Deception, Attitudes Toward

Most research on attitudes toward deception points in the same direction. It shows that attitudes tend to be negative. Although telling a lie is publicly condemned, research and experience prove that deception is nonetheless very common. This resonates with other often-found evidence demonstrating that even though a person might hold a negative attitude toward deceiving someone else, this attitude will be attenuated by a multitude of factors, including situational aspects, intentions, and his or her position or perspective. It seems, therefore, that an exception to the rule is easily made.

Deception can be found in all realms of life, and attitudes vary accordingly. Most people will agree that lying about Santa Claus to their children is permissible, whereas deception by governments or banks is widely criticized. On one hand, parents want to raise their children to be honest people and for that reason parents teach their children to never tell a lie. On the other hand, parents also want their children to be polite, decent people, so that on their birthday, a child must pretend to like grandma's gift. In some situations, telling a lie is even seen as the moral thing to do. Almost all people, even those who have a high moral standard, will deceive another person while holding the belief—and maintaining it to others—that they are adhering to their ideal of honesty.

Throughout history, records of attitudes toward deceptive behavior have been dominated by accounts of theologians and philosophers. The [Page 245]philosopher Immanuel Kant, for example, declared that one should never tell a lie. Doing so would throw away a man's dignity. He reasoned that people owe the truth to everybody, even to a murderer at the door inquiring about a friend's whereabouts. However, the notion that lies are at times justifiable—an idea that was already common in antiquity—could not be held back. Although historical accounts inadvertently condemn the act of telling a lie, bending the rules to serve self-interest was not an exception; with the prescription not to tell a lie, exemptions always followed soon thereafter.