As humans, it seems we are natural and compulsive liars. Most people tell some kind of lies every day. Of course some are more serious than others, but in many instances it is not seen as being very bad.

1.Helping Ourselves--Helping ourselves

A very common reason to lie is in order to help ourselves in some way. This can be psychological, supporting the ego, or substantive, gaining material benefit.

2.For Pride--PRIDE

Many times, a person will lie because of pride. They use it for nothing more than a tool to create a favorable image of themselves. This leads to exaggeration, which is a form of lying. Often people will create fascinating, yet completely false, stories to improve their image.

Sometimes a lie might seem unintentional, or it may have been told to save someone else’s feelings. For example, someone may say to another, “That sure is a pretty dress!”, when the person knows it’s ugly. We all have the capacity to lie.

Face-saving--Face is a term used to indicate the public respect given to a person. 'Saving face' is hence a term for helping them to sustain the esteem of others and to avoid embarrassment. Different cultures have very specific rules about what face-saving is needed and how it should be done.

One way we help others to save face is more about not telling the truth rather than overtly lying. If we meet a person with bad breath, for example, most would avoid pointing out this problem.

Beyond being 'economical with the truth', the lies we tell to save face may be couched in euphemisms and other vague statements as we try to help others feel good whilst also seeking to avoid telling big lies ourselves.

Understand the reasons why people lie and use this in detecting deception.

If you are trying to get to the truth with someone who may be lying, you can help them justify their actions by saying how reasonable it is to avoid embarrassment, and so on. You can also help reduce the significance of the act, helping them see it as a 'little deceit' that is not worth defending.