Science Books.

Jussim, L., & Harber, K. D. (2005). Teacher expectations and self-fulfilling prophecies: Knowns and unknowns, resolved and unresolved controversies. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9 (2), 131-155. doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr0902_3

Kirsch, I. (2010). The Emperor's New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth . New York, NY: Basic Books.

Mayo, E. (1949). The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization . Routledge.

Merton, R. K. (1957). Social Theory and Social Structure . Glencoe, IL: Free Press.

Nardone, G., & Watzlawick, P. (1990). The Art of Change: Strategic Therapy and Hypnotherapy Without Trance . Jossey-Bass.

Nardone G. L'arte di mentire a se stessi e agli altri. Milan, Italy: Ponte alle Grazie; 2015.

Popper, K. (1959). The Logic of Scientific Discovery . London, England: Hutchinson & Co. (Original work published 1934)

Preuter, S., Jaeger, B., & Stel, M. (2023). The costs of lying: Consequences of telling lies on liar's self-esteem and affect. British Journal of Social Psychology, 00, 1–15

Rist, R. C. (1970). Student social class and teacher expectations: The self-fulfilling prophecy in ghetto education. Harvard Educational Review, 40 (3), 411-451.

Rubie-Davies, C. M. (2006). Teacher expectations and student self-perceptions: Exploring relationships. Psychology in the Schools, 43 (5), 537-552. doi:10.1002/pits.20169

Sprigings, S., Brown, C.J.V. & ten Brinke, L. Deception is associated with reduced social connection. Commun Psychol 1, 19 (2023).

PsyPost. (2024). Psychological studies on the effects of lying . Retrieved from; https://www.psypost.org/2024/01/new-research-brings-to-light-the-psychological-costs-of-lying-220811

Sirigatti, S., Stefanile, C., & Nardone, G. (2008). Expectation as a Factor in the Outcome of Psychotherapy . Journal of Clinical Psychology, 64(7), 871-885.

Wampold, B. E. (2001). The great psychotherapy debate: Models, methods, and findings. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Weinstein, R. S., Marshall, H. H., Sharp, L., & Botkin, M. (1987). Pygmalion and the student: Age and classroom differences in children's awareness of teacher expectations. Child Development, 58 (4), 1079-1093. doi:10.2307/1130530

Padraic Gibson, D.Psych, is a Consultant Clinical Psychotherapist and is the Clinical Director of The OCD Clinic®, and director of Training and Organization Consultation at The Coaching Clinic®, Dublin. He is senior research associate at Dublin City University.

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Causes and Effects of Lying Essay

Cause And Effect Of Lying Essay

relationship, it is right and absolutely fine to lie to their partner, especially to get out of a situation, but their partner could somehow find out the truth after a while. The result of that would not turn out so great. About 75% of the people who are in a relationship admitted to lying to their significant other, according to a survey conducted by Dr. Pepper Schwartz. One’s partner is someone one should be able to talk about anything to. Lying causes one’s partner to be heartbroken, and it could also become something done daily. However, lying could also have a good outcome, like avoiding one’s partner and responsibilities only to surprise them with a delightful gift. Whether it…

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Why Is Lying Wrong

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honesty is the foundation for morals in his article “Lying” by stating, "This apparent conflict between virtues is managed by most ethicists through a concept called the unity of the virtues. This doctrine states that the virtuous person, the ideal person we continuously strive to be, cannot achieve one virtue without achieving them all." The essence of virtue ethics is that, "to be virtuous is to be ethical," meaning that one who possess many virtues is moral. The person who everyone must…

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different levels of lying and the lies affect relationships. In the story, the reader learns that Christopher does not believe in lying and in turn he refuses to lie. Even though, Christopher says that he does not believe in lying, he tells white lies many times in the novel. However, Christopher’s father does not tell white lies, he tells more severe lies that have a strong effect on Christopher. Both Christopher’s lies and his father’s lies have a strong effect on their relationship and this…

The Invalid: The Cause Of Mental Disorders

could in effect bring harmony and peace. To not only an individual life but the entire atmosphere. Lies only bring forth more lies. Is that our legacy? A generation rooted in distrust, and extreme sensitivity to the unequal parallel of false words and actions. Every lie we tell is like closing the blinds a little more until we are drowning in the darkness that we so willingly let inside. A person might be able to tell just how far they have sank by listening to the voice of guilt. Is it…

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Free Effects of Lying Essay Sample

From the childhood we are taught not to lie to the parents, but our parents lie to us saying that they will buy this thing tomorrow and never buy it. In the school we are taught not to lie to the teachers, but our teachers lie to us saying that they will not punish if we confirm the lie, however give lots of extra tasks, in order to remember that it is to do like this. In the workplace we are taught not to lie to our director, but our director asks to lie that he is at the workplace, when he is out. If we are taught to say true from the childhood, why it is so hard to follow this rule when you are adult? Why people lie if it is so easy to say true, or it isn’t? What are the affects of lying?

The lie exists as long as the language in the word. The McMillan dictionary gives the following definition of this term: “Lie – is something that you say or write that is not true and that you know is not true”. According to this definition, if the person knows that he lies, he does it intentionally, that is why he needs to have the reasons for lying.

The philosophers and physiologists have different views on this topic. However, they have agreed on the different reasons that depend on the age, position, situation, personal aims and etc. For example, there are two reasons why children lie. The first is a fear of parents` reaction on the behavior or action. A child is afraid to be punished. This fear forces him or her to lie. The second reason is the so-called "fictional reality". Kids invent for themselves another world, another reality. This might happen when they feel uncomfortable in the real life. They do not want to perceive the world around. They start to dream and live these dreams.

One can say that it is not a big deal, that the child creates some world in order to play. Does it make harm to anybody? Yes, it does.

First of all, the small lie can lead to the big one. Almost anyone is acquainted with the situation, when in order to look better in the eyes of the new familiar, you are telling the truth but with little additions. First you have said that you are 22, but not 25 as in reality; than, that you are one of the best students in the university or even more that you are going to buy a new car. On the next date you will add something more and more, because the think you need is this person to think well about you. However, the disappointment that will be after can erase all your affords. The same is with that child in his own world. First he will be playing saying the lie about his world, but the next step will be the bigger lie to the parents, which as a rule lead to uncontrolled situations. Is it worth this?

What is more, the scientist of the University of Western Australia have founded out that the consequences of lying can not be corrected by rebutting them. They carried out the survey with 160 volunteers-students, which showed that one time heard false information has a significant impact on a person even after it has been many times refuted. A similar effect continued to operate even when the participants of the experiment were told that the information was not correct and they absolutely believed in it. For example, if the jury was convinced that the witness told a lie, he will treat his evidence with a share of no confidence, even after he found out that the first information was false. The similar thought had the philosopher Immanuel Kant. In his "Critique of Pure Reason" he says that even a harmless lie can not be considered harmless because it "remains a serious breach of duty to oneself." Such lie destroys a human dignity and deprives him of the confidence of the people around him (Tim C. Mazur). From this state is very hard to return to normal life. Is it worth this?

Thirdly, lie has a great influence on the relationships. It doesn’t matter if the relationships are between the colleagues and supervisor, children and parents or inside the marriage couple, if one side starts lying, everything can be ruined. For example, if the husband asks his wife if everything OK, she confirms it, but thinks that he doesn’t do his work around the house, she will only make the conflict worth. You do not need to buy for your wife luxuries, when your business runs down just to show her that everything is good. You do not need to buy the food from the restaurants before the husband comes home just to show that you are a good cooker. Long or late the lie would be revealed. What is more, when you will be coated on lying, he will think twice to trust you next time. Is it worth this?

At the last, the worst effect of lying is guilt. If person knows that he lies, especially if it is big lie, the feeling of the guilt can lead to the great consequences such as depression, sometimes physical illness, or even to death. However, the researchers show that some people have quilt not because they lied, but because they have been coated on lying. Nevertheless, even if you are not coated on lying, the constant feeling of guilt will depress you. There are lots of examples, when because of feeling of guilty the person commits a suicide. Is it worth this?

To make the long story short, people can’t live without telling the lie. Lie is everywhere: at home, school, work. We remember it from our childhood and it surrounds us now. One can lie to the teacher, supervisor, friend or colleague. He can name lots of reasons why he was lying and all of them would seem to be reasonable. Even in the case of revealing the lie, one would do all his best to convince you that it was because of very respective reasons. It is your option weather to believe him or not, but you should always think about the future consequences: the small lie can lead to the big one; every lie would cause consequences and soon or late would be revealed; the lie have influence on you mind and it is hard to believe in truth after; lie has a great influence on the relationships and the worst effect of lying is guilt that can lead to the serious diseases. So do you still think that it is worth this?

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