Research On The Acceptability Of Telling Lies

Although honesty is a basic principle for human beings, our lives still fill with lies. Living with lies doesn't mean people like them, in most of the time people have no choice but to accept lies; and, since the appearance of lying is affected by many social and psychological factors such as situation, relationship, motivation and so on, the acceptability of telling lies could also be influenced by these factors. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the acceptability of telling lies from the perspective of psychology.The existing researches, using self-made vignettes as research materials, focused on examining the factors such as the motivation for lying, the relationship between the liar and the receiver of the lie, which has an influence on the acceptability of telling lies. However, they paid less attention to the possible effects come from the factors like the judging position and personality factors. And most of the existing researches were done in occident countries, there's lack of such research in China. Based on the existing researches, the present research, which also uses self-made vignettes as research materials, is intend to examine the type of lies, the relationship between the liar and the receiver of the lie, the judging position on the acceptability of telling lies; as well, the factors involving Warmth (A), Vigilance (L), Privateness (N), Self-Reliance (Q2) from the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), and self-made Honesty Questionnaire are also explored in this thesis.The results show that:(1) There's a main effect for the type of lies. It was most acceptable for altruistic lies; the next were the self-serving lies that do not harm the people; the least acceptable type was the self-serving lies that harm the people.(2) There's a main effect for the judging position. The highest acceptance of lies was standing on the sidelines; the next were the position of the liar; the lowest acceptance of lies was standing on the position of the deceived.(3) There's a main effect for the relationship type. The acceptability of lies in the lover relation was significantly lower than those in the two other relationships.(4) There's a significant interaction between the type of lies and the relationship type. It was most acceptable for altruistic lies in the lover relation than those in the two other relationships. But the acceptability of the two other types of lies in the lover relation was lower than those in the two other relationships.(5) There's a significant interaction between the type of lies and the judging position. When the lie was altruistic and the judging position was deceived, the acceptability of lying was obviously lower than that of the two other judging positions. But facing with the self-serving lies, there're no such results.(6) There's a significant positive correlation between Vigilance and the self-serving lies that do not harm the people, while no significant correlations were showed between any of the three other personality factors and the acceptability of lying.(7) There's a significant negative correlation between honesty and the acceptability of self-serving lies. When standing on the position of liar and bystander, the person who got a higher score in Honesty Questionnaire showed lower acceptance of self-serving lies, but there're no such results in altruistic lies.