The 15 types of lies and their characteristics

A classification of the types of lies we encounter daily in personal relationships.

We all lie on more than one occasion, even if we don't want to admit it. For better or for worse, every day we tell a lie that, although it may be pious or well-intentioned, is still communicating information that is not real.

Linguistically speaking, lying is a transgression of communication, since we tell information that does not correspond to reality. The intention and consciousness behind the act may vary, but what is certain is that not telling the truth is, in effect, lying.

As not all lies are the same, we are going to discover below what are the 15 most common types of liesand also see some situations in which they can appear.

The 15 Types of Lies in Personal Relationships

Whether we find it hard to recognize, lying is part of the human condition. In fact, not recognizing it is in itself a lie. Our species has the gift of communicating through words and, also, of deceiving through them, since that is what lying is all about: conveying information that is not true. It is true that we do not lie in the same way, nor do we lie with the same intention. It all depends on the context, and we may tell a lie deliberately, with bad intentions, or without even realizing that we have told one.

Basically, we understand a lie as an expression or manifestation contrary to reality or, at least, partially false information. The act of lying involves saying something that does not correspond to real actions, regardless of whether or not we know that what we are saying is a lie. In most cases, we lie intentionally, in order to deceive someone, to pretend something that is not true, to manipulate, to persuade or to avoidIn most cases we lie intentionally, in order to deceive someone, to pretend something that is not true, to manipulate, to persuade, or to prevent our listener from suffering by knowing the reality.

Whether half-truths or outright lies, it is estimated that each of us lies at least one to three times a day. We are not the only ones: everyone around us lies to us and, depending on how many people we interact with and whether they tend to lie a lot, we may be faced with between one and three lies a day.e may be confronted with between 10 and 200 lies every day.. We should not get conspiratorial and think that they do it with bad intentions, since we even believe our lies. They are not all the same.

As the motives behind lying can be very varied and, also, the very way in which we transmit information that is not real is very different, we can say that there are many types of lies. Each of them has its own particularities, which we will discuss in detail below, although it should be noted that some of these categories overlap with each other.

1. Mistaken lies

As their name suggests, lies by mistake are those communicative acts in which we lie without being aware of it.. They are neither deliberate nor premeditated lies; it simply happens that the person who has said something is convinced that he or she has said something true, even though it is not.

This type of lie is very common, since it usually happens that we talk about a subject about which we do not have all the details or that there have been events that have changed the reality that we believe is still valid. Our knowledge is still contextual and, if the context changes, the data we handle are outdated, so transmitting them means communicating information that is no longer valid.

2. White lies

White lies, also called little lies, are lies that are made with good intentions, in order not to hurt other people..

They are closely associated with white lies (in fact, depending on the context, they can be considered synonymous) and are related to the development of the capacity for empathy, from the age of 7 years. Younger children are not capable of white lies.

3. Blue lies

Blue lies are those that are halfway between the concepts of right and wrong.. Since both ideas are very subjective, it is complicated to delimit to what extent a lie is really blue, varying according to our moral and ethical perspective.

Blue lies are deceptions that we express to achieve a benefit for our ingroup but detrimental to the outgroup. An enlightening example would be that of a soccer player who manages to deceive the referee by claiming that an opposing player has fouled him. By doing so, he harms the other team and benefits his own.

4. Black lies

Black lies are clearly at the pole of evil, being deceptions that we make to gain a benefit for ourselves by hurting other people.. The only beneficiaries are ourselves, being selfishness the typical trait associated with this type of language transgressions.

5. Lies of omission

Lies of omission are those that occur when we do not express all the information. We do not actually tell false information, but the act of withholding some of the relevant information contributes to the other person filling in the gaps with what he/she believes, which can be considered lying.which can be considered lying. This type of deliberate lying is closely associated with the act of persuasion.

6. Restructuring lies

In restructuring lies what happens is that we do not make up the false information nor do we hide part of the truth by omission, but we do change the context. In doing so, we we contribute to see that information in a certain light, which makes the listener see it in a different light.This allows the listener to interpret it in a way that is of interest to us.

Restructuring lies are very common both in politics and in social networks, especially when it comes to transmitting hoaxes. If we publish information about an act, person or event in a certain order, we contribute to the listener making his own story.

7. Lies of denial

Lies of denial are those in which a truth is simply a truth is simply not acknowledged. To deny something that we know to be true is obviously lying and this can be applied both interpersonally, i.e., denying the truth to someone, and intrapersonally, lying to ourselves.

The counterpart of this type of lies are those of affirmation, those in which an event or act that did not happen is affirmed. It simply consists of confirming a lie, saying that something happened when in fact it did not. In other words, inventing facts.

8. Exaggeration lies

Exaggeration lies are based on hyperbole, which consists in magnifying a situation. Reality is not presented as it happened, but specific facts are exaggerated in order to make the information told seem more interesting or to make the person involved seem more successful and capable, usually being the sender.

This is one of the most common lies due to its great usefulness. It is usually common in situations where we want people to have a more positive and better idea of us, such as in a job interview or when a grandfather tells his grandchildren the stories of his youth.

9. Minimization lies

We can speak of minimization lies as the opposite of exaggeration lies. As the name suggests, these are the type of lies in which we reduce the importance of something, reducing it to a minimum. we reduce the importance of something, minimizing its qualities and attributes..

This can be done either to surround ourselves with humility or to dwarf a situation in which we do not like the people involved.

10. Self-deception

Self-deception is the act of lying to oneself, being very common to tell oneself lies of the exaggeration and minimization type. These are lies that we tell ourselves unconsciously. and they are often said because we do not want to accept reality, either because we are afraid of the consequences of our actions or because we need to believe in something that we rationally know is not true. An example of self-deception is that of many smokers, who tell themselves that "it's really not as bad as they say".

11. Instrumental lies

We know as instrumental or deliberate lies those we tell with an intentional goal. This is really a category in which we can include different types of lies, all those that are made in a deliberate way.

Among them we can find those of a benevolent nature, as is the case of pious lies, as well as those that are made to persuade or deceive, as would be the case of lies of restructuring, omission, blue, black...

12. White lies

White lies are well-intentioned lies, those that we tell to avoid making someone feel bad.. They are deliberate lies, since we know that what we are saying is not true, but we say it because we do not want to hurt their feelings, so we can say that this type of lie involves empathy and emotional intelligence.

An example of a white lie would be to tell a 4-year-old child that, having drawn us a picture, we think it is very pretty. The child has done his work with very good intentions, but what has come out is something more appropriate for an alternative art exhibition, i.e., ugly. Since telling him that what he has done is not pretty would hurt him, the best thing to do is to lie to him piously.

13. Broken promises

Broken promises are lies in that the sender promises to do something but knows he/she will not do it or believes it is unlikely to be done. They are transgressions of the act of communicating by the fact that the listener is informed of an event that has not yet happened, but that he believes will happen and that he expects to happen. and that he has the expectation that it will happen.

14. Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of copying someone else's work by passing it off as our own. This act is doubly reprehensible because, firstly, because it is an intentional lie by saying that we have done something that we have not done. and, secondly, because taking someone else's work without their permission is stealing.

15. Compulsive lies

Compulsive lies are those deceptions that are told repeatedly over and over again, typical of compulsive liars. In itself it is not a modality, but simply the fact of telling lies constantly and can have behind a problem of low self-esteem or psychological problems..

Those who tell compulsive lies do not necessarily do so in bad faith, but because they really have a problem that requires professional intervention to correct it. In fact, there are cases of people who are unable to stop lying, reaching the point where they are unable to control what their mouth says...