5 Reasons People Lie Every Day

Everyone does it. Knowing why people lie most often can help you understand others and catching yourself can lead to more meaningful conversations.

1. 1. To Conform

People have a need or a natural instinct to want to fit in with others. It was once a way to literally survive whereas we will most likely lie to fit into cooler groups or friends. Lying to conform to certain social ideals can mean many things. People lie about their interests to talk to someone. When your passing by a friend or college, they might ask you, "How are you?" and you'll most likely say, "good" or "fine" when that's not always the case. It's simply something we've recognized as the norm and we accept it to seem more socially intelligent or friendly.

2. To Avoid Trouble

This habit starts at a young age. We start by lying to our parents to not get spanked or scolded. We grow up getting better and better at this in order to just keep ourselves from making friends or roommates mad, to our significant others, and probably still to our parents.

3. To Entertain

Everyone loves a good story and most people want to be the person who has super awesome stories to tell. Even when it's just one person talking to another, the story teller will often exaggerate and displace little truths throughout the story. Nearly everyone does this to some extent so don't try and deny it!

4. To Look Better

And I don't just mean saving face. Using extreme makeup and technology to edit or change the way we look is a form of deception. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's wrong, it's just another thing to consider when you find yourself out in the social areas online. People always want to put their best foot or face forward when others are making first impressions. Just remember, some people are willing to lie or deceive more than others so don't be fooled so easily!

5. Some People Really Think They are Being Truthful

Sometimes people lie without even knowing it in the first place. When people are given information that they perceive to be true, they may pass it along as the gospel truth as well. We have a truth bias as a general population so this makes things like false gossip spread like wildfire with the assumption that it is true.