(Oakland University, 2010-01-01) Folland, Sherman T.; Cole, Natalie B.
Mark Twain had little patience for purists who insisted that the slightest lie was an offense to God and would send you straight to Hell. Part I of this column relates the cautionary example of a Twain short story and adds two more examples, all designed to persuade doubters that lying provides important social benefits. Telling a lie often is the ethical thing to do.
Part II considers socially unbeneficial lies and how much to tolerate them. Look into this part also for a sampling of the surprising research on the benefits of trust. The moral of the story, I think, is this: some dishonesty is good for us, while some bad dishonesty must be tolerated,but that is much less now that we know the importance of trust. Trust is uncanny.