A lie is an assertion that is believed to be false, typically used with the purpose of deceiving or misleading someone.
The practice of communicating lies is called lying, and a person who communicates a lie may be termed a liar.
Lies can be interpreted as deliberately false statements or misleading statements.
Lies may also serve a variety of iinterpersonal, or psychological functions for the individuals who use them.
The character of Pinocchio, whose nose grows when he tells a lie, has become a symbol of untruthfulness.
The term lie carries a negative connotation, and depends on the context a person who communicates a lie.
A lie may be subject to social, legal, religious, or criminal sanctions; for instance, perjury, or the act of lying under oath, can result in criminal and civil charges.
People overestimate both the significance of lying cues and their ability to make accurate judgements about deception.
The ability to make true judgments is affected by biases towards accepting incoming information and interpreting feelings as evidence of truth.
A barefaced, bald-faced or bold-faced lie is an impudent, brazen, shameless, flagrant, or audacious lie that is sometimes but not always undisguised and that it is even then not always obvious to those hearing it.
A big lie attempts to trick a victim into believing something major, which will likely be contradicted by some information the victim already possesses, or by their common sense.
When the lie is of sufficient magnitude it may succeed, due to the victim’s reluctance to believe that an untruth on such a grand scale would indeed be concocted.
A black lie is about simple and callous selfishness, usually told when others gain nothing, and the sole purpose is either to get oneself out of trouble or to gain something one desires .
A blue lie is a form of lying is told purportedly to benefit a collective or in the name of the collective good.
An April fool is a lie or hoax told/performed on April Fools’ Day.
To bluff is to pretend to have a capability or intention one does not possess, and is an act of deception that is rarely seen as immoral when it takes place in the context of a game, such as poker, where this kind of deception is consented to in advance by the players.
In these situations, deception is acceptable and is commonly expected as a tactic.
Bullshit does not necessarily have to be a complete fabrication.
A lie is related by a speaker who believes what is said is false, bullshit is offered by a speaker who does not care whether what is said is true because the speaker is more concerned with giving the hearer some impression.
Bullshit may be either true or false, but demonstrates a lack of concern for the truth that is likely to lead to falsehoods.
A cover-up may be used to deny, defend, or obfuscate a lie, errors, or embarrassing actions, or lies made previously, or claim that a previous lie was not as egregious as it was.
Defamation is the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual person, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation.
Deflecting is to avoid the subject that the lie is about, not giving attention to the lie, ignoring or refusing to respond.
Deflectors are passive-aggressive, who when confronted with the subject choose to ignore and not respond.
Disinformation is intentionally false or misleading information that is spread in a calculated way to deceive target audiences.
An exaggeration occurs when the most fundamental aspects of a statement are true, but only to a certain degree.
Exaggeration is seen as stretching the truth or making something appear more powerful, meaningful, or real than it is.
Fake news is a type of yellow journalism that consists of deliberate misinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media.
A fib is a lie that is easy to forgive due to its subject being a trivial matter.
Fraud is the act of inducing another person or people to believe a lie in order to secure material or financial gain for the liar.
Fraud may subject the liar to civil or criminal penalties.
A gray lie is told partly to help others and partly to help ourselves.
A half-truth or partial truth is a deceptive statement that includes some element of truth.
A half-truth statement might be partly true, or may be totally true, but only part of the whole truth, or it may employ some deceptive element, including improper punctuation or double meaning.
A half-truth statement intent is to deceive, evade, blame, or misrepresent the truth.
Partial truths are characterized by malicious intent.
An honest lie (confabulation) i a verbal statement or action that inaccurately describes the present situations, but there is generally no intent to misinform and the individual is unaware that their information is false.
An honest lie is not technically a lie at all since, by definition, there must be an intent to deceive for the statement to be considered a lie.
Jocose lies are lies meant in jest, intended to be understood as such by all parties: Teasing and irony are examples.
A storyteller’s insistence that a tall tale story is the absolute truth, despite all evidence to the contrary is considered humorous.
Lie-to-children describes a simplified explanation of technical or complex subjects as a teaching method.
Lies-to-children are useful in teaching complex subjects to people who are new to the concepts, they can also promote the creation of misconceptions among the people who listen to them.
Lying by omission, is a continuing misrepresentation that occurs when an important fact is left out in order to foster a misconception, and
includes the failure to correct pre-existing misconceptions.
An omission is when one tells most of the truth, but leaves out a few key facts that therefore, completely obscures the truth.
A memory hole is the alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts, or other records, as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened.
Minimization is a type of deception involving denial coupled with rationalization in situations where complete denial is implausible.
Mutual deceit occurs when lying is both accepted and expected
or that the parties mutually accept the deceit in question.
A noble lie, a strategic untruth, is one that normally would cause discord if uncovered, but offers some benefit to the liar and assists in an orderly society, therefore, potentially being beneficial to others.
A noble lie often told to maintain law, order, and safety.
Paltering use selective truthful statements to mislead.
Paternalistic deception is a lie told so that the deceived person will benefit.
Pathological lying is a behavior of habitual or compulsive lying.
Pathological lying is falsification entirely disproportionate to any end in view, and may manifest over a period of years or even a lifetime.
With pathological lying the individual may be aware they are lying, or may believe they are telling the truth.
Perjury is the act of lying/making verifiably false statements on a material matter under oath or affirmation in a court of law, or in any of various sworn statements in writing.
Perjury is a crime.
A polite lie is a lie that a politeness standard requires, and that usually is known to be untrue by both parties: as to decline invitations because of scheduling difficulties
Puffery is an exaggerated claim typically found in advertising and publicity announcements: the highest quality at the lowest price.
While such statements are unlikely to be true – but the consumer is expected to be able to determine that it is not the absolute truth.
A red lie is about spite and revenge, and driven by the motive to harm others even at the expense of harming oneself, out of an angry desire for retribution.
Speaking with a forked tongue-means to deliberately say one thing and mean another or, to be hypocritical, or act in a duplicitous manner.
A white lie is a harmless or trivial lie, especially one told in order to be polite or to avoid hurting someone’s feelings or stopping them from being upset by the truth.
A white lie also is considered a lie to be used for greater good or a pro-social behavior,
A white lie is sometimes is used to shield someone from a hurtful or emotionally-damaging truth, especially when not knowing the truth is deemed by the liar as completely harmless.
A big lie attempts to trick the victim into believing something major, which will likely be contradicted by some information the victim already possesses, or by their common sense.
When the lie is of sufficient magnitude it may succeed, due to the victim’s reluctance to believe that an untruth on such a grand scale would be concocted.
A black lie is about simple and callous selfishness.
Black lies are usually told when others gain nothing, and the sole purpose is either to get oneself out of trouble or to gain something one desires.
A blue lie is a form of lying that is told to benefit a collective or in the name of the collective good.
An April fool is a lie or hoax told/performed on April Fools’ Day.
To bluff is to pretend to have a capability or intention one does not possess.
Bluffing an act of deception that is rarely seen as immoral when it takes place in the context of a game.
This kind of deception is consented to in advance by the players,and is not considered to be lying, in that it is acceptable and is commonly expected as a tactic.
Bullshit does not necessarily have to be a complete fabrication.
Bullshit is offered by a speaker who does not care whether what is said is true because the speaker is more concerned with giving the hearer some impression.
Thus, bullshit may be either true or false, but demonstrates a lack of concern for the truth that is likely to lead to falsehoods.
A cover-up may be used to deny, defend, or obfuscate a lie, errors, embarrassing actions, lifestyle, or previous lies.
Defamation is the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual person, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation.
To deflect is avoiding the subject that the lie is about, and not giving attention to it.
Skillful deflectors are passive-aggressive, who when confronted with the subject choose to ignore and not respond.
Disinformation is intentionally false or misleading information that is spread in a calculated way to deceive target audiences.
An exaggeration occurs when the most fundamental aspects of a statement are true, but only to a certain degree: stretching the truth or making something appear more powerful, meaningful, or real than it is.
Fake news is a type of yellow journalism that consists of deliberate misinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media.
A fib is a lie that is easy to forgive due to its subject being a trivial matter.
Fraud refers to the act of inducing another person or people to believe a lie in order to secure material or financial gain for the liar.
A gray lie is told partly to help others and partly to help ourselves.
It may vary in the shade of gray, depending on the balance of help and harm.
A half-truth or partial truth is a deceptive statement that includes some element of truth.
The statement might be partly true, the statement may be totally true, but only part of the whole truth, or it may employ some deceptive element, such as improper punctuation or double meaning, especially if the intent is to deceive, evade, blame, or misrepresent the truth.
Partial truths are characterized by malicious intent.
An honest lie, or confabulation, are verbal statements or actions that inaccurately describe the history, background, and present situations, with no intent to misinform and the individual is unaware that their information is false: technically a lie at all since, by definition, there must be an intent to deceive for the statement to be considered a lie.
Jocose lies are lies meant in jest, intended to be understood as such by all present parties-Teasing and irony, story telling are examples.
Lie-to-children describes a simplified explanation of technical or complex subjects as a teaching method.
Such lies-to-children are useful in teaching complex subjects to people who are new to the concepts discussed, they can promote the creation of misconceptions among the people who listen to them.
Lying by omission, continuing misrepresentation occurs when an important fact is left out in order to foster a misconception.
Lying by omission includes the failure to correct pre-existing misconceptions.
An omission is when a person tells most of the truth, but leaves out a few key facts that therefore, completely obscures the truth.
A memory hole refers to the alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts, or other records, such as from a website or other archive, particularly as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened.
Minimization, the opposite of exaggeration is a type of deception involving denial coupled with rationalization in situations where complete denial is implausible.
Mutual deceit is a situation wherein lying is both accepted and expected.
With mutual deceit the parties mutually accept the deceit in question.
A noble lie, a strategic untruth, is one that normally would cause discord if uncovered, but offers some benefit to the liar and assists in an orderly society, therefore, potentially being beneficial to others.
A noble lie is often told to maintain law, order, and safety.
Paltering refers to the active use of selective truthful statements to mislead.
Paternalistic deception is a lie told because it is believed that the deceived person will benefit.
Pathological lying is a behavior of habitual or compulsive lying.
Pathological lying refers to falsification entirely disproportionate to any discernible end.
Pathological lying may be extensive, complicated, and may manifest over a period of years or even a lifetime.
Pathological liars may be aware they are lying, or may believe they are telling the truth, being unaware that they are relating fantasies.
Perjury is the act of lying or making verifiably false statements on a material matter under oath or affirmation in a court of law, or in any of various sworn statements in writing.
Perjury is a crime, because the witness has sworn to tell the truth and, for the credibility of the court to remain intact, witness testimony must be relied on as truthful.
A polite lie is a lie that a politeness standard requires, and that usually is known to be untrue by both parties:
A common polite lie is to decline invitations because of scheduling difficulties.
Puffery is an exaggerated claim typically found in advertising and publicity announcements: the highest quality at the lowest price.
Such statements are unlikely to be true – but cannot be proven false, do not violate trade laws, especially as the consumer is expected to be able to determine that it is not the absolute truth.
A red lie is about spite and revenge, driven by the motive to harm others even at the expense of harming oneself, out of an angry desire for retribution.
Speaking with a forked tongue means deliberately saying one thing and meaning another or, to be hypocritical, or act in a duplicitous manner.
Weasel word is a term for words and phrases aimed at creating an impression that a specific or meaningful statement has been made, when in fact only a vague or ambiguous claim has been communicated, enabling the specific meaning to be denied if the statement is challenged.
A white lie is a harmless or trivial lie, especially one told in order to be polite or to avoid hurting someone’s feelings or stopping them from being upset by the truth, and is considered a lie to be used for greater good.
A white lie is sometimes is used to shield someone from a hurtful or emotionally-damaging truth.
This is especially so when not knowing the truth is deemed by the liar as completely harmless.
White lies can harm as they can foster distrust when used in inappropriate situations.
White lies can be distinguished from harmful lies or cheating, as their
benefits outweigh the harms, no alternative exists, and if
everyone in a similar circumstance acting similarly, society would be no worse off
Philosophical considerations:
Lying is a perversion of the natural faculty of speech, which is to communicate the thoughts of the
When one lies, one undermines trust in society.
It is argued that lying it is negative for the liar and the person who’s being lied to.
To lie is to deny others access to reality.
One cannot anticipate how harmful lies can be.
People who are lied to may fail to solve problems they could have solved only on a basis of good information.
To lie also harms oneself, as it makes the liar distrust the person who’s being lied to.
Liars generally feel badly about their lies and sense a loss of sincerity, authenticity, and integrity.
People who refrain from lying may do so only because of the difficulty involved in maintaining lies: thus, some people tell the truth only out of weakness.
In countries with high prevalence of rule breaking, dishonesty in people in their early 20s was more prevalent.
The capacity to lie is a talent human beings possess universally.
The evolutionary theory-only the fittest will survive and by lying, we aim to improve other’s perception of our social image and status, capability, and desirability in general.
Humans begin lying at a mere age of six months, through crying and laughing, to gain attention.
Although men and women lie at equal frequencies, men are more likely to lie in order to please themselves while women are more likely to lie to please others.
It is presumed that people living in a world of competition and strict social norms, are able to use lies and deception to enhance chances of survival and productivity.
Some assert that men like to exaggerate about their sexual expertise, but shy away from topics that degrade them, while women understate their sexual expertise to make themselves more respectable and loyal in the eyes of men.
People with Parkinson’s disease show difficulties in deceiving others, difficulties that link to prefrontal hypometabolism.
Pseudologia fantastica is a term applied by psychiatrists to the behavior of habitual or compulsive lying.
Mythomania is the condition where there is an excessive or abnormal propensity for lying and exaggerating.
Composing a lie takes longer than telling the truth.