"We don't expect to be lied to," says Robert Feldman, professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts. "And often, people are telling us what we want to hear: that we are doing a good job, or that we've been successful. The liar is trying to lie successfully and we want to believe them, so we do. There are no obstacles."
In a piece which reflects on whether lying is an in-built part of human nature – a necessary survival stratagem.
What would be really interesting in this respect would be an examination of cultural attitudes to lying – why, for instance, Indians such as Rajendra Pachauri are practiced liars and why others find it difficult to accept that they are being lied to, even in the face of incontrovertible evidence.
COMMENT THREAD
