You're listening to life kit from NPR.
When was the last time you told a lie?
What's that?
You never lie.
All right.
I'm willing to bet that at some point in your life, somebody's given you a gift that you did not like, but you pretended to love it, or their friend made a new recipe that came out tasting like a shoe, and you told them that it was delicious.
And look, these aren't big lies.
You're not committing fraud or hiding an affair.
Gail Heyman, a professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego, says, sometimes our good intentions can be misguided.
You're trying to be helpful, but often these kind of lies that you're trying to do to help other people don't end up working.
And I think there's often better approaches to these kinds of things.
On the other hand, a white lie can have its place.
Gayle remembers this time she helped a friend shop for her wedding dress, and.
She was trying on different dresses, and she had a clear favorite that she knew she was gonna pick.
And she wanted me to say that I liked the same one.
I actually did not like the same one, but in that case, I lied and said that I liked the same one.
And I knew that what she wanted was validation so that she has trouble making decisions.
Now, if there was, like, a real problem with the dress that she picked, I would have told her the truth, even though she might not have been happy with me.
So, yeah, lying is complicated, and maybe even more so if you have kids in your life.
We adults like to talk a big game.