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Thread: What Lying Actually Does to Your Brain and Body Every Day

  1. #1

    What Lying Actually Does to Your Brain and Body Every Day

    https://lifehacker.com/5968613/what-...body-every-day

    12/17/12



    Each day, we make the same choice hundreds of times: whether to lie or tell the truth. It often happens without thinking, and we ignore the profound impact of these seemingly inconsequential decisions. Even the smallest lies can cost you money, impact your relationships, and affect your choices. Conversely, honesty offers many surprising psychological benefits. Here's how truth and lies affect your brain and your life every day.

    Little Lies Can Cost You Money

    You're out at a restaurant and your server comes by to ask you how you like your food. You say everything's great. The food is okay, but you don't want to be rude so you lie. It may not seem like a big deal, but when the check comes you'll be overly generous with your tip. This is one example of how white lies actually affect your behavior. Psychologist Guy Winch, writing for Psychology Today, explains:

    [Researches Argo and Shiv] found that 85% of diners in restaurants admitted to telling white lies when their dining experiences were unsatisfactory (i.e., claiming all was well when it wasn't). However the real interesting finding was that diners who told white lies to cover up their dissatisfactions were then likely to leave bigger tips than those who did not. Why would diners who were less satisfied with their meals and who lied to their server about it leave an even bigger tip as a result? The researchers propose that cognitive dissonance was at play.

    Conigitive dissonance describes the discomfort you feel when holding two (or more) conflicting thoughts, and it shows up a lot when you lie. In another study by Argo and Shiv, University students received a short list of words with which to form sentences. Some participants received lists containing basic words that had no real meaning behind them, but others received lists of words related to honesty. Then, the research assistant purposefully left the participants in the room with nothing to do for about 12 minutes just to annoy them. Upon returning, she asked some students how they felt. Most said "fine," which was obviously a lie because they were clearly annoyed.

    After this initial test, the researchers invited the participants to a second study with a raffle prize of $100. They also asked the participants if they'd like to donate a portion of their winnings back to the study. Anyone primed to think about honesty and told a white lie in the first experiment offered up more than half their money (on average). Everyone else opted to donate about one third of their potential raffle winnings. Again, cognitive dissonance reared its head when the conflict of lying came to mind.

    We ignore white lies because they seem harmless. They rarely resurface in conversation, but while their future effects are subtle they do exist in profound ways. As a result, it's necessary to look at the long term effects of our actions even when the consequences seem benign or even non-existent.

    Lies Tax Your Brain, Cause Stress, and Harm Your Body

    Lying requires a lot of effort. When you tell the truth, you simply remember what happens. When you lie you have to consider what you're trying to hide, figure out a believable version of the opposite, give a convincing performance to sell that lie, and then remember it for the rest of eternity so you never get caught. Even if you're pretending to love your grandmother's disgusting fruitcake, that's a lot of pressure. Furthermore, it builds and builds every time you lie. (And you all do, even if you don't think so.) According to deception expert Pamela Meyer, the average person lies three times within the first minute of meeting a stranger and between 10 and 200 times per day. We handle this constant lying well considering how remarkably often it occurs, but that's especially easy to do when we have an easy time ignoring the consequences.

    ...




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  3. #2


    Its written on the face...

    Gulag Chief:
    "Article 58-1a, twenty five years... What did you get it for?"
    Gulag Prisoner: "For nothing at all."
    Gulag Chief: "You're lying... The sentence for nothing at all is 10 years"



  4. #3
    [Researches Argo and Shiv] found that 85% of diners in restaurants admitted to telling white lies when their dining experiences were unsatisfactory (i.e., claiming all was well when it wasn't). However the real interesting finding was that diners who told white lies to cover up their dissatisfactions were then likely to leave bigger tips than those who did not. Why would diners who were less satisfied with their meals and who lied to their server about it leave an even bigger tip as a result? The researchers propose that cognitive dissonance was at play.
    That's just dumb. I go out to have a good time and unless the food has a cockroach in it or something, I probably won't complain. If I'm having fun, that's all that matters and if the server did a good job I leave a nice tip even if the food wasn't very good. He/she didn't cook the food.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Paul View Post
    The intellectual battle for liberty can appear to be a lonely one at times. However, the numbers are not as important as the principles that we hold. Leonard Read always taught that "it's not a numbers game, but an ideological game." That's why it's important to continue to provide a principled philosophy as to what the role of government ought to be, despite the numbers that stare us in the face.
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    This intellectually stimulating conversation is the reason I keep coming here.

  5. #4
    At the end of the day, honesty will always be the best policy.

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by alivecream View Post
    At the end of the day, honesty will always be the best policy.
    I disagree. I tell white lies all the time and I don't feel a bit bad or stressed out about it. As a matter of fact, I would have a hard time telling the truth 100% of the time.

    Even if you're pretending to love your grandmother's disgusting fruitcake, that's a lot of pressure. Furthermore, it builds and builds every time you lie.
    For example, what purpose does it serve telling your Granny her fruitcake is disgusting? I wish my Granny were still around to lie to. I would've broken her heart if I told her I didn't like her boozy fruitcake. I manned up, ate the $#@!, lied my ass off, and tossed it when she wasn't looking. She worked hard on it and was proud of it. IMO, it takes a special kind of $#@! to hurt their Granny's feelings over a stupid piece of fruitcake because they don't want the stress of lying.

    What about the stress of telling the unvarnished truth? I can't even imagine how stressful my life would've been if I'd been so rude to my Granny. Personally, I don't want to hear the truth all the time and I don't think most people do, either. Sometimes people ask your opinion to be reassured and telling the truth would only serve to hurt their feelings.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Paul View Post
    The intellectual battle for liberty can appear to be a lonely one at times. However, the numbers are not as important as the principles that we hold. Leonard Read always taught that "it's not a numbers game, but an ideological game." That's why it's important to continue to provide a principled philosophy as to what the role of government ought to be, despite the numbers that stare us in the face.
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    This intellectually stimulating conversation is the reason I keep coming here.

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal
    What about the stress of telling the unvarnished truth? I can't even imagine how stressful my life would've been if I'd been so rude to my Granny. Personally, I don't want to hear the truth all the time and I don't think most people do, either. Sometimes people ask your opinion to be reassured and telling the truth would only serve to hurt their feelings.
    Yea I have determined that most people do not want the truth. My grandchildren tell me the truth and it hurts but I am going to let it slide in the hopes that their generation will be less afraid of truth. When they tell me they like something I can feel good knowing that they are being truthful.

    I could not be truthful with my mother. My dad was an unvarnished truth teller and he died early where as my mom lived into her 80's. My sister lies to me all the time and it makes it difficult for me to interpret what she really wants which is usually money, I prefer the truth. I do lie a lot which stresses me out. I don't lie to a server about food that I am paying for. I want to enjoy my food or at least not pay for it if it is yucky, I am not paying for food that taste like crap.

    I have a friend who owns a restaurant and I want to write a good review for her but every time I eat the food my stomach hurts for a couple of days I haven't had the heart to tell her that her food makes my stomach hurt and that stresses me out, I really want to tell her I hope I will. I think we would be more at peace if we could stop lying to one another because then we would all share the real reality. I am sure I have been more hated for telling the truth than for lying.

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by timosman View Post
    What Lying Actually Does to Your Brain and Body Every Day

    https://lifehacker.com/5968613/what-...body-every-day

    Quote Originally Posted by brushfire View Post


    Its written on the face...
    Wow. Weird.

    I JUST watched this HRC video yesterday and noticed the comment below:

    I remember reading like a week ago about a study where they discovered that telling small white lies over time changes how your brain works so that you don't feel like your lying or atleast don't feel bad about lying or sumthing


    evil incarnate.
    Last edited by PursuePeace; 07-25-2018 at 08:32 AM.

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by alivecream View Post
    At the end of the day, honesty will always be the best policy.
    You'll see your problems multiplied
    If you continually decide
    To faithfully pursue
    The policy of truth


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2VBmHOYpV8



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by alivecream View Post
    At the end of the day, honesty will always be the best policy.
    You don't get laid, your genes are eliminated. Thanks for playing.

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Working Poor View Post
    Yea I have determined that most people do not want the truth. My grandchildren tell me the truth and it hurts but I am going to let it slide in the hopes that their generation will be less afraid of truth. When they tell me they like something I can feel good knowing that they are being truthful.

    I could not be truthful with my mother. My dad was an unvarnished truth teller and he died early where as my mom lived into her 80's. My sister lies to me all the time and it makes it difficult for me to interpret what she really wants which is usually money, I prefer the truth. I do lie a lot which stresses me out. I don't lie to a server about food that I am paying for. I want to enjoy my food or at least not pay for it if it is yucky, I am not paying for food that taste like crap.

    I have a friend who owns a restaurant and I want to write a good review for her but every time I eat the food my stomach hurts for a couple of days I haven't had the heart to tell her that her food makes my stomach hurt and that stresses me out, I really want to tell her I hope I will. I think we would be more at peace if we could stop lying to one another because then we would all share the real reality. I am sure I have been more hated for telling the truth than for lying.
    Oh, I tell the truth about what I want, lol. You don't even have to ask. I'm not talking about destructive lying. I'm talking about sparing someone's feelings.

    If I ever ask how I look, I want to hear Liiiiiiiieeeesss. It would destroy me if Mr A told me the truth. I know the truth, I have a friggin mirror and I'm not blind. When I ask stuff like that, I'm just fishin' for a compliment and I think most people are. My girlfriend wears (IMO) ugly shoes all the time but she loves them and fishes for compliments. I started just telling her how cute they are before she asks and you ought to see her sweet face light up. I love her. I want to make her feel good.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Paul View Post
    The intellectual battle for liberty can appear to be a lonely one at times. However, the numbers are not as important as the principles that we hold. Leonard Read always taught that "it's not a numbers game, but an ideological game." That's why it's important to continue to provide a principled philosophy as to what the role of government ought to be, despite the numbers that stare us in the face.
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    This intellectually stimulating conversation is the reason I keep coming here.

  13. #11
    I have never lied.
    Pfizer Macht Frei!

    Openly Straight Man, Danke, Awarded Top Rated Influencer. Community Standards Enforcer.


    Quiz: Test Your "Income" Tax IQ!

    Short Income Tax Video

    The Income Tax Is An Excise, And Excise Taxes Are Privilege Taxes

    The Federalist Papers, No. 15:

    Except as to the rule of appointment, the United States have an indefinite discretion to make requisitions for men and money; but they have no authority to raise either by regulations extending to the individual citizens of America.

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Danke View Post
    I have never lied.
    I am a truthful whitefoot.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal View Post
    That's just dumb. I go out to have a good time and unless the food has a cockroach in it or something, I probably won't complain. If I'm having fun, that's all that matters and if the server did a good job I leave a nice tip even if the food wasn't very good. He/she didn't cook the food.
    This^^ the extreme scientism going on in the article causes the author to overlook pragmatics.
    Quote Originally Posted by Torchbearer
    what works can never be discussed online. there is only one language the government understands, and until the people start speaking it by the magazine full... things will remain the same.
    Hear/buy my music here "government is the enemy of liberty"-RP Support me on Patreon here Ephesians 6:12

  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal View Post
    Oh, I tell the truth about what I want, lol. You don't even have to ask. I'm not talking about destructive lying. I'm talking about sparing someone's feelings.

    If I ever ask how I look, I want to hear Liiiiiiiieeeesss. It would destroy me if Mr A told me the truth. I know the truth, I have a friggin mirror and I'm not blind. When I ask stuff like that, I'm just fishin' for a compliment and I think most people are. My girlfriend wears (IMO) ugly shoes all the time but she loves them and fishes for compliments. I started just telling her how cute they are before she asks and you ought to see her sweet face light up. I love her. I want to make her feel good.
    Mirrors dont lie, but, like politicians, they can lie by excluding very important details. Mirrors do lie in the way that they do not tell you what you are on the inside, as a person, a human being.

    Also, wanting to hear Lies isnt necessarily a "Lie" so to say. Its a Balance between Internal and External reinforcement. You, I, and most people are not "good looking" by the standards as set by the MSM. Diminishing a sense of Self Worth by saying "you ugly people are not worthy of being celebrated" is a method of manipulation. That manipulation has different sets of results depending on the source. Advertisers can use that diminished sense of Self Worth to increase sales, while Politicians very frequently exploit it to get votes, MSM does it to increase viewership, and some types of other People might even do it in an effort to increase their own sense of Self Worth. It depends greatly on what the goals are.

    The next time you look in the mirror, look below the surface and not just at your physical shape, then ask yourself, "have my actions helped other people"?

    ---

    In general, Truth can be the best policy, but not 100% truth. I would figure about 80% to 90% is about right. It will vary from person to person.

    It has been said that the A Students work for the C Students, and the D Students own the business. The reason that is currently held is that the C Students have encountered Failure enough that they have gained experience in coping with Failure more than the A Students. Another wildly different point of view might be how often one should scold a dog to create the most self confident dog that one can. Yes, literal dog training. The results of scolding and lies are quite similar. I think there is a Ratio between the two. When one scolds a dog, such as training to not take food off of the table, those scoldings are minimized. It teaches the dog "I do not want you to do that". That is balanced out when the dog is rewarded for sitting when told to sit, and coming when told to come here. The ratio is very important between the Scoldings and Rewards. It is about 10 or 20 to 1. So 80% to 90%.

    Since the real goal here is to teach people both what constitutes Failure as well as how to overcome that Failure, lets fail on purpose to understand the results. Take the same dog. Dont ever praise it even if it does what you want it to do. Only ever scold it. And use excessive scolding, such as beating it, screaming at it, and / or Excessive Violence. It will be especially important to implement severe punishments for minor things, like sniffing something or making eye contact. What kind of dog do YOU think that type of training will produce? Will it produce a high self esteem dog, or a fearful low self esteem dog? We need BOTH Positive and Negative reinforcement to become as emotionally strong as we possibly can. As mentioned, the C Students encounter failure more frequently than the A Students. They hit that sweet spot with that Ratio that provides for Balance.

    Lying also has MANY different sides. Are you the one doing the Lying or are you the one being Lied to? Are you Lying to yourself? Is the Lie done by Exclusion? Is the Lie done to maintain a proper Balance of Positive / Negative reinforcement? Is the Lie being done to exploit someone and cause genuine harm? Is the Lie said to spare someones feelings? Is the Lie expressed based on Objective or Subjective conclusions?

    Not all Lying is necessarily bad or intentional. Being Lied to can also be quite constructive from specific points of view, such as learning how to spot a Lie. The reason people Lie in general is because they expect to not be caught. However, when practiced, being able to spot a Liar enables a person to prevent harm from befalling them, and in some circumstances harm from befalling Society. In any given population, about 1% has Sociopathic tendencies. This means they feel no guilt or shame as a result of Lying with the intent to cause harm to others. That figure actually changes with CEOs of businesses, which is about 4% to 5%. The people at the top have less trouble with causing harm in any form to others than most of the people. So for the normal person to survive an encounter with a Sociopath, they need to be able to spot the Lies they tell, thus, we need to be Lied to in order to develop adequate Self Defense mechanisms against their intended harm. We need to look no further than Politicians to understand that. And, we need the Small Liars to teach us that there are those types of people in the world who want nothing more than to watch the world burn at your expense, and how to deal with them.

    Most importantly, we need a Reasonable Ratio between Lies and Truth just as we need a similar Ratio between Positive and Negative reinforcement to become the strongest version of ourselves.
    1776 > 1984

    The FAILURE of the United States Government to operate and maintain an
    Honest Money System , which frees the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, is the single largest contributing factor to the World's current Economic Crisis.

    The Elimination of Privacy is the Architecture of Genocide

    Belief, Money, and Violence are the three ways all people are controlled

    Quote Originally Posted by Zippyjuan View Post
    Our central bank is not privately owned.

  17. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by DamianTV View Post
    Mirrors dont lie, but, like politicians, they can lie by excluding very important details. Mirrors do lie in the way that they do not tell you what you are on the inside, as a person, a human being.

    Also, wanting to hear Lies isnt necessarily a "Lie" so to say. Its a Balance between Internal and External reinforcement. You, I, and most people are not "good looking" by the standards as set by the MSM. Diminishing a sense of Self Worth by saying "you ugly people are not worthy of being celebrated" is a method of manipulation. That manipulation has different sets of results depending on the source. Advertisers can use that diminished sense of Self Worth to increase sales, while Politicians very frequently exploit it to get votes, MSM does it to increase viewership, and some types of other People might even do it in an effort to increase their own sense of Self Worth. It depends greatly on what the goals are.

    The next time you look in the mirror, look below the surface and not just at your physical shape, then ask yourself, "have my actions helped other people"?

    ---

    In general, Truth can be the best policy, but not 100% truth. I would figure about 80% to 90% is about right. It will vary from person to person.

    It has been said that the A Students work for the C Students, and the D Students own the business. The reason that is currently held is that the C Students have encountered Failure enough that they have gained experience in coping with Failure more than the A Students. Another wildly different point of view might be how often one should scold a dog to create the most self confident dog that one can. Yes, literal dog training. The results of scolding and lies are quite similar. I think there is a Ratio between the two. When one scolds a dog, such as training to not take food off of the table, those scoldings are minimized. It teaches the dog "I do not want you to do that". That is balanced out when the dog is rewarded for sitting when told to sit, and coming when told to come here. The ratio is very important between the Scoldings and Rewards. It is about 10 or 20 to 1. So 80% to 90%.

    Since the real goal here is to teach people both what constitutes Failure as well as how to overcome that Failure, lets fail on purpose to understand the results. Take the same dog. Dont ever praise it even if it does what you want it to do. Only ever scold it. And use excessive scolding, such as beating it, screaming at it, and / or Excessive Violence. It will be especially important to implement severe punishments for minor things, like sniffing something or making eye contact. What kind of dog do YOU think that type of training will produce? Will it produce a high self esteem dog, or a fearful low self esteem dog? We need BOTH Positive and Negative reinforcement to become as emotionally strong as we possibly can. As mentioned, the C Students encounter failure more frequently than the A Students. They hit that sweet spot with that Ratio that provides for Balance.

    Lying also has MANY different sides. Are you the one doing the Lying or are you the one being Lied to? Are you Lying to yourself? Is the Lie done by Exclusion? Is the Lie done to maintain a proper Balance of Positive / Negative reinforcement? Is the Lie being done to exploit someone and cause genuine harm? Is the Lie said to spare someones feelings? Is the Lie expressed based on Objective or Subjective conclusions?

    Not all Lying is necessarily bad or intentional. Being Lied to can also be quite constructive from specific points of view, such as learning how to spot a Lie. The reason people Lie in general is because they expect to not be caught. However, when practiced, being able to spot a Liar enables a person to prevent harm from befalling them, and in some circumstances harm from befalling Society. In any given population, about 1% has Sociopathic tendencies. This means they feel no guilt or shame as a result of Lying with the intent to cause harm to others. That figure actually changes with CEOs of businesses, which is about 4% to 5%. The people at the top have less trouble with causing harm in any form to others than most of the people. So for the normal person to survive an encounter with a Sociopath, they need to be able to spot the Lies they tell, thus, we need to be Lied to in order to develop adequate Self Defense mechanisms against their intended harm. We need to look no further than Politicians to understand that. And, we need the Small Liars to teach us that there are those types of people in the world who want nothing more than to watch the world burn at your expense, and how to deal with them.

    Most importantly, we need a Reasonable Ratio between Lies and Truth just as we need a similar Ratio between Positive and Negative reinforcement to become the strongest version of ourselves.
    That's a lot to chew on. I'm not sure I'm that deep, lol.

    All I'm saying is that sometimes honesty is not the best policy. If what you're saying is going to needlessly hurt someone's feelings over something trivial then say something kind instead. Especially when it concerns the people you love. It's called having social skills. People don't want to hear what you really think of their new baby/shoes/haircut/dog/whatever. They want to show them off and they want you to say they're wonderful.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Paul View Post
    The intellectual battle for liberty can appear to be a lonely one at times. However, the numbers are not as important as the principles that we hold. Leonard Read always taught that "it's not a numbers game, but an ideological game." That's why it's important to continue to provide a principled philosophy as to what the role of government ought to be, despite the numbers that stare us in the face.
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    This intellectually stimulating conversation is the reason I keep coming here.



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