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Ok, so yesterday I posted this question as my status yesterday. I think I went back and forth with a few ppl on it. Please tell me your answer and why. Wanna see if we can go with this...

Is it possible to LIE WITHOUT SAYING A WORD?

Sure. To lie is to misrepresent your intentions. To misrepresent them verbally is one path, but there are others.

@Whimsy-- if so what other way if not verbal?

@xdimplez-- all are welcome to reply with explanation.

this is actually something i debate in my head all the time. i still have yet to come to a conclusion... some view ommission as a lie and some don't. some view it as, "if it's not meant to cause harm, it's ok". others are sticklers about it and any kind of deceit is a no-go and view ommission as a deceit. yes, i'm talking in circles, cuz this is how my debate goes... for me, i guess it would depend on the situation. if it's done maliciously, to harm another when the truth would be better... it's a lie. either way, whether an out-right lie, or withholding info, it's still always found out eventually... and ppl don't like it when they find out.

You can deliberately mislead by performing actions with the intention of making people see you as someone you are not. You can behave in a way that shows you are a caring person when you know you are not (but acting that way will get you what you want), and you can show that you don't care when you really do. People, as a whole, are constantly trying to project false images of themselves, for whatever reason they may have at the time.

@misslissa and tiziani.. focus on the question. To lie by ommission is not what i'm asking. Cause to lie by omission is to purposely leave something out in an effort to deceive another. So, i'll put it to you again in another way: If given all the information needed to make an informed decision about something, is it possible to LIE without saying a word?

Posted by misslissa
this is actually something i debate in my head all the time. i still have yet to come to a conclusion... some view ommission as a lie and some don't. some view it as, "if it's not meant to cause harm, it's ok". others are sticklers about it and any kind of deceit is a no-go and view ommission as a deceit. yes, i'm talking in circles, cuz this is how my debate goes... for me, i guess it would depend on the situation. if it's done maliciously, to harm another when the truth would be better... it's a lie. either way, whether an out-right lie, or withholding info, it's still always found out eventually... and ppl don't like it when they find out.

This is interesting, Misslissa. I have thought a lot about this topic, too, because of the behavior of my last boyfriend. He prided himself on being someone who never lied. What he would do, however, was leave key words out of his responses, so that he was techinically not SPEAKING a lie. Here is a real-life example:

Me: "Honey, did you remember to feed the dog this morning?"
Him: "I fed the dog."

Okay, so what happened was that he forgot to feed the dog that morning! But, notice that his response doesn't indicate WHEN he fed a dog, or WHICH dog he fed. Could have been any dog and any feeding time in the history of the world. In his mind, he was not lying.

I pointed out to him that a lie isn't the actual words that leave your mouth, but the "intention to deceive" (which was precisely what he was exercising). He actually agreed.

Oops...sorry, OP. Back to the topic at hand!

@Whimsy... lol yall reading into something that's not there. Back to the omission and asking boyfriend a question. If your talking to him that would be verbal, right? Re-read the question...

Posted by Whimsy
You can deliberately mislead by performing actions with the intention of making people see you as someone you are not. You can behave in a way that shows you are a caring person when you know you are not (but acting that way will get you what you want), and you can show that you don't care when you really do. People, as a whole, are constantly trying to project false images of themselves, for whatever reason they may have at the time.

Well, this was my answer to the original post.^^^^



Then, I figured I'd run off with Misslissa and expound upon the topic of lies over some coffee.

are you talking about, "actions speak louder than words" kind of situation...? like acting out a lie?

LOL, the answer is by being QUIET! You can actually lie by not saying a word...

if you mean literally not saying a word, nor body language (which is also a communication in it's primative form), then no. if there is absolutely no communication involved, then there is no lie. with lying there has to be some kind of communication.