Languages of Lies
By Oscar Stone | Opinions | Jan. 31, 2025
Everybody lies, and for all sorts of reasons: to avoid conversations, to pull someone into a situation, to spread false beliefs, to try to skirt consequences. Through language, deception has become an integral part of life people do not recognize, for good or bad. All languages serve as a method of communication, and consequently can be used as tools for equivocation and misrepresentation. People are inherently liars; the persistence of deception regardless of the damage it causes proves this.
Education expands one’s knowledge, and therefore, their capability to deceive. Stanton College Preparatory School teaches about Aristotle's rhetorical appeals, ways in which people can use certain methods of persuasion to get their way. Teaching students these appeals leads to a paradoxical situation: while it allows students to acknowledge how these appeals may be used against them, it also offers students the opportunity to abuse them. A study conducted in 2008 by the American Psychological Association reported children from 3 years old onwards are capable of telling lies. Education simply gives children the tools to enhance their deception.
With students being taught how to recognize and understand persuasion methods in the classroom, people start to realize just how prevalent lying is in society. For example, one of the most common reasons people lie is to be polite. This practice is also known as telling white lies. According to a 2024 study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, the average person tells 1-2 lies a day, 88.6% of which fell into this category of “little white lies.” However, deception can also take a much more harmful shape.
The tobacco industry, for example, lied to the public for years when they knew smoking was addictive and carcinogenic. In order to continue to profit, they continued these lies even into the 1990s. In 1994, James W Johnston, the CEO of R.J. Reynolds went as far as to say, ”Smoking is no more addictive than coffee, tea, or twinkies.” This comparison misrepresented the addictive properties of tobacco and nicotine, which has shown itself to have dangerous consequences.
Lies by omission are also constantly being employed to misrepresent information and persuade people to a certain side. According to a 2020 study conducted by the Pew Research Center, around two-thirds of adults said that their preferred news outlet has reported one-sided facts. This exclusion of other points of view has been a primary cause of the growing political and social division in the United States.
Deception goes against the very principles we are taught from childhood, and yet it persists as an issue due to the benefits it poses to politicians and industries. While seemingly inconsequential, “white lies” can easily develop into mind-boggling systems of lies that people become lost in. Language is a tool, and like all tools, it may be used for good or bad, all the individual can do is try to use their voice to spread truth.