The act of lying

[The Lurker]

I loathe to draw stark generalizations even between people who fall under such a label as "INTP" because no two people are exactly alike, but judging from many people's posts as well as various internet personality profiles and my own unique personality, I believe it's safe to say that the majority of INTPs do not take well to being lied to; we prefer things honest and straightforward, and generally we lose a large amount of respect for those who blatantly lie to us without having a very good reason for doing so, and that's rarely the case. For clarity, I'm not referring to a mere "stretching of the truth", but total or near-total untruths.

But what if you were in the position of the liar? Would you lie in the first place, or even really be capable of being a convincing liar?

I personally don't like lying, because getting tangled in your own web of lies makes for a very bad situation and makes you look like a hyprocrite among other things if you've before espoused your hatred of lying. However I think that occassional lies are necessary to maintain tranquility or a simple balance of emotions. For instance, I've long lost count the number of times I've lied to my overbearing ESTJ father, who could not understand the concept of "doing something later" and was incessant in his nagging regarding the tedious task of doing homework. If I gave in to his nagging and told him the truth (that I had not yet done my homework) it would make me want to do it less because my personal schedule had been intruded upon, as he would often force me to start working right then and there. However, if I just lied to him (becoming increasingly more convincing over the years), he would leave me alone and everyone would be happy. Of course I would have to do the homework before progress reports were e-mailed out, but the point is that lying contributed to my happiness in a small way. As another example, I somtimes lie to my more extraverted "outer-circle" friends if I'm not interested in doing anything with them at the time by claiming other obligations, as they rarely ever understand that I simply don't have the energy or will. "That's no excuse, you must be lying!" I recall one of them replied to me once, when of course I was telling the truth...I'm reasonably sure that we've all lied on this "small scale" at some point.

I really avoid lies on any scale greater than those, mostly because they can be very hard to maintain and may only get riskier with every day they live with consequences for its discovery I'd rather not incur. Nonetheless I've actually been told that I'd make a great liar because I can make myself sound convincing and can maintain an excellent "poker face", especially if I can anticipate a situation in the immediate future where I would, for some reason, need to lie, making it less of a "heat of the moment" action and thus easier for me to maintain...it just makes me feel really "dirty" afterwards.

Are you a "small scale" liar, or have you been known to weave larger webs of deception at times? How frequently do you find yourself lying, if rarely at all? How do you act while lying and after the fact (or, are you a good or bad liar)?

 

[420MuNkEy]

I'll usually only lie (ie, a total untruth) when (Pro/Con)-(Risk²*2)>1
The frequency of the aforementioned being true is too dynamic to give any sort of meaningful estimate.
As for how I act, well I'm socially awkward all the time so being awkward whilst lying doesn't appear different to an observer

 

[warryer]

Sometimes I lie to get myself out of situations I don't want to be in:

-No officer I don't know how fast I was going.
-I have to wake up early in the morning (I don't want to talk/hang out with you right now)

Usually the lie is a softer way for me to tell a person what I want- a way that I don't have to worry about the blunt truth being too much for the person to handle.

I myself hate it when people try to beat around the bush to let me down gently. If I figure out that this is what they are doing I will stop them and ask for it straight. Half the time I'm oblivious to these sorts of things.

This sounds hypocritical. But I have seen more often than not that people don't handle situations the way I would. Most don't want a cold hard slap in the face. I can't imagine why because it is what it is.

If you're going to lie you have to see all angles (paranoia) and play the part. I think I am pretty good at it when I need to be because I am, most of the time, honest with other people. With myself is another story but, I'm working on it.

What is strange to me are chronic liars who juice up even the most mundane story. I had somebody tell me he was being chased by the cops and then he made a 90º left turn on a gravel road at 45mph to get away. Did you now? I guess some people's self esteem lies with the opinions of others.

 

[ProxyAmenRa]

Sometimes I lie to get myself out of situations I don't want to be in:

-No officer I don't know how fast I was going.

You have just consented to the officer's perception of your speed, bad idea. Most people confess to such activities or consent another to make an arbitrary decision. The best possible thing you can do in the situation flows like this:

Office: "Sir/Madam are you were you traveling over the speed limit?"
You: "I was not speeding."

As you can see you don't open yourself up to the mere perception of the police officer (you did no confess either). Now he/she needs concrete evidence that you were in fact speeding.

---

People persistently lie to me all the time. They are quite obvious when doing so; their body language indicates as such or there are logical falsehoods in the information they are conveying.

My conversation with people are more or less half truths: as in, I only tell people half of the story. I view telling half truths as lying. Hence, I lie quite a bit. The purpose? The full truth is presents me as extremely boring. I rather be boring than tell lies. Aren't I in a predicament?

I do not engage in such immature activity with people within my close relationship spheres.