To tell the truth or to lie? Sometimes we are faced with a scenario whereby if we were, to tell the truth, we are going to hurt someone badly but on the other hand, if we were to lie we are restricting the individual from knowing the truth, which could help them better themselves. What do you do in such situations?
Yes sometimes the truth hurts, but won’t it be better if an individual was to hear the truth regarding themselves so they could improve or change for the better? On the contrary, you have the arguments which suggest that a white lie has never hurt anyone. This is a true statement but what if somewhere down the line the individual who has been lied to finds out the truth – this could hurt that individual on a deeper level and also break the individuals self-confidence and well being.
Little do people realise that this is a rather common occurrence in our everyday lives. A study conducted by the University of Massachusetts found that an average of 60% lied at least once in a 10-minute conversation in order to appear more likeable to other people. The study also found that “Women were more likely to lie to make the person they were talking to feel good, while men lied most often to make themselves look better, Feldman said”.
Now you may be wondering “oh but it was just a white lie – he/she will get over it”. Let us look at this scenario on the wider spectrum for example, if an individual were to go for an interview and you are the interviewer, but as the interview is going on you have decided that the individual is not suitable for the role for certain reasons. Would it not be better, to tell the truth to the interviewee and explain why he did not get the role so that he/she could go forth and improve on what they need to in order to have a better chance in the future. This concept of telling the truth to help an individual personally can apply to many different situations such as relationships, work, personal life and etc. People always assume that the individual receiving the truth “does not actually” wants to receive the truth – little do they know that they actually do.
We put a poll up on Instagram for a couple of hours to get some feedback from people and the majority of people voted for ” to be told the truth” as opposed to being lied too. It is imperative for us to think it through the next time we are going to tell someone a lie, regardless big or small. You will never know the impact of what you say, so start today and tell the truth to someone you care about.
