benefits of telling the truth essay

7 Reasons Why You Should Always Tell the Truth

Every moment of our lives, we have the option to either tell the complete truth or make up a bold-faced lie. Lies can cover true feelings, make it easier to get out of things we don’t want to do and make us look better. They can also hurt not just the person that we tell the lie to, but ourselves as well. A big reason to not lie is to avoid the downfall of getting caught. However, many will still wonder what the most important aspects of telling the truth are.

What are the reasons why you should always tell the truth? You should always tell the truth because :

• The Truth Will Always Come Out
• It Will Make Things Worse for You
• You Don’t Want to Lose Respect
• It Will Help Everyone Grow
• There’s a Bigger Issue That Needs Attention
• You’re Usually Lying to Yourself the Most
• Lying Holds You Back

Honesty is important because it can help get to the deeper meaning of any issues that are at hand. It can ensure you are confronting yourself so that you can continue on a path toward a growth mindset. When you’re honest with everyone, it might be hard at the time, but eventually, things will get better, rather than a lie where things could actually end up getting worse.

The truth is always going to be there, and a lie is a choice made to avoid this. We’re going to help you better understand why you should always tell the truth, starting with the most important reason of all.

#1: The Truth Will Always Come Out

We’ve been taught since we were kids that the truth was always the right choice, even when it might have been hard. As adults, we might not always reflect on the real reasons why lying is the worst choice. Lying is bad because (Carey, 2008):

• It hurts other people
• It is deceptive
• It creates more issues
• It is bad for your health

“The truth will always come out in the end” is a common saying, but it isn’t always, well, the truth.

Imagine a girl who tells her parents she’s going to a friend’s house when really, she’s going to meet up with a boy that she was forbidden to date. They ask her the next day if she had fun at her friend’s house, and she replies, “Yeah, we watched a movie together.” Fifty years later, both of her parents have passed away, and not once did she ever reveal the truth. They lived a long and happy life, and not once did the daughter’s falsehood cause any conflict in the family.

On one hand, it’s safe to say her lie was never revealed. On the other hand, maybe her father had noticed but didn’t mind, keeping it hidden from his wife who would have caused a huge fight. The daughter never knew about this truth either.

We can’t say for certain whether the truth will always come out or not, but we can know that there will always be a possibility of the truth coming out. It is the person who holds this truth who has the most power over what will or will not be revealed.

It can sometimes be easier to keep a secret yourself rather than trusting others to do the same. Think of how easily secrets can spread. How many of those secrets have been lies?

Then what are you to do? Share the truth and be branded a liar, or change reality to suit the false information? Create more lies to cover up any loopholes in the first?

The possibility of a lie coming out can be the most challenging part. The fear over the exposure finally coming to the surface can engulf a happy mind and cause immense stress.

Consider those who confess to crimes after not being able to live with the secrecy. Sometimes the lie can become the reality to the point that people don’t even realize their dishonesty anymore.

It’s best to avoid the lies because not doing so means you never know what’s going to happen in the end. You might dig yourself into a deep hole by not sharing the reality and getting lost in the cover-ups.

#2: It Will Make Things Worse for You

Lying is something that is thought to be the most hurtful to the person who receives the lie. In reality, the liar is the one who will end up hurting the longer they keep up their facade.

Sometimes we lie because we think we’re protecting ourselves. We envision a terrible outcome from what could happen if we were to share the truth. In order to avoid that, it can be easy for many people to want to turn to the lie as a form of protection.

Unfortunately, this will only hurt the one who spills the deceit from their mouths.

It can start first by affecting your mental health. When you tell a lie, you are instantly putting yourself in a stressful situation. Sometimes it feels like you’re going to be fine in the end, and that’s why you lie. But really, you are causing more worry in your mind. You’re creating a focal point for anxiety to fester and blossom.

Anxiety can take a huge toll on not just your mental health but also your physical health. You might grind your teeth. Perhaps you pick at your fingers or at scabs on your face.

Some people even pull out their hair when they are under an intense amount of stress. It can affect you internally. You might feel sick to your stomach or have constant headaches from the anxiety.

It’s not necessarily the lie that will automatically begin manifesting itself through physical ailments; it’s the stressful life that can be created once a lie is told.

To see more ways that stress, fear, and anxiety can negatively affect your overall health, check out the video below:

Lying can also affect your sleep. You might have trouble getting to bed and falling asleep at a certain time because worried thoughts over the lie are consuming your brain.

If your sleep is messed up, then this will also negatively affect your overall health. You might struggle to pay attention and focus at work. Maybe the stress from everything is causing you to overeat or skip the gym. Whatever might be going on in your life, if we are not properly managing our mental health, it will reflect on our physical health much more than you would ever be able to imagine.

You will lower your self-esteem and lack confidence if you are constantly worried about a lie coming to the surface. It can make you very defensive. It can create this sort of blockage to any kind of criticism or comment that can be taken as something used against you.

When you are holding on to a lie, then that means that you are protecting something. There is a morsel of truth that you are desperately trying to cover up.

When you are acting in defense against that, this will show in other people. Somebody might make a completely unrelated comment to you, but your brain connects it back to the lie that you’re covering up, and this leads to a stressful thought. Then you believe that the other person might be out to get you.

It makes it hard for us to be ourselves because our true self is the person that knows the lie. The person that everybody else knows is the one who is living that lie.

It can be really hard to be comfortable with yourself and have high self-esteem when you’re so terrified about the truth coming to the surface.

#3: You Don’t Want to Lose Respect

Some lies are going to be bigger than others. When a friend asks, “Do I look fat in this dress?” you might lie a bit because you don’t want to hurt her feelings. When someone asks, “Can you help me move this weekend?” you might say that you’re busy with something else to avoid the extra labor.

When considering bigger lies that might end up hurting someone else in the process, you’ll want to consider filling out this chart below to determine if the lie is really going to be worth it in the end. It might seem like the lie is better, but really, it might just be easier at that moment.

Trust is one of the most important things you can have in a relationship. If there is no trust, then there is no dependency that others will want to rely on. There is no agreement between the two people that they can depend on the other person. Trust isn’t something that always is discussed upfront with others. Most of the time, we just have this underlying understanding with another person where we know that we can count on them to support us or keep a secret.

As soon as you show the other person that you have lied just one time, it can destroy that trust. They will start to wonder, “If they lied about that, what else might they have lied about?”

Lies are like things buried under the sand. You usually don’t know that you are walking on top of something when you’re strolling along the beach. As soon as one tiny little protrusion sticks up from the surface, you can pull it up to see that something giant has been hidden under there all along.

While you might have only lied just one time, that still doesn’t assure the other person of anything. You might beg and plead with them letting them know that truly, deeply, you only lied once. They might even forgive you for that lie, but they will still struggle to believe if that really was the only lie that you’ve told. They can forever wonder if you are still hiding something bigger. Other people will also question if you even told the entire truth about the lie, or if you just gave them a glimpse at something deeper that you tried to cover up.

A lie isn’t just a lie. It’s not just a sentence, a hidden object, a secret passed between others. It is an action. It is a lifestyle choice. It’s not just the lie that is hard to accept. Others will struggle after you’ve lied to them because they won’t know if there are other parts of yourself that you have hidden.

If you’re good at lying about where you were the night before, maybe you’re also good at lying about whether or not you truly love them.

Lying can really mess with a person’s head. It can make them doubt you and everything that they know to be true.

More people will be able to tell if you are lying than you’d think. You might have thought you got away with a lie, but maybe the other person is just not as great at confrontation. They could seemingly accept the false information that you fed to them, but perhaps they already know the truth anyway.

This video shows how easy it is to see if someone is lying:

It’s a reminder that even though someone won’t blatantly call you out when you’re lying, they can still likely pick up on the half-truth you’re sharing. Don’t risk someone losing respect for you because of a lie. Take an honest way to ensure your relationships will continue in the right direction.

#4: It Will Help Everyone Grow

A lie is something that is told usually to cover up an issue. Nobody lies just for fun. Perhaps there is that individual who lies about having more money, nicer things, and greater experiences than other people. But still, there is an underlying issue there.

When we begin to choose the truth over a lie, that is when people will actually be able to grow rather than focusing on trying to bury the actual issue.

Lying can just make things worse. It can destroy trust in a relationship and ruin the bond that two people have managed to create. Telling the truth is important because it will help everybody to grow. When you learn how to properly express your feelings and share those with other people, it creates a closer connection.

Perhaps you decide to lie to your significant other and tell them that you’re not upset after you’ve had a fight. Maybe you are still harboring some resentment, but you don’t feel like talking about it or getting into an argument, so you just tell them that it’s all good now.

Unfortunately, this just causes that to fester inside of you. Your significant other isn’t going to be reflecting on this issue anymore. They’ve moved on now because they think that you’re fine. The issue might come up again and you have to go through this experience all over. If you had told the truth from the start, it could have helped show the significant other your perspective, giving them the opportunity to grow from it.

In reality, we need to confront that issue so that you can share it with the other person and come to a healthier conclusion in the end rather than just saying, “I’m fine,” when you’re actually suffering.

You can talk things out and get to a place where both of you can grow. The issue that many people have is that they don’t know how to effectively communicate with others. In order to properly share your feelings and discuss the truth in a way that won’t cause an explosive issue, you have to check in with how you are sharing your words.

Let them know why you decided to lie. Don’t just reveal the lie and have them suddenly blame you for that. You want to approach the topic to get to the root of the issue. These are a few phrases that you can say in order to help smooth over a conversation and keep it civil so that the both of you end up growing closer together in the end, rather than letting a lie tear you apart (Smith, 2017).

It’s better to approach the topic by sharing the “why” and also stating that you didn’t tell the truth rather than blatantly saying, “I lied.” It’s never going to be easy, but open and honest communication is essential for a healthy relationship and a happy life.

#5: There’s a Bigger Issue That Needs Attention

Truth is like a seed. When you lie, you bury that seed deep into the ground, but that truth is going to continue to grow and grow. It might take it a while to get to the surface, but eventually, it will. Once it is at the surface, it has likely collected to become even bigger than it would have been if you just would have planted the seed of truth at the surface from the start.

Lying only continues to cover up something that needs to be confronted. Imagine that you have an infected cut on your arm. You can put a Band-Aid on it, but if you are not properly caring for that infection, it’s going to spread to every part of your body.

A lie is like a Band-Aid on top of an infected wound. It might make everything seem like it is okay, but there is a deeper issue going on. A common lie we have is that we tell our friends, our family, or whoever we are closest to that we are fine and that we are happy when we actually are not.

It’s important that we begin to confront the truth to address these underlying issues and help everyone grow along the way.

To further explore this topic, this video is a great one that gets into the details of the psychology of lying:

#6: You’re Usually Lying to Yourself the Most

We lie to other people because we don’t want the truth to come out. In reality, we are lying to ourselves the most. We are talking to our own brains and convincing them of a truth that is not real. You can lie to your coworkers, to your friends, and to the person that you share a bed with every night, but the person that we end up lying to more than anyone else will always be ourselves.

Oftentimes, this issue is something that deals directly with yourself. Perhaps you lie to other people about how much you enjoy your job. Maybe you continue to go on about how great it is, always talking about the fun work parties, the many benefits, and your huge paycheck. Other people might not really care whether or not you like your job. They have their own lives going on, and while they are happy for you, it really doesn’t concern them one way or another.

You might continue to talk about this as a way to validate your own perspective.

After a while, it’s not even about convincing other people that you’re happy; instead, it’s about convincing yourself.

The more that somebody talks about something and has to validate it to others, usually, the more that they have to validate it to themselves.

When you want to lie, you have to look deep inside yourself and ask if there is a truth you are trying to keep from your own mind (Kornet, 1997).

#7: Lying Holds You Back

For all of the other reasons that we discussed above, lying is only going to hold you back. It’s going to make you sick because you’ll think about how the truth is going to come out. It’s going to make things worse for you because it could lead to stress and anxiety. People might lose respect, and you can destroy relationships.

You might cover up the actual issue that needs to be addressed.

The truth is hard. It can be scary, and it can be messy. However, the truth can also help release us from the restrictions we’ve placed with the lie.

Life is all about growing and becoming a better person tomorrow than the one that you were yesterday.

Lying is going to keep you stuck in that mindset that you had when you began the actual lie. Lying is like a weighted chain that keeps you trapped to the ground. You will be stationary, whereas truth can help you actually grow. You can continue to pretend like everything is fine and nothing is wrong by creating lie after lie after lie.

Or you can tell the truth, the first time, deal with all those messy consequences, and then put that behind you as you move on. A lie is like taking the hard emotion or that challenging issue and putting it in your back pocket.

It might not be right in front of you, but it will always be right behind you. It will always be there with you. Only the truth can be left behind. Yes, the truth could negatively impact you for a month or even a year at a time. However, it will eventually help to release you.

For example, imagine a husband and wife who have been together for five years. They had a great relationship at the start but unfortunately, things have gotten messy.

They’re constantly fighting and neither one really wants to be with the other person. However, they continue to lie to themselves and pretend as though everything is good because they have a young child, and they are too afraid to be alone. They continue to live unhappy for the next 15 years. Eventually, one of them cheats on the other. Everything gets messy, and they divorce.

They could have revealed the truth 15 years ago and released themselves from that situation.

They might have gotten a divorce, and it would have been ugly for a year or so. It was messy, they fought, and their families were upset. It did put a little pressure on the child. However, after two years, everything settled down, and they are all completely happy. They’ve each remarried and started a brand-new life with people that they truly love.

The child is thriving because they have two different homes filled with people who love them. It was messy, and it was awful for those two years, but now it is better than it ever could have been in the other situation where they were miserable for those 15 years.

The truth can be bad, but lying will always be worse.

Related Questions

To lie or not to lie is a dilemma we might often find ourselves in. It’s a good topic to explore more of, so check out these further questions to get the most out of your perspective on lying.

Is it lying if I don’t say anything at all?

You might wonder if you avoid responding to a question rather than telling a lie, is that being dishonest? That can be dependent on the situation. If the truth is unnecessary, like an employer asking why you left your last job, you can gloss over the truth and say you were let go, but you don’t have to go into the dirty details of how you were fired for showing up late three times in one week. Question who you are hurting by hiding the truth. Anytime the truth is intentionally hidden, it is dishonesty. It’s ok to not get too deep into the details of a situation, but when someone is intentionally seeking out the truth and it is intentionally hidden, that can be just as bad as lying.

Will, there ever be a time when telling a lie is good? You might find yourself in a situation where lying is going to help others. Perhaps you’re working in a bank and a robber comes in, so you lie and say you’re the only one there to protect coworkers in the back. Maybe bullies in school are asking something personal and you lie to make sure they don’t attack you or a friend. If the lie will protect someone’s life or health, you might consider lying. Eventually, you will want to share the truth, but safety is important, so it’s ok to make sure you are protecting others. There are a few serious situations where a lie could help act as a defense, but for the most part, it’s best, to be honest.

S.Y.H Staff is a collection of writers whose purpose is to provide the best value and information on the article's content.

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• Why Truthtelling Is Important

Besides emulating the character of God, truthtelling is critical for a flourishing society. Therefore, except in rare circumstances, God mandates it. Though God’s command would be a sufficient motivation, theologians and philosophers have identified other reasons as well.

• Authentic Communication Requires Truthtelling

Truthtelling is essential for authentic communication to occur, and makes genuine interaction between people possible. That is, if truth were not expected, it would not be long before communication would entirely break down. Imagine what it would be like living in a society in which no one expected the truth. How could a person discern what is accurate and what is a falsehood? On what basis could a person make important decisions if there was no expectation of the truth? Life would be chaotic without the norm of honesty.

This is essentially the view of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, and the principle of universalizability of truthtelling (though he would not support the notion given here that there are exceptions to the universal norm). Kant argued that this principle was the test of a valid moral principle, and used truthtelling as one of his primary illustrations. He insisted that for a norm to be legitimate, it must be universalizable—applicable to everyone. One of his illustrations envisioned what might happen if no one accepted the norm in question. He correctly argued that without a universal norm of truthtelling, the basis for communication would be in jeopardy, and a society in which this was not a norm would not be functional. [1] This is recognized by the fact that virtually every civilization has some kind of norm that promotes truthtelling and prohibits deception. [2]

• Trust and Cooperation Require Truthtelling

Truthtelling builds trust and civil cooperation among human beings. Trust is critical for a prosperous society, and being a person of one’s word establishes trust and trustworthiness. [1] The Mosaic Law underscored this in Deuteronomy 25:15, connecting honest dealings with Israel’s prosperity in the land. “You shall have only a full and honest weight; you shall have only a full and honest measure, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (also see Leviticus 19:36). Similarly Proverbs brings out the connection between trustworthiness and social harmony. Proverbs 3:29 emphasizes that trust among neighbors is what enables them to live in peace, not fearing harm from one’s neighbor. Further, Proverbs emphasize that trustworthiness brings healing to both relationships and communities (Prov. 13:17, 25:13). Adam Smith was very clear that honest dealings and trustworthiness were critical for a properly functioning market system. Cultures that are given to corruption are often in the most impoverished parts of the world, since it is more difficult and risky to do business in cultures in which the level of trust is low. Similarly, companies in which there is a culture of distrust typically have higher costs of doing business, since they require costly regimens of oversight. They also have intangible costs, as employees tend to be more reluctant to “go the extra mile” for their employer and tend to be less eager to embrace change and less committed to their work.

• Human Dignity Requires Truthtelling

Truthtelling treats people with dignity. To tell someone the truth is a measure of respect that is missing when someone is lied to.

The Scriptures illustrate this with the Genesis account of Jacob and his service to Laban (Genesis 29-30). Jacob works seven years for the right to marry Rachel and after the years of service are complete, Laban deceives Jacob and substitutes his less desirable daughter Leah as Jacob’s bride. Jacob is justifiably outraged at being deceived and treated with such disrespect (Gen. 29:25). Jacob returns the disrespect to Laban in Genesis 30 when he deceives Laban with respect to the flocks that Jacob is tending for Laban, separating out the stronger flocks for himself and leaving the weaker ones for Laban (Gen. 30:42).

Similarly in 2 Kings 12, when it came to the money for the repair of the temple, there were certain workmen who were so trustworthy that the overseers of the repairs did not need an accounting of the money they spent for the repairs. Because they were honest, they were treated with dignity and trust by the king and by the priests in charge of temple repair (also 2 Kings 22:7). This is also borne out by the proverb that warns a person, “Well meant are the wounds a friend inflicts, but profuse are the kisses of an enemy” (Proverbs 27:6). The enemy who multiplies kisses is the one who showers a person with false flattery, deceiving the person into the illusion of friendship and trust, when in reality, he is the enemy. Here, deception treats the person being deceived as a pawn to be manipulated for the deceiver’s own selfish purposes, not as someone with dignity who is deserving of respect. Disrespect also comes through in, “A lying tongue hates its victims; and a flattering mouth works ruin” (Prov. 26:28; also Prov. 26:18-19, 24, 26).

The right of a person to make his or her own autonomous decisions is based on having accurate information, so much so that people often and understandably feel violated and disrespected when they are deceived. A person’s autonomy is weakened when they are deceived. This is evident in the example of Jacob and Laban. Jacob’s autonomy to marry the woman of his choice was completely undermined by Laban’s deception, since Jacob would never have married Leah if left entirely to his own choice (Genesis 29:17-20). It is further evident in Jacob’s reciprocal deception of Laban, since Laban would not have managed the flocks to his obvious financial disadvantage had he not been deceived so effectively by Jacob (Gen. 30:42-43).

Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals , tr. James W. Ellington, (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1993, original, 1785), 30-36. See also, Kant’s essay, “On a Supposed Right to Tell Lies from Altruistic Motives,” ibid.

See C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (New York: Macmillan, 1943). See especially the appendix for a listing of the virtues in common to most of the world’s major civilizations. There are rare exceptions to this—a few cultures hold treachery and deceit as virtues. See for example, Don Richardson, Peace Child: An Unforgettable Story of Primitive Jungle Treachery , 4th edition (Ventura, California: Regal, 2005).

For more on this, see Francis Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (New York: Free Press, 1995).

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Table of Contents

• Truthtelling in the Bible
• Truthtelling is the Norm in the Bible
• Exceptions to Truthtelling in the Bible
• Truthtelling in the Workplace
• Financial Statements Must Tell the Truth
• There May Be Exceptions to Truthtelling in the Workplace
• Puffery/Exaggeration
• When Someone Has No Right to the Truth
• Deception to Obtain Information You Have a Right to Know
• Information You Have No Right to Know
• Social Implications of Protecting Information Others Have No Right to Know
• Conclusions About Truth & Deception
• Key Biblical Texts on Truth & Deception

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• truth and deception

Contributors: Scott Rae Adopted by the Theology of Work Project Board October 3, 2012. Image by Used under license from Veer . Used by permission.

Theology of Work Project Online Materials by Theology of Work Project, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . Based on a work at www.theologyofwork.org

You are free to share (to copy, distribute and transmit the work), and remix (to adapt the work) for non-commercial use only, under the condition that you must attribute the work to the Theology of Work Project, Inc., but not in any way that suggests that it endorses you or your use of the work.

© 2012 by the Theology of Work Project, Inc.

Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Is Telling the Truth Always Good? Research Paper

Truth is a virtue that is upheld by individuals and most societies around the globe. Telling the truth has been for ages held as a virtue and as a sign of honesty in human beings. It is a sign of respect for other people by showing them that you value their trust in you. It is important to note that telling the truth does not always bind a person to respond to every situation one is faced with. It can therefore be argued how one is supposed to respond to such situations. In this case we would ask ourselves whether it is always the best option to be honest and tell the truth or it is sometimes easier to tell lies and safe the situation of the day. This paper will generally focus on the importance of always telling the truth no matter the kind of situations we are faced with. Telling the truth can be held as always the better option.

The Virtue of always telling the truth helps to build ones character as an honest person. It does not really matter whether the act of telling the truth especially in difficult situations will put you into more problems. This is because one’s mind is cleared of guilt conscience. The mind is also cleared of any contradictions and one does not have to really always remember what you said to every one (Michael, p10). This is because you will not be afraid that a certain situation will come and the answer you might give might contradict the first one. Truth does not change and if one always tells the truth you don’t have to think and twist answers to save yourself. On the other hand telling the truth is good since this might prevent more problems to be created in future either in your life or other people’s lives. Once the truth about a situation is known, it can be handled with every possible solution to either solve problems of the day or be lessons to you and other people (Jean, p13).

It is always true that if one is used to telling the truth the people that you deal with will be more likely to tell the truth to you. This makes life very easy since you will also not have problems with the persons around you trying to think what is true and what is not true. You will be always a good example to the others. A person who learns to always tell the truth will also build a lot of self confidence. Being always true means no one can put you down for what you said as a form of deceit. This also makes one to be always proud of who they are. Since telling the truth clears one’s mind of guilt conscience, it follows that telling the truth reduces chances of a person being stressed. One is therefore able to always present themselves in a good manner, eat well and also improve on their physical appearance (Jean, p22). Truth also helps other individuals have confidence in you and also believe in you. This virtue assures other people that when things don’t work out as they should you will always present it as it is and this is what every one values as a bold person.

Telling the truth sometimes will hurt other people (Michael, p24). In such cases one should always try to use words and ways of expressions that will be taken in a very understanding manner. This is especially when we are dealing with very close friends, families and work colleagues. For example a friend asks you if a dress or a hair style is looking good on them. If you are sure it is not attractive one can respond with answers such as, “Am not certain this is your color or style.” In this way one can be able to automatically know they are not looking good and they will be willing to ask for opinions from you. It is also argued that sometimes we lie by telling the truth. The necessity of telling the truth also matters with the outcome of the situation. A false statement also has a degree of falsity and these measures whether one is really telling the truth or not. Not telling the truth does not really make some body a liar since the sole intention and the reactions by the speaker is what matters. What others believe about an individual also matters and some times telling the truth will only deceive the loyalty they hold on you. IT is therefore possible to not tell the truth and still get the satisfaction of others. He argues that telling the truth is always not part of the solution to everything (lumpur, p6).

A large number of individuals would consider not telling the truth with the sole intention of making other people believe in false facts. One may therefore argue it is good to not tell the truth in certain situations. The act of not telling the truth is considered a vice in the society and generally not accepted. The motive of not telling the truth is mostly directed towards preventing people from acting in a certain manner that may cause pain or hurt the informant. This then motivates the persons to make decisions or act in favor of the other person (Ben). Normally, People will not tell the truth because they are afraid of facing the consequences that might follow the truth. People also tell lies to save the situation of the day. One may not tell the truth because they consider it a short term solution of their problems. This is then followed by a series of lies as one tries to save the previous lies which might have been discovered and to avoid contradiction (Michael, p27).

In some situations one may weigh the cost of lying and that of telling the truth and decide the former is easier to handle. Individuals also find it easier to keep lying about different matters especially if one is used to not telling the truth to find favor. A perfect lie is said to be one that will result to some kind of benefit and which no one will find about. It can also be a lie that is used to divert people who will never affect once life either to add or reduce value (Ben). Life is very complicated and one may not be able differentiate who will be of benefit to you later in life and who will not. It is also very difficult to tell whether a certain lie will actually be discovered or not. It is very important to note that once a person learns to use lies as scapegoats to situations, the lies will finally be a habit and form patterns that are often repeated. Such repeated patterns will eventually give rise to a mistake and this might attract heavy consequences.

Mazur clearly brings out the vice of lying as corrupting the rational thinking of human beings. It denies one the freedom to make rational choices to reflect reality and also robs others their rationality and moral ethics (p15). It causes a lot of pain to the human dignity upon discovery of the truth. It diminishes the way we value ourselves and also the value we give to other individuals. The act of lying or not telling the truth clearly depicts the social uncertainty prevailing in the society and the lack of understanding the rules and authorities of personal behavior. Lying only acts as a solution to the dissatisfaction that we may have to go through by telling the truth (Bailey, p29).

In conclusion, it is always good to tell the truth since this increases one’s credibility. It helps in molding the relations-ships between individuals since they will be based on trust and believing in each other. The vice of not telling the truth no matter the consequences will always lead to short term solutions which may turn out to be bigger problems between individuals in future. The vice will eventually lead to a lot of enmity between individuals which might even cause psychological stress. The actual cost of not telling the truth is therefore higher than telling the truth. People should always weigh the cost of lying as a risk of creating enemies and losing their credibility as individuals who can be believed in.

Works Cited

Bailey. The Prevalence of Deceit. Cornell University Press, 1991, p 23-34.

Ben Best. Some Philosophizing About Lying. Web.

Greenberg, Michael A. The Consequences of Truth Telling. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 1991, p8-28.

Kuala Lumpur. Don’t Always Tell the Truth.Today’s Woman magazine, 2003.

Revell Jean. The Flight from Truth: The Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information. New York, Random House Books, 1992, p12-41.

Tim C. Mazur. Issues in Ethics -lying. California, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, 2003, p3-18.

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Home — Essay Samples — Philosophy — Truth — Importance Of Truthfulness

Importance of Truthfulness

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Published: Jun 13, 2024

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Introduction, truthfulness and personal integrity, truthfulness and social cohesion, truthfulness in professional environments.

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An honesty box on Dartmoor, England. Photo by Loop/Getty

The virtue of honesty requires more than just telling the truth

by Christian B Miller   + BIO

Listen to this Idea.

Honesty has fallen out of fashion, yet it is essential to self-improvement. How can we cultivate this neglected virtue?

There is little controversy that honesty is a virtue. It is an excellence of character. It also promotes trust, fosters healthy relationships, strengthens organisations and societies, and prevents harm.

Sadly, though, honesty has gone missing in recent decades. It is largely absent from academic research. It seems to be rare in society. And it is not commonly found in discussions of how to become a better person.

What is honesty? How is honesty related to integrity, courage and tact? Is it always best to be honest? What are the ways of failing to be honest? These are important questions, but you will be hard pressed to find discussions of them among scholars. In my field of philosophy, for instance, outside of the work of my own team, there have been only two articles on honesty published in the past 50 years .

So what is honesty? It is a character trait that leads us to think, feel and act in honest ways. Let’s focus on the acting for a moment. Naturally, honesty stands in contrast to lying. But it is much broader in scope than that. It also is opposed to cheating, stealing, promise breaking, misleading, bullshitting, hypocrisy, self-deception, and still other forms of wrongdoing. It works against all of them, and so is extremely broad and impactful in scope.

What do all these behaviours have in common? What is at the core of honesty that enables it to cover so much moral ground? The answer, I think, is that honest behaviour is a matter of not intentionally distorting the facts as the honest person sees them.

Consider a student who lies about his grades to his parents. He is misrepresenting his academic performance on purpose to his parents. Or consider an athlete who knowingly uses a banned substance. She is mispresenting her performance as being due to her own efforts, rather than in part to the contribution of the substance.

Honest behaviour is tied to how a person sees the world, to the facts as subjectively understood. If someone genuinely believes the Earth is flat, then, when he reports that belief to a friend, he is being honest, even though the statement is false. Were he to say that the Earth is round, he would be acting dishonestly, even though the statement is true.

If the only reason why the shopkeeper doesn’t cheat his customers is that he is worried about losing business, then he is doing the right thing for the wrong reason

That’s a bit about honest behaviour. How about motivation? In order to be a virtuous person, it is not enough just to act well. One’s heart behind the action matters too. Honesty is no exception. Telling the truth, even if one is reliable in doing so, won’t be an expression of the virtue of honesty if it is done just to make a good impression on others, or to avoid getting punished, or to secure rewards in the afterlife.

Indeed, in my view, any self-interested motive isn’t going to count as a virtuous motive for honesty. The philosopher Immanuel Kant made a similar observation with his example of the shopkeeper who charges fair prices even when he has a chance to overcharge certain customers. Kant claims that if the only reason why the shopkeeper doesn’t cheat his customers is that he is worried about losing business, if he were to be found out, then this would be a case of doing the right thing for the wrong reason. The same point applies for any other self-interested reason.

What would count as a right reason for honest behaviour, then? A variety of other motives, including:

• loving motives (eg, ‘because I care about you’)
• justice motives (eg, ‘because it would be unfair if I cheated on the test’)
• friendship motives (eg, ‘because he’s my friend’)
• dutiful motives (eg, ‘because it was the right thing to do’)
• honesty motives (eg, ‘because it would be honest’)

If someone tells the truth for any of these reasons, it is hard to fault the person’s character. But they are rather different reasons. I think we should be pluralists here, and allow any or all of these to count as what could motivate an honest person to act.

There is much more to say about the contours of this virtue. But already I have said more than most have in a long while.

Here is another way that the virtue of honesty has gone missing – it seems to be rarely possessed by people today. You might conclude this from the nightly news or from your own lived experience. But I am especially interested in what can be concluded from empirical research in psychology and behavioural economics. In a variety of different types of experiments – using die rolls, coin flips, self-graded exams, and other measures of honest behaviour – participants regularly exhibit a pattern of behaviour that does not fit with our expectations of an honest person.

For instance, in a commonly used experimental set-up for assessing cheating, participants are given a 20-problem maths test, and are told that they will be paid for every answer they get right. In a study by Lisa Shu and colleagues, this was $0.50. In the control condition, there was no opportunity to cheat, and participants scored a 7.97 out of 20. In the experimental condition, participants got to grade the test themselves and shred their materials. Given the freedom to cheat if they wanted to, participants ‘scored’ a 13.22 out of 20. That’s a big difference.

As in many areas of psychology, some cheating studies have failed to be replicated

To take another example, online participants in a study by Christopher Bryan and colleagues had to flip a coin 10 times , knowing they would be paid $1 for each heads. The average ‘performance’ was 6.31 heads , well above chance. Even when another group of participants was warned, ‘Please don’t cheat and report that one or more of your coin flips landed heads when it really landed tails! Even a small amount of cheating would undermine the study,’ the average was still 6.22 in that group.

How do these findings line up with our expectations about honesty? A person who is honest will not cheat in situations where she is a free and willing participant and the relevant rules are fair and appropriate, even if by cheating she is assured of acquiring some benefit for herself. That’s what you might expect of an honest person, but it’s not what we see happening in these results.

Of course, these are only two examples. To draw any conclusions about character from just a few results such as these would be very unwise. Fortunately there are dozens and dozens of additional findings that I have reviewed elsewhere , including many more studies using shredder and coin-flip paradigms. The important point here is not what any one study shows, but rather what the patterns of behaviour look like in general and whether they align with our expectations for honesty.

This is also relevant to recent worries about the replication crisis and about fraudulent data. As in many areas of psychology, some cheating studies have failed to be replicated. For instance, a well-known shredder study initially found that recalling the Ten Commandments was effective in reducing cheating, but this result did not hold up in an attempted replication with many more participants from 19 separate labs. Furthermore, it was well documented that an influential study, which purported to show that insurance customers were more honest in their mileage reports if they signed at the top of a form rather than the bottom, was fraudulent.

Again, this is why it is so important to not rely on just a few studies when trying to think about how honest people tend to be. It is the broader patterns that hopefully tell a reliable story.

Finally, this story is about what the majority of people tend to be like. It is based on average performances. But averages can cover up exceptional behaviour. So we may have a bell curve, with some people who are highly honest and others who are highly dishonest, while the rest of us are somewhere in the middle. Furthermore, the story should be taken to apply, in the first instance, only to inhabitants of North America and Europe, since they tend to be the participants in the existing studies. The story may apply more broadly, but we don’t have nearly enough research yet to say.

Assuming that many of us are not honest people in a variety of circumstances, and assuming that honesty is an important virtue that we should cultivate in ourselves and others, it is important to take practical steps to do so. And here is a third place where the virtue of honesty has gone missing. For very little has been said about strategies for growing in honesty, and about testing those strategies to see if they are really successful.

In my own classes, we all read aloud the honour code before the students sign it and begin their exam

Here are three preliminary suggestions that might be fruitful, but that also need empirical confirmation. One is seeking out and better understanding exemplars of honesty. These can be historical exemplars such as Abraham Lincoln, or contemporaries such as a family member, friend, co-worker or community leader. Admiring role models for their honesty can lead to a desire to emulate those people, to make our own character better reflect the exemplars’ character. Sustained engagement with the exemplars can typically be more effective than one-time interactions, and relatable and attainable exemplars can have a greater impact than their opposites.

Another suggestion is to have regular moral reminders of honesty in our lives. Such reminders can make our moral norms salient, such that they more actively work against a desire to cheat, lie or steal. Honesty reminders can take a wide variety of forms, including diaries, readings, signs and emails. There can also be institutional reminders, which we encounter at work or school. One such moral reminder in many schools is an honour code, which students have to sign before taking a test. And there is some very preliminary experimental evidence that such a reminder can be effective in preventing cheating. Returning to Shu’s research, she and her colleagues also had groups of participants take the maths test after reading or signing an honour code. When there was an opportunity to cheat, the honour code made a difference: participants who did not read the honour code gave themselves an average score of 13.09 out of 20; those who only read the honour code scored 10.05; while those who both read and signed the honour code scored 7.91 (a realistic score for the test, suggesting that they did not cheat at all). In my own classes, we all read aloud the honour code before the students sign it and begin their exam.

A final suggestion is to work against our desire to cheat, a desire that can be especially powerful when we think we can get away with cheating, and benefit in the process. Such a desire seems to be at work in studies such as those by Shu and Bryan, mentioned earlier, and introspectively we can all recognise moments in our lives when it has influenced us as well. One straightforward way to try to reign it in is to increase the policing of cheating and impose harsher penalties on those found guilty. For instance, with the move in education towards take-home exams during the COVID-19 pandemic, computer surveillance of students taking those exams has become a big business, although not without giving rise to a number of moral and psychological concerns.

Increased policing and punishment for cheating might be effective in curbing dishonest behaviour, although that, too, is an empirical claim that needs further study. But, even if it does, that’s not enough to foster the virtue of honesty. As I said earlier, motivation matters too. Here, the motivation for not cheating would be punishment avoidance, and that is a purely self-interested motivation. While I tried to be very ecumenical about what can count as an honest motivation, this is one that’s not going to make it on the list.

Instead, the desire to cheat could be diminished in a more virtuous manner by fostering other virtues alongside honesty, such as friendship and love. If someone is genuinely my friend, I want what’s best for that person, even if it is at the expense of my own self-interest. Similarly, if I love others and care deeply for them, then I am concerned about their own good. The deeper the friendship and love, the less likely it is that we would be dishonest with others for our own gain.

This article draws on Christian B Miller’s book Honesty: The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue (2021), with permission from Oxford University Press.

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Essay on Truthfulness | Importance of Truth in Our Life

February 18, 2020 by Study Mentor 8 Comments

Truth is the virtue by which all your sins can be averted.  Honesty is the one thing that holds the power to change hearts. Truthfulness is not only in the case of honesty towards others but it is also about how true we are to our own selves. We all need to realize our potential and learn to stay true to our own convenience.

“Are you experiencing difficulty in writing an essay on truthfulness in English? Feel free to try cheap paper writing services provided by Cheap Writing Help and its professional academic writers.”

As we say, charity begins at home; similarly, truthfulness begins in one’s own mind. If a person is true to his heart and learns to yearn to its calling; then his virtue will lead him to different places altogether where he always wanted to be. Truthfulness is always appreciated in an individual and the quantity of honesty stands him apart from everyone.

To assert the importance of truthfulness, our school had four houses- truth, peace, love and righteousness. Children are taught to appreciate truth from a young age at school and at home. The movement of truthfulness gained momentum, when Gandhiji asserted the importance of truth through his satyagraha  which he undertook to redeem India of its captors.

It is said that Gandhiji was greatly influenced by Raja Harish Chandra’s play where the protagonist walked on the path of truth no matter what. This is what inspired him to take up the path of truth in his life. Eventually his ideologies came in influence a lot of people and he was successful in turning out Britishers from our country.

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This is because he stood undeterred on his principles and working. Had he not taken stand of his words, his followers would be none who walk on his given path. Had he not been true to his word, he would not be recognized today for his impeccable character and moral values.

It is his path of truth that is followed today. History holds records of many such men who discovered their true selves when they yearned to their inner calling and learns to recognize it.

Great men like Buddha and Mahavir Swami were born as price and fed with silver spoons. But when they learnt what their heart accepted i.e. non-materialism; they left everything back – all their riches and lavish lifestyle, to start a new life which they wanted for themselves. And thus, they sit out to preach the path of righteousness and truth.

The path of truth is not easy to walk on. The path is laden with thorns of challenges and difficulties. Situations will tempt you to lie and walk on the wrong path due to hard consequences. But it is the strength of your character that stops you from swaying on the wrong path.

There are situations when truth can cost you dearly but at the end, there is no burden on your mind to hide the lies. A spoken lie attracts more lies.

It begins to spin a web around itself. It becomes difficult to get out of that trap of lies which is never ending. It starts with a small lie and to cover up that false statement, more lies are spoken. But as we all know that truth always triumphs.

It always finds a way out of the crevices of doubt that is left behind by false statements. In the end, the hidden truth always comes out and the consequences are even more harsh and grave when they would have been before. Without a truthful living, no success can ever be achieved.

A person should remain truthful to his virtues. Honesty is such a virtue which is admired by one and all. An honest man is always held in high esteem and respected wherever he goes. Recently, a case came up where in a taxi driver found a small case left behind by a passenger in his vehicle. He somehow found out his address and went to passenger’s residence to deliver the same.

There were apart from 1 lakh rupee, documents of vital importance. The owner of the box was surprised and amazed by the honesty shown by the taxi driver. He not only thanked the driver but also offered him a good driving job in his own company. Apart from this fable we also remember the honesty shown by the woodcutter to the god Mercury.

The woodcutter was offered by the god two different axes made up of silver and gold but the woodcutter was not tempted by the lure of gold or silver as he was an honest person. An honest person always wins the hearts of others no matter he may have to suffer.

We all should try to become honest like woodcutter and never be lead by any kind of temptation. This is a rare virtue which everyone does not possess. Therefore show courage and be a hero. When closely observed, we see that honesty stems from truthfulness.

Being truthful is the first step to loyalty, faith and honesty. Because without truth, no loyalty, faith or honesty towards yourself or the other person is possible.

Truth can save you from any difficult situation from worsening. The virtue of truth is the basic fundamental characteristics that should be embedded in each human.

Lies and deceptions stem from not telling the truth. Somewhere on the other, false statements destroys both the parties from insides: – the one who tells the false and the one who is being lied to because he eventually finds out about the lies.

The peculiar thing about truth is that it is like a surgery. The infected part is immediately attacked upon without any haste or twists. But lies are like painkillers.

Reader Interactions

January 5, 2020 at 7:51 pm

i really liked this essay this really touched my heart THIS WAS AWESOME, SUPERB, AMAZING, WONDERFUL and much more. Stay blessed and happy

January 6, 2020 at 6:11 pm

February 13, 2020 at 10:12 pm

Although I am a truthful person,but after reading the essay,I will become more truthful than before

February 14, 2020 at 9:47 am

That’s Great to hear

February 18, 2020 at 12:11 am

What an essay ! I like the essay the most.

March 6, 2020 at 11:44 pm

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March 10, 2020 at 9:50 pm

Great. You are Welcome

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It,s an awesome essay. It helps me a lot.

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Why Truth Matters

New research finds increasing danger in endorsing disinformation..

Posted February 13, 2021 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

We find ourselves awash in oceans of disinformation, with millions detached from reality. Current circumstances, including a pandemic that has fully exposed lingering social and economic injustices, make opposing forces even more pronounced, resulting in deeper divisions everywhere.

Well into the throes of a great shift in the way we relate to each other and the planet we share, we have critical choices to make in this transformational moment. Will we allow polarization to further divide us, or will we seek cooperation and unity? Will we watch intended disinformation further overwhelm us, or will we search unfettered for a truth that underlies reality?

There is no quick answer or easy fix. Our unfolding evolution depends upon the difficult work of confronting our shadow side, individually and collectively. As Carl Jung made clear, “The way to wholeness is made up of fateful detours and wrong turnings. It is a snake-like path that unites the opposites.”

The so-called emergence of “post-truth” America, with an “alternative” version of reality, is an attempt to reverse the Enlightenment, a way to upend a standard toward which humanity has long aspired, and an assault on the very principle of truth itself. This trend is antithetical to our very nature as human beings with a mind capable of rational and reflective thinking.

A holistic vision of evolution and consciousness understands a purpose to these turbulent times. Cycles of transformation and renewal punctuate our evolutionary progress, as we see in this year of lockdowns, demonstrations, and confrontations. Yet, all the divisions that natural differences create are essentially due to an incomplete investigation of truth.

Consciousness is a potentiality set in motion by an organic process of discovery. But this innate potential is totally dependent upon the initiative we take to see with our own eyes. Only the independent investigation of truth expands our consciousness as we transcend the seeming limits we are faced with. To seek truth, to know reality, is to be open to what is beyond what we already know, and open to what is greater than us.

One important factor that has allowed a “post-truth,” “alternative” version of reality to gain a grasp on people’s thinking is that we are born into a realm of dualities, where opposing forces clash for their survival. If we are satisfied with what has been handed to us, we will be taken in dangerous directions. A recent New York Times article reported that the spread of conspiracy theories, fake news , and other forms of disinformation has wrought suspicion, irrational responses, and havoc upon our society. Living by principles of separation and division, which enables and supports disinformation, can result in “extreme antisocial psychological orientations” and “non-normative behavioral patterns” that create hierarchies and endanger all.

Polarization mixed with disinformation and conspiracy thinking produces the social toxicity of endorsing “mutually incompatible conspiracy” thinking when “important psychological needs are not being met.” What is needed, psychologists find, is “the need for knowledge and certainty,” along with the need to feel safe and secure when powerless and scared, and the need to feel unique compared to others. Promoters of and believers in disinformation will often automatically dismiss factual claims disputing their beliefs.

The storming of the Capitol building on January 6 is not an isolated event, or even some “innocent” form of belief, but rather a genuine threat to public safety. This is all deeply rooted in an outdated misunderstanding of the nature of evolution itself, which may at one time have required competition and conflict but now demands cooperation and harmony for the good of the whole.

With an understanding of the evolutionary impulse leading eventually toward unity and wholeness, an unfettered search for truth would lead to a prosocial orientation with actions contributing to a unity of purpose.

Truth based in reality, in common sense, and a universal understanding, is a final protection for our way of life, our wellbeing, and our very survival. If this is allowed to be overlooked and replaced with its opposite, all semblance of order and justice is lost.

The search for truth is a primary principle of the timeless wisdom of the world’s sacred traditions. All express some form of the familiar, “Seek and ye shall find.” It is also one of the most important of all human rights. But what we shall find in our search is the remarkable realization that we are led to a boundless consciousness that unites us with all beings, and with all of Creation. This is what will unite us as one human family.

Living in truth is courageously acting for the common good, supporting communities of fairness, and choosing to be a steward of the planet. This fulfills our individual potential, is the means for advancing civilization, and acknowledges our diversity of views, appearances, and contributions to the whole as our sustaining strength.

Atkinson, R. (2017). The Story of Our Time: From Duality to Interconnectedness to Oneness. Ft. Lauderdale, FL: Sacred Stories Publishing.

Robert Atkinson, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern Maine and Nautilus Book Award-winning author of The Story of Our Time: From Duality to Interconnectedness to Oneness.

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When we fall prey to perfectionism, we think we’re honorably aspiring to be our very best, but often we’re really just setting ourselves up for failure, as perfection is impossible and its pursuit inevitably backfires.

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November, 2013

REVISED AND EXPANDED — AND NOW IN HARDCOVER

As it was in Anna Karenina , Madame Bovary , and Othello , so it is in life. Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies. Acts of adultery and other personal betrayals, financial fraud, government corruption—even murder and genocide—generally require an additional moral defect: a willingness to lie. In Lying , bestselling author and neuroscientist Sam Harris argues that we can radically simplify our lives and improve society by merely telling the truth in situations where others often lie. He focuses on “white” lies—those lies we tell for the purpose of sparing people discomfort—for these are the lies that most often tempt us. And they tend to be the only lies that good people tell while imagining that they are being good in the process.

Ricky Gervais

This essay is quite brilliant. (I was hoping it would be, so I wouldn’t have to lie.) I honestly loved it from beginning to end. Lying is the most thought-provoking read of the year.

Tim Ferriss

Author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers, The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Workweek

Humans have evolved to lie well, and no doubt you’ve seen the social lubrication at work. In many cases, we might not think of it as a true lie: perhaps a “white” lie once in a blue moon, the omission of a sensitive detail here and there, false encouragement of others when we see no benefit in dashing someone’s hopes, and the list goes on. In Lying , Sam Harris demonstrates how to benefit from being brutally—but pragmatically—honest. It’s a compelling little book with a big impact.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History

In this brief but illuminating work, Sam Harris applies his characteristically calm and sensible logic to a subject that affects us all—the human capacity to lie. And by the book’s end, Harris has compelled you to lead a better life because the benefits of telling the truth far outweigh the cost of lies—to yourself, to others, and to society.