This is a piece of persuasivewriting. It is of journalistic style.
In this text, the author assertsthe ubiquitous presence of petty white lies, analyzes its causes, discusses itsgrave consequences, and concludes that some lies are justifiable, while othersare to be avoided.
The author begins with the resultsof two surveys. Then he comments on the consequences of telling lies. In theend, he discusses which lies should be avoided.
Part I (Paras. 1-6) introduces the topic byreporting two survey results.
Part II (Paras. 7-11) shows that peopleoften tell white lies so as not to hurt others.
Part III (Paras. 12-15) deals with the consequencesof telling lies.
Part IV (Paras. 16-18) discusses whetherlies should be avoided at all costs.
TheReal Truth about Lies
RandyFitzgerald
1 At the University of Virginia inCharlottesville, psychology professor Bella DePaulo got 77 students and 70townspeople to volunteer for an unusual project. All kept diaries for a week,recording the numbers and details of the lies they told.
2 One student and six Charlottesville residents professed to have told no falsehoods. The other 140participants told 1535.
3 The lies were most often not what most ofus would call earth-shattering. Someone wouldpretend to be more positive or supportive of a spouse or friend than he or shereally was, or feign agreement with a relative’sopinion. According to DePaulo, women in their interactions with other womenlied mostly to spare the other’s feelings. Menlied to other men generally for self-promoting reasons.
4 Most strikingly, these tellers-of-a-thousand-liesreported that their deceptions caused them “little preoccupationor regret.” Might that, too, be a lie? Perhaps. But there isevidence that this attitude towards casual use of prevaricationis common.
5 For example, 20,000 middle and high-schoolerswere surveyed by the Josephson Institute of Ethics – a nonprofit organizationin Marina del Rey, California, devoted tocharacter education. Ninety-two per cent of the teenagers admitted having liedto their parents in the previous year, and 73 per cent characterized themselvesas “serial liars,” meaning they told lies weekly. Despite these admissions, 91per cent of all respondents said they were “satisfied with my own ethics andcharacter.”
6 Think how often we hear the expressions “I’llcall you” or “The check is in the mail” or “I’m sorry, but he stepped out.” Andthen there are professions — lawyers, pundits,public relations consultants —whose members seem to specialize in shaping or spinningthe truth to suit clients’ needs.
7 Little white lies have become ubiquitous, and the reasons we give each other fortelling fibs are familiar. Consider, forexample, a corporate executive whom I’ll call Tom. He goes with his wife andson to his mother-in-law’s home for a holiday dinner every year. Tom dislikesher “special” pumpkin pie intensely. Invariablyhe tells her how wonderful it is, to avoid hurting her feelings.
8 “What’s wrong with that?” Tom asked MichaelJosephson, president of the Josephson Institute. It’s a question we might allask.
9 Josephson replied by asking Tom to considerthe lie from his mother-in-law’s point of view. Suppose that one day Tom’schild blurts out the truth, and she discoversthe deceit. Will she tell her son-in-law, “Thank you for caring so much?” Or isshe more likely to feel hurt and say, “How could you have misled me all theseyears? And what else have you lied to me about? “
10 And what might Tom’s mother-in-law nowsuspect about her own daughter? And will Tom’s boy lie to his parents and yetbe satisfied with his own character?
11 How often do we compliment people on howwell they look, or express our appreciation for gifts, when we don’t reallymean it? Surely, these “nice lies” are harmless and well intended, a necessarysocial lubricant. But, like Tom, we shouldremember the words of English novelist Sir Walter Scott, who wrote, “What atangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
12 Even seemingly harmless falsehoods can haveunforeseen consequences. Philosopher Sissela Bok warns us that they can put uson a slippery slope. ‘After the first lies, others can come more easily,” shewrote in her book Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life. “Psychologicalbarriers wear down; the ability to make moredistinctions can coarsen; the liar’s perception of his chances of being caughtmay warp.”
13 Take the pumpkin-pie lies. In the firstplace, it wasn’t just that he wanted his mother-in-law to feel good. Whether herealized it or not, he really wanted her to think highlyof him. And after the initial deceit he needed to tell more lies tocover up the first one.
14 Who believes it anymore when they’re toldthat the person they want to reach by phone is “in a meeting”? By itself, thatkind of lie is of no great consequence. Still, the endless proliferation of these little prevarications doesmatter.
15 Once they’ve become common enough, even thesmall untruths that are not meant to hurt encourage a certain cynicism and loss of trust. “When [trust] is damaged,”warns Bok, “the community as a whole suffers; and when it is destroyed,societies falter and collapse.”
16 Are all white lies to be avoided at all costs? Not necessarily. The mostunderstandable and forgivable lies are an exchange of what ethicists refer toas the principle of trust for the principle of caring, “like tellingchildren about the tooth fairy, or deceiving someone to set them up for asurprise party,” Josephson says. “Still, we must ask ourselves if we arewilling to give our friends and associates theauthority to lie to us whenever they think it is for our own good.”
17 Josephson suggests a simple test. Ifsomeone you lie to finds out the truth, will he thank you for caring? Or willhe feel his long-term trust in you has been undermined?
18 And if you’re not sure, Mark Twain has givenus a good rule of thumb. “When in doubt, tellthe truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.”
What is the result of Professor Bella DePaulo’s survey? What conclusion can we draw from the result? (Paragraphs 1-2)
What is the result of the survey conducted by Josephson Institute of Ethics? What can we learn from it? (Paragraph 5)
According to the writer, what could be considered “nice lies”? (Paragraph 11)
What is the grave consequence of telling lies? (Paragraph 15)
Class Activity
Group discussion: What does this sentence “What a tangled webwe weave, when first we practice to deceive” mean? Can you give an example to illustrate its meaning?
