Is lying ever OK?
12 lies you should never tell.
Is it ever OK to tell a lie? Consider a few of the well-meaning fibs that will come up this holiday season.
“A fat elf in a red suit is watching you, and he won’t bring any gifts if you’re not good.”
“Heavens, no, we didn't make out at the company's holiday party.”
“Thank you — I love fruitcake!”
This past weekend, Huffington Post offered a list of “12 Things You Should Never Lie About.” The clear implication is that there’s also a set of things you should or at least could lie about. But is it ever really OK? Lying always seems to exact its pound of flesh. A lie is a shark in the water — just when you think you are safe, it will come back to bite you.
No doubt, it’s challenging in both personal and professional settings to be unilaterally, unequivocally truthful. We call it being “brutally honest” because sometimes honesty really is brutal. As a UMass psychologist told US News & World Report, “We use lies to grease the wheels of social discourse. It’s socially useful to tell lies.”
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Little lies might be told to protect another’s feelings or to hide something no one else has a right to know, and sometimes it’s just plain easier not to make waves. But in his landmark book Radical Honesty, therapist Brad Blanton suggests that consistently telling the truth can transform your life by freeing you from stress, strengthening your relationships, and recovering energy lost to maintaining compounded half-truths and deceptions.
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The foundation of radically honest living is that even white lies add darkness to your life, and ultimately don’t do good for your friends, relatives and co-workers, either.
Here are 12 things never to lie about, according to a post on HuffPo's Women section:
12. Not loving someone
11. Anything you say to your lawyer
10. Any information the government requests
9. Anything you tell your doctor
8. A mistake you made at work
7. Your credentials (e.g., when job-seeking)
6. What you need from another person
5. Your mental health
4. Whether you think a relationship has a future
3. Your physical appearance when you’re dating online
2. Feeling sick at work
1. Having an orgasm
Bing: The worst lies ever told
Photo: PhotoAlto/Eric Audras/Getty Images
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