CHAPTER III

PSYCHOLOGY OF LYING

The capability of telling a lie is learned as human developed and earned experiences.
Young children learn to lie to avoid punishment for any wrong doing. In this early stage of
development, children utter lies which are unbelievable because they could not fully realize
whether their statement is believable or not. When their lies were undetected, they will be
encouraged to tell more lies is not. The moral understanding to stop from telling lies is not yet
perceive by children. Experience makes them understand the nature and effect of lying. Their
attitude of telling lies are likely to change in early adulthood. Obviously, adult lying is more
sophisticated that children.
There are many reasons why people lie. But commonly, it is due to fear of detection
that one has committed something undesirable or would like to preserve something valuable.
For instance, he may feel that detection would result to embarrassment, penalty and
punishment, thus, placing his whole life at stake.
A person’s fear, anxieties and apprehensions are channelled toward the situation which
reminds his instinct of self-preservation to struggle out from the consequences of the wrong he
had already done.

Lying
Lying is that manages to avoid these problems is that a lie is an assertion, the content
of which the speaker believes to be false, which is made with the intention to deceive the hearer
with respect to that content (Williams 2002).
Making a false statement deliberately by someone who knows it is not true (Hawker,
2006).

Lie
A lie is any of the following: untruthful statement, falsehood, anything that deceives or
creates false impression, untrue statements especially with intent to deceive or to give an
erroneous or misleading impression. It is also synonymous to deceit, deception, fabrication,
falsehood and untruth.

Deception
Is defined as an act of convincing another to believe an information that is not true. It
involves concepts like propaganda, distraction and concealment.

Detection
In this context, detection is the act of detecting, discovery, perceiving, finding, or
uncovering something obscure such as a lie.

KINDS OF LIE
1. White Lie or Benign Lie- this kind of lie which not meant to injure anyone,
with little moral input and commonly told to maintain the stability of a
relationship, defer to the authority of a superior, or protect the psychological
self-image of the person telling the lie.
2. Pathological Lie- this kind of lie also called compulsive lying. The individual
may be aware they are lying, or may believe they are telling the truth, being
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 unaware that they are relating fantasies. It should be said that those persons
suffer from mental disorders that may result in patients telling lies, but not
realizing that what they are saying is not true.
3. Red Lie- This lies involves political interest and motives because this is a part
of communist propaganda strategy. This lie is prevalent in communist countries
or communist-infested nations. The example of this lies are propaganda brain
washing, blackmail via espionage and treason.
4. Black Lie- This kind of lie accompanies by pretensions and hypocrisies,
intriguing to cause dishonor or discredit ones good image.
5. Malicious or Judicial Lie- This is very pure and unjustifiable kind of lie,
intended purely mislead justice. The probable result would be “perjury” and
outright dishonesty to obstruct justice.

Other Kinds of Lie

1. Fabrication- a lie when someone tell a fact he or she doesn’t know for sure
is true. Fabrication are extremely hurtful because they lead to rumors that
can harm someone else’s reputation.
2. Bold-faced lie- is one which is told when it is obvious to all concerned that
is a lie. For example, a child who has candy all around his mouth and denies
that he has eaten candy is a bold-faced liar.
3. Lying by omission- one lie by omission by omitting an important fact,
deliberately leaving another person with a misconception. Lying by
omission includes failures to correct pre-existing misconceptions. For
example, Pedro may tell his wife Maria that he has was out at a office, which
is true, but lie by omitting the fact that he also visited his mistress, although
it is disputable whether or not this is actually a lie.
4. Lie-to-children- often a platitude which may use euphemism, which is told
to make adult subject acceptable to children.
5. Noble lie- one which would normally cause discord if it were uncovered,
but which offers some benefit to the liar and assists in an orderly society,
therefore potentially beneficial to others. It is often told to maintain law,
order and safety.
6. Emergency lie- is a strategic lie when the truth may not be told because it
may harm a third party. For example, a neighbour might lie to an enraged
husband about the whereabouts of his unfaithful wife, because said husband
might reasonably be expected to inflict physical injury should he encounter
his wife in person. Alternatively, an emergency lie could denote a
(temporary) lie told to a second person because of the presence of a third.
7. Perjury- the act of lying or making verifiably false statements on a material
matter under oath or affirmation in a court of law, or in writing. Perjury is a
crime, because the witness has sworn to tell the truth and, for credibility of
the court to remain intact, witness testimony must be relied on as truthful.
8. Bluffing- pretending to have a capability or intention which one does not
actually possess. It is an act of deception which is rarely seen as immoral,
because it takes place in the context of a game where this kind of deception
is consented to in advance by the players. For example, an athlete who

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 indicates he will move left and the actually dodges right is not considered to
be lying. In this situation, deception is accepted and can be expected as a
tactic.
9. Jocose lies- are those which are meant in jest, and are usually understood as
such by all present parties. Teasing and sarcasm are examples.
10. Contextual lies- one can state part of the truth out of context, knowing that
without complete information, it gives a false impression. Likewise, one can
actually state accurate facts, yet deceive with them. To say “yeah, that’s
right, I slept with your best friend” utilizing a sarcastic, offended tone, may
cause the listener to assume the speaker did not mean what he said, when in
fact he did.
11. Promotion lies- advertisement often contain statements which are
incredible such as “We are always happy to give a refund”, or exaggerated
predictions such as “You will love our new product”.
TYPES OF LIARS
1. Panic Liars- one who lies in order to avoid the consequences of a
confession, they are afraid of embarrassment and it is a serious blow to their
ego. They believe that confession will just make the matter worst.
2. Occupational Liars- are practical liars and lies when it has a higher “pay
off” than telling the truth.
3. Tournament Liars- are those who love to lie and are excited by the
challenge of not being detected. For them an interview is a contest and wants
to win, these person realizes that they will probably be convicted but will
not give anyone the satisfaction of hearing them or her confesses, the want
that people will believe that the law us punishing an innocent person.
4. Psychopathic Liars- the most difficult type, these persons have no
conscience and shows no regret for dishonesty and no manifestation of guilt.
5. Ethnological Liars- are those who taught not to be a squealer (squeal-to
cry or to shrill voice-used by underworld gang in order for their member not
to reveal any secret of their organization).
6. Pathological Liars- are persons who cannot distinguish right from wrong
due to their sick mind. They are insane.
7. Black Liars- are persons who always pretends what he is and what he thinks
of himself.

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CUES OF LIE/ DECEPTION
3 Categories of Behavioral Cues
1. verbal cues, which pertain to the content of a person’s speech;
2. paralinguistic cues, which relate to speech but do not carry any semantic meaning (e.g., speech
errors, speech hesitations, the level of voice pitch); and,
3. nonverbal cues, which include all forms of body language, including facial expressions.

Cues to Deception (DePaulo et al. (2003) & Vrij (2008)

Vocal
1. Hesitations (use of speech fillers, e.g., “ah,” “um,” “er,” “uh,” and “hmmm”)
2. Speech errors (grammatical errors, word or sentence repetition, false starts, sentence change,
sentence incompletions, slips of the tongue, etc.)
3. High-pitched voice
4. Pauses (silent, filled, or mixed)
Visual
1. Gaze aversion (looking away from the conversation partner)
2. Facial fidgeting (face touching or rubbing hair)
3. Self-fidgeting (touching, rubbing, or scratching body or face)
4. Fidgeting (undifferentiated)
5. Leg and foot movements
6. Posture shifts (movements made to change seating position)
7. Head movements (head nods and head shakes)
8. Eye blinks (blinking of the eyes)