Have You Been Lied To Today?

The title of this piece has an immediate answer for most people—and the answer is:

Yes.

I have been lied to today—and so have you, whether you choose to believe it or not.
In fact, the estimate of our featured speaker today is that you will be lied to between 10 and 200 times….TODAY.

Most of these fibs are of the “white lie” variety—the seemingly innocent untruths told to protect the speaker’s ego or perhaps not injure the recipient (you).

But, as Pamela Meyer, the author of “Lie-spotters” indicates, you are complicit in lies being told to you and are therefore charged with seeking out the truth yourself.

Thankfully, there are a multitude of both verbal and non-verbal clues that reveal deception. Check out this enormously entertaining video—and learn!



http://www.ted.com/talks/pamela_meyer_how_to_spot_a_liar.html

While most of the verbal and body language clues I had heard of before, there were some new ones—and I must admit that the notion of me actually PARTICIPATING in a lie by believing it is a new concept.

So it’s partly MY fault?

The only thing that I wonder is----and this is a belief---is that our sloppy patterns of language may often convey deception where there really is none. Here’s an example:

Many experts say that a person who starts a sentence off with: “Well, to tell you the truth…” invites a response such as: “what, you’re usually LYING to me?” This figure of speech is said to both alert the listener to the fraud that follows or does indeed convey the sense that everything else this person utters is suspect.

Me?

I just think it’s a verbal crutch that many people use without thinking a whit about the literal meaning it conveys. As such—and I’m sure that I am guilty myself with other phrases like, “to be completely honest”, “as a matter of fact” or “the truth of the matter is…”---and the list is long I’m sure. I’m not ready to brand myself or others with the label of “liar” just because of a lack of verbal discipline.

But if you believe Pamela, we are all liars anyway.

Really.

I mean it.

Nevermind.


If you’d like my blog in your e-mail box, just let me know: tim.moore@cumulus.com