When we present ourself to the outside world ( introdcing ourself, online profiles ) we make a picture of the person we want to be, not the one we really are. We lie not only to other people but ( most important ) to ourselves too. There is a very good bunch on information on the “why” question in a presentation you can find on youtube : “Honest liars — the psychology of self-deception: Cortney Warren at TEDxUNLV“.

In that presentation there is a reasoning for all these lies: “Freud – pshychological strategies that protect our egos from information that wil hurt us”. I tend to agree more with the theory that it is a life-protection machnism in our brains: if we admit that we failed many goals we wanted to achieve about ourselves we might get into a depresive spiral that leads to suicide. Therefore, with a little bit of lying, we keep being optimistic about our lives. [Read more…]