Lying, Intentionality of

Intentional Lying

Most definitions of lying provided by deception experts and dictionaries include the information that lying occurs intentionally, that is, lying is deliberately making an untruthful statement to deceive. The general conception is that truth-telling is the automatic response and that people only lie when they have a reason to do so, for instance, when they want to present themselves more favorably to attain a goal or when they want to avoid hurting another person.

When in a situation in which lying might be more beneficial than truth-telling, people often deliberately think about what is the best response given the circumstances. Neuroimaging and event-related-potential studies confirm this idea by showing that when people lie, there is more activity in brain areas involved in executive functioning. This suggests that people engage in processes that regulate, control, and manage cognitive processing, like inhibition, planning, working memory, and initiation and monitoring of actions. So enhanced cognitive processing involved in lying is due to: (1) deliberate thinking about whether to lie or tell the truth, and (2) cognitive processing when telling the lie (for instance, taking perspective of the mental states of the people being lied to), which occurs regardless of whether the lie is intentional.

Studies on nonverbal aspects of lying are in line with the idea that the truth is an automatic response that is inhibited when lying. These studies showed that liars are more likely to speak slowly, have more speech disturbances, and take longer speech pauses than truth-tellers. Liars also show fewer body movements. Finally, people respond faster when their response is truthful compared with a lie. Research on ethical decision making also suggests that people intuitively respond ethically but are more likely to lie when they engage in deliberate thinking.

Thus, there is ample evidence suggesting that lying occurs intentionally. When an untruthful statement is made without intention to deceive, this is often not regarded as real lying, as is the case when someone lets another person know their statement is false by joking or teasing. A person can also express an untruthful statement but not know that the statement is false if he or she was not provided with accurate information or if a memory error occurred.

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