Lying seems to be pretty much standard human practice: it seems virtually everyone does it to a greater or lesser extent. So why do we hate being caught?
鈥� Depending on the situation, being caught lying can make you seem untrustworthy, unreliable or dishonest. These are negative character attributes that we try to avoid. The reason is probably that untrustworthy individuals are likely to be ejected from social groups which, for early humans who lived in groups like other primates still do, amounted to a death sentence.
Therefore our dislike of being caught lying is a hangover from our past. It serves as a reminder to avoid lying (or at least being caught) for one鈥檚 long-term safety.
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Further evidence for this idea is that being caught lying tends to trigger the sympathetic nervous system 鈥� part of the fight or flight response 鈥� which results in us feeling flustered and embarrassed. This suggests that the stress and danger of being caught might result in ejection from the social group.
Lewis O鈥橲haughnessy, Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK
鈥� It鈥檚 because we are socialised from a young age to think it is wrong to lie, and this is backed up with the threat, implicit or otherwise, of punishment when discovered (either by human or superhuman agencies), ranging from public shame to hell.
The details of the socialisation will affect whether it is the telling of the lie (always discovered by the superhuman) or human discovery of the lie that matters most to you, and the punishment anticipated. But it is impossible to work out the details of this process without highly inappropriate experiments. This socialisation is a life-long process, so the balance between fear of superhuman and human discovery, as well as between fear of social shame and religious hell, are liable to change during someone鈥檚 life.
At a more practical level, one presumably lies for a purpose, so discovery means the purpose of the lie cannot be achieved. The degree of regret depends on the importance of the objective.
Sarah Lambert, Department of History, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淲hy lie?鈥�