You nailed it right there: they have to win the argument. Their ego is so fragile, they are so insecure, that the have to win the point at any cost, even if that cost is the truth. In other words, they're Republicans! (I keed, I keed) :grin:
I've known a few pathological liars. Sometimes it takes a while to figure out their game. The ones I've known do it to seem more interesting. They'll lie about "cool" or "unique" experiences they've had in order to build themselves up. But all the effort they put into their fake portrayal of their lives and experiences quickly crumbles away as soon as they're busted on just one of their many lies. It almost becomes comical after that because you can't take anything they say seriously, even if it is the truth. I had a roommate like this. At first, I thought he was a pretty awesome dude. He always had interesting stories and never ceased to have something to talk about. After a few weeks, the dude lost all credibility. Not one big story in particular, but lots of little stupid things. One of my co-workers had a problem with lying as well. He had a pretty cool story about when he went deer hunting. If I remember right, he was hunting in PA and shot and wounded a large buck. It wasn't a kill shot, and the buck started moving away from him, so he tracked it all the way to the edge of a frozen lake. The buck had nowhere to go, so it jumped in the lake and started swimming away. He said it got about 20 yards out and then died, so he had to wade into the freezing lake to retrieve it. Awesome story, dude! Well.... I went fishing with the guy a few weeks later up in PA. All of his hunting crew was there. We were having dinner by a campfire and they were talking about hunting. I mentioned, "Man! I'll never forget that story about the deer in the lake. Wow!" It turns out he had lifted the story from one of his hunting buddies and claimed that it happened to HIM! The guy who really had that encounter was there eating with us! BUSTED. I believe for some people, lying is a pathological illness. I think they perceive people to be a lot more gullible than they really are. Like they'll believe anything they say. It's very strange, and ends up doing a lot more damage to their credibility, ultimately.
I feel your pain. I have a cousin who lies about some of the most pointless things. I can see maybe lying about something because you don't feel like explaining something or hurting someones feelings. But he starts the conversation by lying about stuff I don't care about like him having some Jordan's or something.
I know folks like this, and I don't really do anything to discourage them, so they kill their credibility without realizing it. It seems to me there is a type that feels smart/powerful if they can get someone to believe a lie. I'll give them a 'cool story bro' and let them get away with the lie. I might follow up later with a little fact-checking to see if they were somehow telling the truth. Then I can feel smart/powerful.
Oh and the cousin I mentioned earlier even lied about where he was from. We were born and raised in South Carolina. He told the guy he was from New York and he has never lived in New York.
Some people are incredibly obsessed with how other people view them, I think. It's sickening. Be who you are, nothing more, nothing less. No need to come up with false stories of what you think would make you cool. In the end, the truth comes out.
I know an "embellishment" liar. Somebody who makes the most outlandish claims while telling a story that was only part true. Its amusing. He once told me the High School QB was talking **** to him so he challenged him to a "throw-off" and then proceeded to launch a football 80 yards. However, keeping people constantly in the dark is a terrible way to live your life. A relationship depends upon honesty, sadly too many people forget this and end up destroying any chance they had of acceptance by being deceitful little b****es.
That's freakin' hilarious!!! I've found that the majority of people who lie a lot are the ones that talk a lot.
I have found that most but not all people lie about Gas mileage How much sex they get and how good they are at it. How much money they make. They must hang around me to much!
i will sometimes embellish a story a little i think most people do to an extent but most of the time it could be because i just remember if it was really 8 shots that were done or 9 so i usually just go with the higher number. my roommate though constantly lies to make him seem "cooler" than he is or to feel accepted i feel bad for him to lie. but his lies are so painfully transparent that i feel my intelligence is being insulted when he lies to me. i will humor him now and then but if i am in a surly mood i'll break down his lie right in front of him and he'll say "well i'm jus' sayin'" and i go WTF does that mean?? he'll go to his room and i can be in peace.
This. I know quite a few people who are extremely paranoid and think everyone around them is talking about them or if someone from across the room laughs it must be at them, etc. So in any social situation they lie about their education, salary, etc. almost like a defense mechanism to an expected attack that never occurs. Comes down to cognitive dissonance, we are only happy when our situation is better compared to others. So people embellish their life to alleviate the bad feelings of their own insecurity especially when they misinterpret an innocent encounter as a personal attack.
yea, i got a cousin like this. the guy has an associate's degree but he'll tell everyone he got a bachelor's. there isn't even anything wrong with a associate's, he just wants people to perceive him to be "smarter". every social gathering he's talking about these "millionaires" he knows or these exotic trips he makes. he's supposedly is a "business man" and one day he was talking to my other cousin's wife's family. the wife's brother asked him for his phone number so they can keep in touch and his reply was, "Ok, but if you call and I don't answer it's because I'm overseas on business." If that wasn't outlandish enough, he asked for my cousin's email. Cousin says, "You can get my email by calling my voicemail." WTF? the guy basically has a "better" story than everyone.
hehe ... I know exactly what you mean. A guy in my office that is completely not into sports wanted to tell me how good he used to be in baseball and that he used to throw 104 mph consistenly when he played in HS. I just don't get a lie like that. If I ever lie, I usually at least try to make sure it makes sense, is plausible, and serves a real purpose. I learned my lesson as a kid that the guilty feelings and general anxiety with trying to keep a lie makes it not worth doing in most cases. I wonder how others didn't learn this same lesson (and a lot of people didn't with the amount of cheating that goes on).
