Everyone Lies

No matter who they are, almost everyone lies. In fact, people lie extremely often. A study done in 2002 reported that during a brief chat, most people lie upwards of three times. Even though this statistic makes it seem as if humans are terrible creature, but you should not be too quick to judge. Psychologists theorize that lying is less about deception, and more about self-preservation. To understand this to a better extent, it is important to apprehend one of the most famous psychologists, Sigmund Freud.

Id, Ego, Superego

Everyone has heard the same metaphor about the iceberg and that you can only see the tip of it. Coincidentally, the same can be said about your mind. At the heart of lying, there is a conflict between the three forces

that rule our mind. These are the Id, Ego, and the Superego. In the iceberg, the ego is at the top, superego below it, and hidden beneath it all is the id. In different people, there is a different balance of the three, a different proportion of these three forces leads to drastically different people.

The Id is one of the most basic parts of the mind. Everyone is born with an Id and for the very first years of life it dictates the actions we make. The Id is governed by biological principles, it tells your mind to act in ways that are optimal for biological survival and happiness. Freud described the Id as being ruled by the “pleasure principle”, basically anything the human can do to acquire happiness will be done. Whether this be crying, whining, and other impulsive behaviors. People whose Id is dominant have little to no self control and are often seen as immoral. Though the Id is sometimes seen as a primal monster inside all of us, it is a necessity for survival.

The Ego develops at around the age of three due to a child interacting with the world around them. People begin to understand what Freud called the “reality principle”, they start to realize that others have feelings as well. With this new understanding, the ego now realizes that immoral behavior leads to consequences. Most people have a very active Ego, whenever you decide not to do something selfish this is the Ego claiming its position as top dog in the mind.

Finally, the Superego. The superego develops around the age of five when concepts such as right and wrong arise as a prominent question. The Superego holds all the morals and ideals in our personality. Our Superego is seen as our conscience, directing us right from wrong. Even though the Superego is seen as the purest part of the mind it is never supposed to be the strongest. In a healthy person the Ego is dominant, it can satisfy the needs of the Superego while also considering the reality and satisfying the Id.

What Happens When not All Can be Satisfied?

Sometimes a situation arises, and the Ego cannot satisfy all the needs of the other two forces. The Ego has massive amounts of stress, balancing society, biology, and reality. When it feels as though the Ego cannot make a decision, and everything seems to be crashing down on it, people experience a sensation that we have labeled as anxiety.

To solve this anxiety, the Ego has various defense mechanisms, one of these is lying. Instead of satisfying both forces at the same time, the Ego will satisfy them one at a time. When you lie to another person it is because your Id has taken control, in order to look better in front of someone, because biologically it feels great to be accepted. Afterward, one of two things will occur in order to satisfy the Superego.

In order to satisfy the Superego, one Ego defense mechanism is known as rationalism. This is when the Ego distorts our reality of a situation in order for it to be less threatening. We tell ourselves that what we said is okay and it will not matter. Many forms of rationalization include actually believing a lie that is told. During the 2002 study mentioned before, people had no idea that they had lied more than three times. Their Ego’s had made a decision to believe the lie as truth. For instance, if you had caught a six inch fish, and told somebody that it was six feet, your Ego would rationalize and think “actually maybe it was pretty big, maybe it was six feet”.

Another tactic is denial. This defense mechanism was also labeled by Freud as selective forgetting. Instead of dealing with the lie that was told, or trying to fix anything to satisfy the Superego, the Ego will forcefully forget the memory. This leads to an end of anxiety because the Id’s need to fit in is satisfied and the Superego is satisfied because it has no idea you lied.

The third option does not actually involve a defense mechanism. Instead it simply ends with the Superego not satisfied. This is the sensation people feel after they lie and they experience anxiety.

Humans and Society

Humans are unique creatures. Many other animals engage in deception or tricks, but purposefully believing a lie or forgetting it is unique to humans.

Many of you may still be wondering where the need to lie in the Id comes from in order for it to be accepted. This stems from insecurities, and the thoughts that we could be better. These insecurities make us want to be better, prettier, skinnier, smarter, or possibly anything if it will allow us to fit in. To fix this, we lie not only to each other but to ourselves, in order to make us seem better in the eyes of society and in our own eyes.

Many may blame society for this. The incredibly high standards that culture sets for every human make it easy to explain why people would be insecure. The fact that we would lie to others and not even know it is a wild and daring thought. However, the same people that create magazines with photoshopped models, or advertisement designers who dictate what the new hot trend, are all governed by the same Ego, Id, and Superego that you are. It is a sad thought, but perhaps instead of blaming society as being evil and corrupt, maybe humans are corrupt. (Just as a heads up we are now entering philosophy)

The brain was never prepared to live with the technology or advances we enjoy today, and is still governed by the same hard drive that allowed men to survive 10,000 years ago. The Id does not have much of a place in a perfect society either, however it dominates many of the decisions we make. As a product, the Id has manifested itself in much of society, perhaps society is just a reflection of the chaotic fight inside our heads dictating the next thing we do. This may be why humans can be seen as corrupt, and to a further extent why we lie on a day to day basis, because the society that reflects our own personal motives holds us to such a high standard. When these cannot be reached, we lie.