Why Do People Often Actively Choose to Believe Lies (Essay Sample)

WHY DO PEOPLE OFTEN ACTIVELY CHOOSE TO BELIEVE LIES
Name
Institution
Abstract
People are used to lying, and for various reasons, individuals choose to believe the lies. The psychology behind lying is mainly for protecting one's self-image and maintaining false impressions. Individuals who believe lies have different reasons, such as denial of reality, being vulnerable, and others accepting to find solutions to problems. The project illustrates the reasons why people choose to believe lies. Coping with trauma and anxiety were the major findings as to why many people accept lies. Despite this finding, the lie characteristics and deception strategies that enable good liars to evade detection are largely unknown. Liars impose a risk on their audience, thus making them vulnerable populations. They are easily manipulated, and thus, the dangers of believing the lies even when the truth can be easily manifested by nature.
Introduction
A lie involves the intention of an untruthful mode of communication. A lie is an assertion that is believed to be false, typically used to deceive someone. The practice of communicating lies is called lying, where the individual involved is termed a liar. Lying is a part of communication and a form of social behavior involved in interacting with others. Lying tends to arise from the nature of human beings of avoiding pain and increase pleasure. It tends to be a part of everyday life, where people cannot get through even a single day without telling lies. Sometimes individuals are not aware of all the lies they tell. People lie to persons they interact with, such as parents, partners, friends, and supervisors at the workplace. People lie for various reasons, sometimes to get rid of the troubles or escape from specific responsibilities. Individuals think of the possible shame or threat if they revealed the truth, thus opting to lie. It can be awkward to solve a particular issue with a lie because more harm can be felt if the truth is revealed afterward. The difference in lying exists in its severity, frequency, target, or the reasoning behind the lies. For instance, lies of omission can be noted, which means remaining silent in such an event intends to lie. The process of lying takes various forms, a response to short term issue which requires little planning and long term that needs much time in planning to execute the lie. The psychology of lying can be a complicated concept since individuals lie for divergent reasons. What induces a person not, to tell the truth explains the cause for the lying behavior. While some people lie to avoid hurting someone else feelings, others lie out of impulse or because they want to present themselves as someone they are not. Individuals often actively choose to believe lies from different persons and for various reasons; thus, the essay focuses on the reasons behind accepting or believing the lies.
Inability to Reconcile Lies With What Is Perceived As Honesty
Individuals usually continue to believe a lie from a particular person, even when they have rational and substantial evidence that they are lying. One reason being that when they lie with expressions of honesty, since we cannot tell from someone’s facial expressions and gestures whether they are telling the truth or not, we end up agreeing and believing the lies. Paul Ekman, a ground-breaking researcher on lying, found out that we want to think that someone is telling us the truth, even when he is lying, especially when that person is emotionally or psychologically crucial to our lives (Ekman 2009). Some individuals close to family members care so much about their reputation to the extent of lying to appear honest. For instance, parents may find out that their child has started drugs, although when they ask them, they deny it. In that situation, the parent may believe the kid's lies to make him appear honest. Lying to be liked more because of appearing honest makes people obtain favorable outcomes from the act. Reconciling lies with what the community perceives as honesty and tends to be challenging since many want to accept information based on the speaker's significance and value in their presence. For instance, a particular pastor may direct his followers to start sending specific amounts of money for personal prayers and healing; in this situation, the congregation is already aware of the clout, but they choose to accept the lies since the pastor is of spiritual importance. The illusory truth effect, also known as the illusion of truth, describes how, when we hear the same false information repeated, we often come to believe it is true. We all tend to think of ourselves as impervious to misinformation, but even the most well-informed individuals are still prone to believing in lies (Fazio et al., 2015). Dishonesty begins with the self. It starts when we cannot reconcile a problematic experience. The first lie is the one we tell ourselves that a particular concept is false although it happened, and thus we avoid the realizations because we become terrified of how they will make us feel. Individuals tend to believe lies rather than face the temporary pain of the truth. To some individuals, actively refusing to acknowledge that something is wrong is a way of coping with emotional stress, painful thoughts, and anxiety. Thus, some people tend to avoid all these by believing in the lies, mainly in a couple situations. Accepting lies and reassurance can give a person time and space to work on possible solutions, which tends to be challenging in a state of panic (Ekman 2009). When an individual believes the lie, the liar thinks they have gained control, but in reality, they choose to accept the false information to avoid confrontation.
Denial of Reality
Denial of reality, or not crediting something that we know is true in the brain, is a way we unconsciously protect ourselves from the pain. Individuals who deny reality cannot distinguish between honesty and falsehood, thus believing in the lies anyway. Some emotions influence people to fall into cheap lies, for instance, when in love. It can make a person feel the lies from the partner simply because of the emotion and feeling of love. If a person is in denial, he is probably trying to protect himself from the truth by refusing to accept something happening. Refusing to face facts might seem unhealthy, although sometimes, a short period of denial can be helpful. Being in denial allows the mind to absorb shocking or distressing information (Baptista & Anabela 2020). When an individual is in denial, he tries not to face the facts of the particular problem, downplays the possible consequences of the issue, and does not acknowledge the situation as challenging. False information such as the ongoing worldwide vaccinations against the pandemic has made various misleading information on the side effects. However, it has got several; some people deny the reality and believe the false spreading news of the vaccine. Denial happens to be a type of defense mechanism since it involves ignoring a situation to avoid negative results.
Defense mechanisms are strategies that individuals use to cope with distressing feelings, although it comes back and hits even more complex at the end of the day. In this case of denial it involves choosing to accept the lies and denying the consequences that will happen later, after finding out the truth. Rejection is sometimes seen more often with certain types of mental health conditions. Individuals, who have alcohol use disorder and substance abuse, for example, tend to use this denial mechanism more to avoid facing the reality of their condition and when they will stop. Denying a specific problem exists usually allows an individual to continue engaging in the destructive behavior without adequately addressing the issue, to find a solution (Condello & Andina 2020). Justification and minimization are conscious functions of denial, and a person might be aware of their tendency towards particular behavior of probable gambling. Some people justify that everyone is gambling, and a part of the brain makes him believe so, and this will never stop the vice. Individuals find it easier to believe what they want to, not what is real; therefore, most people tend to fall into the traps of denial and become manipulated and accept what is untrue. People may deliberately create false information or fabricate a story. Through it, they may be experiencing denial of reality since they are not sure. The person directed towards may decide to spare them the embarrassment by choosing to believe in their fictional narratives.
Coping With Emotional Trauma
Individuals often choose to believe lies since it happens to deal with trauma and stressful thoughts. Being lied to can be frustrating, especially in couple situations, and it often breaks the bond of trust between the couples, causing issues in the relationship (Greifeneder et al., 2021). For instance, a partner who suspects the other person of cheating when they notice unusual behaviors such as receiving night calls from friends may not acknowledge the painful truth that they are being cheated, since they fear heartbreak and believe the naked lies that the partner makes an excuse with. Many people believe lies because they want to protect themselves from unpleasant situations or conflicts that would traumatize them later in life. Some people, who lie, often do so with good intentions, and therefore believing such lies would help spare feelings and clear the issue. They are known as white lies because they do not cause any form of pain. While some people lie to protect the feelings of others and spare someone else pain, a section of individuals believes the lies to protect the feelings, self-esteem, confidence, and other personal emot...