Would you Swear to Tell the Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth????

We like to be deceived.
-Blaise Pascal
-1623-1662, French Scientist,
ReligiousPhilosopher

Isn’t deception really essential in life? Can people handle the truth?
I mean if you think about it people unconsciously like to be deceived. For example, let’s visualize the scenes in the hit television show American Idol. Let’s focus on one of its judges, Simon Cowel. He’s rude right? I mean he really makes boorish comments. Like last night, I was watching the episode where there in Seattle; lots of people auditioned for the show. Of course there were great singers but there were people who just tried out for the sake of trying out. So back to Simon, what if he lied to all those people who were really bad singers, what if he tells them that they have a future in singing. Well, probably there will be no more quality singers in American Idol anymore. People just can’t handle the truth, especially when the truth is on them. That’s why some of us end up deceiving other people. Yeah, bummer isn’t it. But how do people deceive? And what are some factors that led them to deceive?

In David Buller and Judee Burgoon’s theory called Interpersonal Deception theory, it says that people always find themselves in situations where they make statements that are less than completely honest in order to “avoid hurting or offending another person, to emphasize their best qualities, to avoid getting into a conflict, or to speed up or slow down a relationship (Griffin).”

Yes, I am sometimes trapped in a situation like that but I avoid exaggerating my words or making false comments, I sometimes do that to my friends. Because I really value our relationship I end up lying to them. Those were just white lies, that won’t hurt right?
I also lie to my parents; you know those instances where you try to get off easily, you don't want to be nagged so you create false stories and make it as believable as possible. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN……you create strategies, and the theory is here to justify it.

They classify these three strategies into three: concealment, concealment, equivocation(Griffin).

I sometimes try these strategies to avoid being caught. But seriously I really can't detect a person if he/she is lying or not. I'm gullible and easily deceived. But there were also instances where I can tell if the person was lying or not. Sometimes people are just so conspicuous with their non-verbal cues, thus I suspect their truthfulness. If I caught them red handed, well, it will probably affect our relationship; but not too much.

Interpersonal Deception theory also includes 18 propositions which is the skeletal link of the theory.
I agree with most of them especially proposition number 8 which is: “As relational familiarity increase, deceivers become more afraid of detection, make more strategic moves, and display more leakage”(GRIFFIN). Because when I get into a situation where I am force to lie to one of my closest relationships, I tend to be careful with my words because I'm afraid to get caught; our relationship is so important to me that I protect my image.

I also agree with one of the ideas in the theory where it says that ,as the sender and/or the receiver of interpersonal deceptive messages, I am an active participant (for receivers, you were not just a passive listener even if you did not harbor any suspicions) in the deception. I agree because the deception would not happen if the deceiver wont interact with the receiver, because their interaction is the basis of the deceiver's strategy; by the help of the receiver's non verbal cues the deceiver could easily spot suspicion. Truth bias is also one of the factors that makes the deception successful; by trusting a person not to deceive you, will just lead them to deceive you more and more.

I will definitely subscribe to Buller and Burgoon's theory, although their theory is quite complicated, I still liked how they explained and elaborated some of their ideas. I quite agree with Bella DePaulo’s critique of their theory, because it does lack an explanatory glue in some parts. There were ideas that confused me, but Buller and Burgoon did justified their ideas by saying that their theory offer multiple mechanism to link the many variables that affect interpersonal deception(Griffin).
I was also curios why the communication scholars were silent about the moral implications in the theory, but I realized that the communication aspect of deception is important in studying the nature of communication itself.
I probably would require of others to subscribe to Kant's Categorical Imperative, because we as humans have the responsibility to tell the truth. As for me, I prefer Augustine's Divine Will, I truly value my spiritual convictions.