To Lie or Not to Lie? Depends on Whether You Want to Help, or Hurt
We all know lying is bad -- well, except for some people. But what about white lies? When your husband asks if his forehead is receding more, or you, how your jeans fit . . You get the picture. But now a new study says that it's never good to lie . According to newswise.com, if you think you’re helping someone by lying, you may want to think again. T elling a lie in order to help or protect someone—a practice known as prosocial lying—backfires if the person being lied to perceives the lie as paternalistic, says new research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Chicago Booth Assistant Professor Emma Levine , Deakin University’s Matthew Lupoli, and UCLA Anderson’s Adam Eric Greenberg, find that well-intentioned lies can spark strong resentment from the person who is deceived. The researchers identify a key factor that determines whether people respond positively or negatively to prosocial lies: the extent to which the...