Lie Acceptability

Lie Acceptability as Attitude

Because of the evaluative dimensions along which people judge whether a lie is or is not permissible, the acceptability of lying is often defined as one's attitude toward the practice of lying. If a person considers it acceptable to lie (given a specific situation), he or she tends to view the act of lying as one of several options for achieving a social or personal goal. This person is more likely to lie, with less remorse, than another person, who sees the act of lying as unacceptable. The person who views the lie as acceptable will also be less critical and more understanding of another person who lies in that same situation. On the other hand, an individual who considers lying in this situation to be morally and ethically unacceptable would view lying as something to be both avoided and discouraged. It would be unlikely for this individual to lie because he or she would experience guilt by doing so. Likewise, this individual would get upset if others employed the lie against him or her.

Lie Acceptability as Personality Trait

Another definition views lie acceptability as a trait of an individual's personality: a generalized attitude of an individual toward lying behavior. Measured along a scale, individuals with a high score would see lying as plausible and strategic for social and personal goals. Not only do they lie more frequently, they are also more generous toward others' lies. On the other hand, if they had a low score, they will lie less, experience more guilt, and judge those who lie negatively. Most people fall somewhere between these two extremes.

Of these two definitions, the definition of lie acceptability as one's attitude toward the practice of lying is more common than the definition of lie acceptability as a personality trait.

How to Study Lie Acceptability

Research has been conducted to learn more about people's attitudes toward lie accessibility. Mainstream studies on the acceptability of lying, especially psychology and communication studies, aim to clarify what determines whether a lie is acceptable or not. In most of these studies, experimenters create scenarios in which participants are asked to evaluate how acceptable or unacceptable it is to lie. The scenarios are manipulated to introduce variations in factors such as the liar's motivation and the nature of relationships. Analysis is done by comparing scenario variations against participant characteristics such as gender, age, or other demographic groupings.

Some other studies require participants to recall and evaluate actual past episodes; others ask participants to evaluate the acceptability of synonyms for “lie” taken from a dictionary. But scenario-based studies are more common because factors can be controlled more easily.

Characteristics of a Lie as a Factor for Acceptability

In a simple, moralistic model of lying, the act of misrepresentation is always reprehensible, and a lie becomes more unacceptable as it gets further from the truth. However, outright forms of lying (for example, fabrication) are not necessarily more unacceptable than more subtle forms (for example, misleading statements, distortions). Studies show that the context in which a lie is made has a stronger impact on its acceptability than the lie's form. Some of the conclusions of these studies are as

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