When I catch someone in a lie, I know that I can't believe anything that person says. I believe in the truth, even when it has consequences. I was raised that way.

As a part of my combined life of studying history (in order to understand how people work), and my work as a problem solver, I came to be suspicious of people who want me to make ASSUMPTIONS about someone else, because they caught that person in a lie.

I ended up directly studying logic itself, as a subset of studying higher mathematics, and as a necessary part of understanding human political and social behavior.

In particular, I learned to watch carefully for what EXACTLY is proven when someone does lie, or when they state something as being a fact, which is not a fact (not quite the same as lying...when you think you are saying something factual and you are wrong, you aren't lying).

All that a lie proves by itself, is that the person saying it, doesn't want to tell the truth. It does NOT, by itself, prove what the truth actually IS. TAke the recent KAvanaugh mess as an example. It's clear that Kavanaugh told "less than the truth" about his past. However, that lack of factuality doesn't prove that he is guilty of everything that his accusers said about him, it only proves that he doesn't want to be honest about himself and his past.

When it comes to running away, it's even more important to be SPECIFIC about what can and can't be deduced from the behavior. All that can be factually deduced when someone runs, is that they want to leave in a hurry. There is no way to know why they want to leave, without further investigation.

This past week, opinions have been stated about perceived deception or lies of either Ford or Kavanaugh and what that lie or deception means.

This brought up for me a question about what I think is the myth of lying(or running from authorities), due to guilt. I think it is a false conclusion that lying (or running from authorities) is necessarily an indication of guilt.


Let me give a for instance.

If you had a crazy spouse who tended to believe you were cheating on them and you had a friend of the opposite sex that you met for lunch, you may be tempted to lie about that friend, even though you are not guilty of cheating, because you know that your innocence will not be believed, EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE INNOCENT.

The same is true of running from police. I liken it to an innocent person and a lynch mob who BELIEVES they are guilty. It is sometimes not enough to know of your OWN INNOCENCE, many times people react based on what they know of how OTHERS view their innocence and what the consequence of THEIR belief might be.


Of course, the liar is ALWAYS guilty of the charge of deception, but the motive for that deception is definitely not always a reflection of their guilt with anything else.


I wonder how many here have always believed a lie is evidence of guilt?

So your example, if the wife just happens by the restaurant and sees the husband in there having innocent lunch one of two things will happen. He will run and look guilty or he will stay there and introduce his friend to his wife. Which one of those do you think would work better? Not running.

Also a lie isn't an indication of guilt, but it's a reason to dig deeper.

So your example, if the wife just happens by the restaurant and sees the husband in there having innocent lunch one of two things will happen. He will run and look guilty or he will stay there and introduce his friend to his wife. Which one of those do you think would work better? Not running.

Also a lie isn't an indication of guilt, but it's a reason to dig deeper.