Folland, Sherman T.Cole, Natalie B.2020-05-132020-05-132010-01-01Folland, Sherman T. "When Lying Is the Ethical Thing to Do, And When There Is Too Much of It" Oakland Journal 18. (2010). 5-131529-4005http://hdl.handle.net/10323/7871Mark 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.en-USCopyright held by Oakland UniversityLyingTrustEthicsArticle