The document discusses the reasons why people lie and different types of lies. It explains that the main reasons for lying are fear of harm, conflict, punishment, rejection, and loss. It also notes that sometimes lies are told for altruistic reasons to help others. The document then describes different types of lies, including pseudologia fantastica (compulsive lying), white lies, lies of omission, and indirect lies. It provides examples and advice on how to detect lies, such as looking for inconsistencies, insincere emotions, microexpressions, and too many unnecessary details. The document concludes by advising people to not believe everything they hear and for liars to be sincere rather than faking sincerity.

1. November 2015  CFOCONNECT 39
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(a semi-truth is a lie too), he protects
the reputation of his beloved. Some
habitual liars lie to enhance their
status. Their purpose is not to harm
anyone but to project themselves
in a particular way. Usually, such
people suffer from low self-esteem
and end up name-dropping. This
name-dropping is not restricted
just to dropping names of people
they know or have met. It may even
include dropping names of the fine
dining restaurants they have visited
or imagined having visited or places
where they went vacationing.
Pseudologia Fantastica is a term
applied by psychiatrists to the be-
haviour of habitual or compulsive
lying. Some others lie to themselves.
Here is one story that illustrates
this case.
A man climbs a berry tree to
pluck some fruit, but realises the
berries are at the end of a branch
that is difficult to reach. Silently,
he promises to God that if he does
reach those berries, he would offer
an hour’s wage as alms at the tem-
ple. He then makes good progress
towards the berries and, when he is
quite close, gets second thoughts.
Perhaps, he promised too much for
just a bunch of berries that was not
very far from his grasp. He then
feels, “Why did I have to bring God
in the matter at all?
Perhaps a fraction of the amount
promised as alms would do.” Just
at that moment, distracted by his
thought, he loses his grip and falls.
Looking skyward, he says, “You
can’t even take a joke.”
The strokes in malafide
lying are:
Stroke A — Add doses of veri-
fiable truth to your lies. Big lies,
T
o be persuasive, we must be
believable. To be believable,
we must be credible. To be
credible, we must be truth-
ful. The capacity to lie has
also been claimed to be possessed
by non-humans in language stud-
ies with Great Apes. One famous
case was that of Koko the gorilla;
confronted by her handlers after a
tantrum in which she had torn a
steel sink out of its moorings, she
signed in American Sign Language,
“Cat did it,” pointing at her tiny kit-
ten. Babies are also known to fake
crying even when they are just six
month old.
Why do we lie?
We all lie, but why do we lie?
Sure, lying is both useful and some-
times even fun, yet there are fun-
damental reasons why we lie. The
main reasons are: Fear of harm: The
easiest reason to understand why we
lie is for self-protection, to prevent
harm to ourselves. This harm can be
either physical or mental.
Fear of conflict: To some degree,
we all fear having an argument.
Fear of punishment:Whengrow-
ing up, how often did we lie about
who started a fight? How often
do we cover up our mistakes and
transgressions? Fear of rejection:
Sometimes, our insecurities are the
foundation of why we lie to each
other, because we want to remain
popular in our relationships. Typi-
cally, it is harmless boasting to make
ourselves appear more admirable to
other people.
Fear of loss: This is usually
the loss of personal objects, such
as money or expensive valuables.
Greed is the foundation for this
reason and can be found in each
Pavan Choudary explains the fundamental reasons of why we lie
WhyLieatall?
We all lie,
but why do we
lie? Sure, lying is
both useful and
sometimes even
fun, yet there
are fundamental
reasons why we lie.
The main reasons
are: Fear of harm:
The easiest reason
to understand
why we lie is for
self-protection, to
prevent harm to
ourselves.
of us. When our self-esteem starts
to decline, we even lie to ourselves
as means to prevent loss of morale.
Altruistic reasons: We often lie
to help our friends and loved ones.
How often do we flatter someone
just to make them feel better? This is
a selfless reason why we lie. Which
means all lies are not bad. It is the
purpose of the lie which ascertains
whether it is good or bad. Here is an
example of a good lie.
Types of lies
Richard Gere plays a millionaire
in the movie Pretty Woman. He
falls in love with a prostitute (Julia
Roberts). When accompanying her
to a party, he is asked by a friend,
“What does she do?” Gere replies,
“Oh, she is in sales.” Through this lie

2. 40 CFOCONNECT  November 2015
think tank
with some ring of truth to them, are
gulped down more easily. A subtle
variation of this stroke is to tell a
truth that can be verified and at-
tach it to the lie. The listener checks
the former, finds it to be true and
assumes the rest is also likewise
true. But Vile takes care that even
though it is a big lie, it is still kept
short. Short lies, he knows, have less
chance of discovery.
Stroke B — lying by majority.
Vile’s confidantes utter the same lie.
Endorsement by the majority makes
the lie more believable.
Stroke C — Alluding. Here,
Vile just hints towards something
obliquely that is not true, and since
he has merely hinted, his risk is
covered. He can always retrace his
steps in the event of a scrutiny. He
often uses allusions to seed ani-
mosity among people around him.
Sometimes allusions are also used
to protect oneself.
Stroke D — Lying by omission.
The crucial data is omitted. Naive
introduces Vile to one of his influ-
ential friends and would like to be
posted on the proceedings of their
meetings. The first few times Vile
meets this contact, he reports the
details to Naive, but soon becomes
evasive, ensuring that he omits
the key points discussed. Social
climbers often indulge in this type
of lying.
Stroke E — Emotional lies. Vile
gets extra emotional about the topic
of discussion. His sudden, strong,
emotional outbursts are a camou-
flage for his lie. A monk visiting a
fellow monk’s house, while having
lunch, finds a much-stained mat on
the floor. He asks his host, “Do you
sleep with any woman?” Enraged,
the host bellows, “I am a celibate.
How dare you ask me that question?
I sleep on my bed and not on this
mat. Finish your lunch and get out of
my house.” Shouting thus and fum-
ing, the host monk leaves the dining
area and goes to the courtyard. The
Pseudologia
Fantastica is a
term applied by
psychiatrists to
the behaviour
of habitual or
compulsive lying.
Some others lie to
themselves.

3. November 2015  CFOCONNECT 41
think tank
We often lie
to help our friends
and loved ones.
How often do we
flatter someone
just to make them
feel better? This is
a selfless reason
why we lie. Which
means all lies are
not bad.
Pavan Choudary is CEO
and Managing Director,
Vygon India Pvt. Ltd. He
is a leadership coach
and an author of several
books. The article is an extract from
his book; How a Good Person can
Really Win. He can be reached at
pchoudary@vygonindia.com
guest monk too leaves for his home
a few minutes later. Next morn-
ing, the host monk discovers that
one of his silver spoons is missing.
Doubting the guest of the previous
day, he sends him the following
note, “I won’t call you a thief, but if
you find my missing silver spoon,
please return it to me.” He promptly
receives a note In reply that says,
“I won’t call you a liar, but you
would have found the spoon on
your bed last night if you had slept
on it.”
Stroke F — White lies. When
confronted with a situation where it
is his word against that of another,
Vile out rightly denies having said
or committed a thing. It is for this
reason that sometimes it is wise to
carry a trusted one with you while
negotiating a deal with Vile. Though
it is a good precaution, it may not
be sufficient to nail him to the truth,
because to deny something Vile can
even make it appear as if he was
misunderstood.
Stroke G — Indirect lies. In this
case Vile does not lie directly to the
person whose interest is at stake
or the one he wishes to influence.
Instead, he lies to a third party who
is close to the one he wishes to lie to.
He states the lie as though entrust-
ing this third party with a secret,
and hopes his lie would be system-
atically passed on to the person of
interest.
Stroke H — Lying out of jealou-
sy. Here Vile lies to bring down the
achievements of another, because
he feels incapable of emulating
him. For example, he may belittle
the other guy’s material success
by denouncing him as greedy and
dishonest. Such a lie stokes Vile’s
ego and waters down his rival’s
achievement.
Some general tips on catching
lies:
When trying to spot a liar watch
and listen carefully. When someone
is accused of something and he is
innocent, usually he would resent
the accusations and want to explore
the topic further. The guilty would
want the subject changed and relax
when it changes.
When the evidence is fragile, the
words a liar uses often become bold
and solid to compensate. Skilled
interviewers and interrogators
know the following rule concerning
contradictions. When a suspect uses
a contradiction “It wasn’t me” in-
stead of “It was not me” statistically
speaking, there is a sixty percent
chance he or she’s being truthful.
Sometimes the Guilty, in an attempt
to sound emphatic, don’t want to use
a contraction in their statement of
innocence; they want to emphasise
the “Not”.
Look for Insincere Emotions.
Example an angry face with a
smile; you can tell because their
lips are smaller and less full than
in a sincere smile. Watch for Micro-
expressions.A micro-expression is a
very brief expression, usually about
a 25th of a second that is always a
concealed emotion. When a person
is acting happy, but in actuality is
really upset about something, his
true emotion will be revealed in a
subconscious flash of anger on his
face. Whether the concealed emotion
is fear, anger, happiness, or jealousy,
that feeling will appear on the face
in the blink of an eye. The trick is to
see it. Nothing beats perception and
careful nuanced observation.
Too Much Detail. The liar often
provides too much detail to over-
compensate.
Remember it is always important
to look for trends not just specifics.
Don’t become too judgmental with-
out observing patterns.
Advice for Naive
• You cannot believe everything
you hear, even if you hear it
twice.
Advice for Vile
• A lie may take care of the present,
but it has no future.
• Be sincere instead of trying to
fake sincerity. It takes the same
amount of effort!
Advice for the Ruler
• People Lie to save face (Sorry I am
late, but there was a huge traffic
jam on the way), shift blame (It
is my boss’s decision not mine),
avoid confrontation (Fine Mom I
will reach the airport three hours
before the flight), have their way
(Sorry I won’t be coming to work
today. I am down with flu) or just
be nice (That dress looks fantastic
on you)
• Don’t see all that you see, and
don’t hear all that you hear.
• Lying can be done with words
and also with silence.
Credit poachers often lie
through silence.
• If you feel someone is lying to
you, look as though you believe
him. This might encourage him to
go on and on and in the end be-
tray himself. If a person conceals
something, behave as if you do
not believe him. This could lead
him to tell the truth. n