Lies Everywhere

Throughout my research on free will in my ELI last year, a common subject that was brought up was the use of blackmail to force others into unwanted actions. When I think of the use of blackmail, I also think of lies, the use of both deception and misconception. Lying is also so interesting because lies are such a big part of our lives . Think about it, from the moment we are born till the day we die, we are constantly lied to. Santa and The Easter Bunny are just a couple that come to mind immediately.

Researching lying has been a learning process. Lies are so prominent in society but as humans we like to believe that no one lies and that just is not true. I think everyone should be enlightened on the secret world of lying because of its prominence in our society. If more people know how to identify when someone is lying, then realistically people would not lie as much, because the whole point of lying in the first place is to hide the truth from people. If more people know how to identify the obvious giveaways to lying, then lying would be both harder to get away with and people might not see the reason do lie so often.

Much of my current research has been centered on the brain and psyche of pathological and impulsive liars. At the beginning of my ELI, I was studying the symptoms when someone lies and then moved on to the motivation of lying, those being my first two goals. My last goal was to research visual deception, but it has changed into something much different. My last goal is now a slight extension of my goal 2 but I am focusing mainly on those traits in pathological liars and impulsive liars. It is the most entertaining but also complicated and negative study I have ever done. It is interesting to learn about why and how people lie, but it is an extremely tough thing to read about. A lot of the research is centered on “evil” things/acts. It is also hard to accept the prominence of lies in our society. Basically everyone constantly lies, and it is hard to accept that and research that, because we like to believe that no one lies.

~Devin