The Truth Behind Prosocial Lies: A Linguistic Analysis of Lying to be Polite

Principal Author
Steven Mesquiti
Graduate

Co-Author(s)
Rianne Kok, Jennifer Clegg, Katherine Warnell

Faculty Sponsor
Dr. Jennifer Clegg

Abstract

This study explored linguistic differences in prosocial lies dependent on the social proximity of target of the lie. It was hypothesized that prosocial lies to socially close individuals would significantly differ from lies to socially distant individuals in the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Variables analytical thinking, clout, and authentic tone. Specifically, we predicted that prosocial lies to individuals who are socially close would be higher in clout and authentic tone, while lies to socially distant people would possess higher analytical thinking. An analysis of variance revealed that these hypotheses were partially supported. Specifically, we supported our hypothesis that prosocial lies to socially distant individuals differ from lies to socially close individuals in analytical thinking. However, our hypothesis that there would be differences in clout and authenticity were not supported. Results indicated that factors like the social proximity of the person lied to may influence how prosocial lies are told.

22 thoughts on “The Truth Behind Prosocial Lies: A Linguistic Analysis of Lying to be Polite

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  7. This was a very interesting choice of study, and I find it fascinating you managed to quantify such nuanced and subtle information. This was really nice to read through.

  8. This was very interesting to learn. I like how it showed us the importance of linguistic.

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    The hypothesis being that “prosocial lies to socially close individuals would significantly differ from lies to socially distant individuals in the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Variables analytical thinking, clout, and authentic tone”; was not completely supported these finds are important, because people’s ability to trust others that are not family, for honest opinions in something that is important in human interactions, so see how less the participants are forgiving to non close relationships lies, was eye opening.
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  10. I think this research gave us valuable information on how we interact with people and the effect of prosocial lies.

  11. I never understood the importance of linguistics and how much research that goes into it until now. I liked how it showed us the importance of knowing and understanding how we interact with people.

  12. This is something that we as humans just do sometimes without knowing and being able to the see the effects, kinda opens mine eyes.

  13. This research is enlightening, dissecting and understanding linguistics is very interesting and important.

  14. I have wondered in the past whether there was any significant difference between telling white lies to strangers versus significant others/ friends. Thanks to your research, there is at least some confirmation that people interpret such lies differently based on social relevance.

  15. This research shows how prosocial lies affect us depending on how close we are which is interesting because they seem less harmful when we are telling them to closer people.

  16. This research was important to learning how we interact with people based on our relationships with them. I think the linguistic element being broken down into different groups was an interesting component to help put these understandings into perspective.

  17. I find linguistic research like this so interesting and it is so revealing. I think looking at prosocial and antisocial lies in the future will also be very interesting.

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