Most of us have had “honesty is the best policy” drummed into us from childhood, but yet we still find ourselves in situations where we lie despite the multiple consequences entailed by being caught out as a liar. So why do we still lie? We explore the various reasons why people lie and show that Polygraph Truths’ polygraph services are the best way to find out when someone is lying to you.
Reasons Why People Lie:
There are not many people who can confidently say that they have never lied at any point in their lives. From personal gain to avoiding punishment, we explore all the different reasons and scenarios that can cause people to lie.
For Personal Gain:
There are numerous ways that a person can lie for personal gain. You may want to skip your PE lesson to spend time gossiping with your friends on the stand, so you tell your PE teacher an excuse as to why you cannot partake in today’s swimming lesson. There may be someone you really like but you know that they would not understand your dating history, and so you lie to not jeopardise the future of this relationship.
The reason why most people tell lies is to gain something. What you are attempting to gain differentiates the mild lies from the severe and destructive lies. Telling your mom that you finished your homework so that you can get your McFlurry reward is less concerning than lying on your CV to gain employment.
Lying in the workplace is, unfortunately, a common occurrence. People embellish their CVs with outstanding achievements, perfectly-suited qualifications, and years of experience, when in actuality they flunked out of their degree. Employees can lie about the work they have done to climb the ladder, stepping on the heads of their colleagues as they go.
Lying in the workplace to gain employment, a promotion, or credit places you in a position that you do not deserve to be in. You can justify these lies by telling yourself that you really needed this job or that you are capable of doing excellent work in this position, but ultimately you have stolen this position away from a person who was honest and possibly better suited.
To Avoid Punishment:
From blaming your younger sister for breaking your mom’s favourite teacup to telling a traffic officer that you were speeding because your wife is having a baby to lying about your whereabouts during a criminal investigation, there are a plethora of ways that people lie to avoid punishment.
Spouses often face a dilemma when they have an affair. On the one hand, they can admit their infidelity to their partner, and on the other hand, they can lie to maintain the benefits of their marriage and avoid the consequences of hurting their partner. Many spouses choose to lie to their partners about their infidelity to avoid the punishments of divorce, lost friends, or a damaged reputation.
At some point or another, we all mess up in some way. Even though we know that we should come clean, it always seems easier to either deny involvement, shift the blame, or come up with an elaborate excuse to justify the behaviour. Even when we are caught out on our lies, we try to come up with more lies to avoid punishment or disappointment.
To Protect Loved Ones:
We often tell ourselves that lying to protect a loved one is justifiable and harmless. Telling your mother-in-law that her “famous” lasagne will give Jamie Oliver a run for his money when in actuality you struggle to swallow each dreaded spoonful, can be easily dismissed as a lie to keep the peace in your family.
Telling your daughter that she will be the best soccer player in the world is a stretch, but your intention behind the lie is to boost her confidence. Life can be the one to crush her dreams, and you can be the one to hold her hand through it.
Protecting loved ones with lies can become dangerous. There are numerous cases where parents have lied to protect their children when they have committed crimes. There are other instances when people have lied to their partner about their auspicious past, and that past then appears on their doorstep one day. Telling a friend that her behaviour which ended her relationship was in fact her partner’s fault to make her feel better is actually allowing her to not take accountability for actions.
You can become blinded by your love for your partner, friend, or family member and not see that the act of lying to protect them may be harmful.
To Protect Oneself:
In certain instances, lying to protect yourself can be the difference between staying safe or facing a threat. Telling a creepy guy at the bar that you are waiting for your boyfriend because you want him to leave you alone, or telling an abusive partner that you are “just going to the shops to get some milk”, are lies that can protect you from adverse circumstances.
To Fit In:
Most of the time we choose to move with the grain, and this can cause us to lie. We lie to our parents so that we can join our friends at the social event of the year, we tell our colleagues at work that we loved the latest Deadpool movie, or we pretend to be a rugby fan to fit in with our girlfriend’s family. These types of lies can also be destructive to our character as we start to lose the ability to voice our own views.
Pathological:
You may think that your younger brother is a pathological liar when you see him tell your parents every Saturday that he is attending a study group when his Instagram stories show him out with his friends. Although he is lying consistently, this does not make him a pathological liar. Neither is the spouse who consistently lies about their smoking habit or the friend who pretends to love your boyfriend for your benefit.
Pathological liars are characterised by excessive lying that they do for a long time, and the lies that they tell have no obvious reason or benefit. Lying is simply an automatic and uncontrollable behaviour for pathological liars.
Pathological liars are difficult to spot as often the lies they tell can appear to be honest. A child whose parents died may tell the children at their school that their parents are alive to fit in, and then they maintain this lie for years until it becomes real enough that they believe it themselves. They no longer benefit from the lie as they do not need to fit in with the other children, but they are so embedded in the lie that they cannot stop.
Pathological liars can also tell outlandish lies that are too tall for them to measure up to without any obvious concern for the consequences. A pathological liar may claim to have grandiose awards in Literature, whereas in reality, they struggle to construct a grammatically correct sentence. This lie will be obvious to people who engage with the pathological liar, but the liar does not seem to care.
Both the lies that appear believable and absurd told by pathological liars signify an individual with complicated problems. Ensuring that a pathological liar receives psychological treatment is critical.
The Best Way To Find Out If You Are Being Lied To:
Although everyone lies, no one likes being lied to. When you discover that someone has lied to you, you feel hurt, betrayed, or confused by their need to lie, and ultimately you lose your trust in the person.
Although knowing that someone has lied to you can be difficult, it is always better to know the truth. But finding out if someone is being honest or deceitful can be harder than it seems. People often protect their lies to avoid punishment or disappointment. So, if you suspect someone is lying to you, how do you find out the truth?
One of the best ways to find out if someone is lying is to ask them to take a polygraph test. A polygraph test will measure a person’s physiological responses to a series of questions, and based on this data the polygraph test will discern whether a person was being honest when responding.
Polygraph Truths offers polygraph services that will help you uncover the truth. Polygraph Truths’ polygraph services may not tell you the reason behind why the person chose to lie, but you will know for certain that they lied.
Polygraph Truths’ Polygraph Services:
Most of the time, the lies that people tell tend to unravel and the truth gets thrust into the harsh daylight. Other times, people tell lies that are so convincing that it is hard to discern the lies from the truth. This is where Polygraph Truths’ polygraph services step in.
Polygraph Truths offers polygraph services for those who need peace of mind. There is no need to go to great lengths to uncover the truth about someone on your own. Polygraph Truths takes all the work out of finding the truth with our polygraph services.
We offer these four polygraph services.
Pre-employment Screening: Our pre-employment polygraph services can be used to screen a possible employee to discern whether they were being honest on their CV or in their interview. This will ensure that you hire the best person for the job, and not the person who was the best at lying.
Periodic Screening: People can almost find any reason to lie, especially in the workplace where there is much to gain or lose. The periodic screening is a useful way to ensure that employees remain honest in the workplace.
Infidelity Screening: It may be easier to ignore the signs and listen to the lies your spouse tells you when it comes to their affair. Our infidelity polygraph services will provide you with the truth so that you can make an accurate decision on what next step you want to take in your relationship.
Incident-specific Screening: Incidents happen in the workplace all the time, but finding out who was at fault can be like trying to find a missing fuel slip for your accountant. Incident-specific screening is an easy way to find out the truth about a workplace issue.
When it comes to polygraph services, Polygraph Truths is of an exceptional standard. Our polygraph services are accredited by the American Polygraph Association (APA) to ensure that the polygraph services we offer are of a high standard and are conducted ethically. The polygraph services are administered by industry experts who have had a hand in thousands of successful investigations.
Polygraph Truths’ polygraph services are the best way to uncover when people are lying.
