High-profile fibs feed public cynicism

By Karen S. Peterson, USA TODAY

Perhaps the country is headed into a summer of deceit.

A fresh batch of high-profile liars have been caught with their integrity down, some confessing, some just languishing in an advanced state of embarrassment.

The reasons they fib are often complex, say social scientists who monitor such things. And yes, it does matter. People do care. It all adds up — or comes down — to more fodder to feed an increasingly cynical society.

The most recent fabrications:

• Journalist David Brock confessed in Blinded by the Right that he "lost his soul" by printing allegations he knew to be untrue about Anita Hill during the 1991 Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings for the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Mount Holyoke College professor Joseph Ellis was caught having invented a tour of duty in Vietnam.
• Sony's Columbia Pictures acknowledged creating a fake critic to praise its movies in newspaper advertisements. Both Columbia and Fox Searchlight acknowledged having employees pose as moviegoers in "man-on-the-street" interviews for TV commercials.

And one does not have to go back far to recall a president lying about a sex scandal and desperately parsing words to avoid the truth.

It all adds up. "We have become desensitized to the enormous significance of lying," says Michael Josephson of the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Marina del Rey, Calif. "The effects are all destructive, generally lowering the level of trust in anything we read or hear." The cumulative effect is to give everyone permission to lie, Josephson says, because the powerful do.

For only the second time in 50 years, ethics and morality near the top of the list of what the public regards as the most important problems facing the country, says pollster George Gallup Jr. "I think the public is alarmed. More than three-quarters (78%) say our moral values are somewhat or very weak."

Public lying is sapping the nation's strength, says Gerald Celente of Trends Research Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y. "There is a moral and spiritual vacuum reflected in all aspects of society. Lying and cheating is permissible."

Lying can be acceptable in some instances, however. Some theologians believe the full truth can be a form of betrayal if it causes harm. And some lies can be justified if they serve the higher good, says John Carlson of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. But lies told "for personal gain and no higher good, to improve one's status or sense of self, or for self-aggrandizement" are out of bounds.

Lies range from "the impulsive, to the unconscious, to those that are fully planned and carefully executed," says psychiatrist Jeffery Smith of Scarsdale, N.Y. The ability to lie is actually one of the hallmarks of being human. "A lie takes the truth and flips it upside down. Animals cannot do that."

Liars fib from a variety of motives, from simple to complex, experts say. They may seek to escape punishment, to gain something that can't be earned legitimately, to get power over others or to build self esteem, says psychologist Paul Ekman, author of Telling Lies (Norton, $9.95). Liars often underestimate the consequences, he says. "They may never be trusted again."

One motive is "pure greed," says Charles Ford, author of Lies! Lies!! Lies!!! The Psychology of Deceit (American Psychiatric, $17). "Certainly we know there is no shortage of lying in order to make more money."

But other scenarios get more interesting, he says. Some lies "often involve people who are talented, bright, accomplished. They have no need to lie to sustain their importance, and yet they do it anyway," says Ford, a psychiatrist at the University of Alabama Medical School.

Some see this type of liar "as a variant of what is called the impostor syndrome. Even though they are very successful, they feel they are frauds. They feel that whatever came to them was undeserved. And even though they could get caught, even though they may eventually sabotage themselves, they will do it anyway."

These fibbers "make up stories that embellish their pasts, often to make them seem more masculine." There may be, he says, "a 'gotcha' element, a belief they can pull it off. They feel superior."

Some liars eventually become convinced they are telling the truth, says Frank Farley, past president of the American Psychological Association, now with Temple University in Philadelphia.

"Our memories are not static, like a filing system," Farley says. "Memory is dynamic. It is altered by new experiences and gets edited to accommodate old ones. You end up believing something that is really a lie."

But it will get harder to fudge, Farley says. This is the era of the Internet. "We live in a much more scrutinized society. We are relentless voyeurs into the lives of people. It is getting harder to hide these things."