As good as our intentions to be truthful may be, how many of us can honestly say that we don’t tell a white lie or two on most days?
These are just a few of the common white lies that we tell ourselves and others. How many of these are you guilty of telling?
“Yes, your hair looks great.”
When your friend asks you if you love their new hairstyle, and they clearly think it’s wonderful (but you don’t), is it really so bad to join in with their enthusiasm?
“I’m nearly there.”
You’re probably not. But it sounds better than saying that you’re only just leaving!
“Sorry I didn’t reply! My phone ran out of battery.”
Sometimes that may be true. Sometimes you saw the message notification pop up on your phone, made a mental note to reply, and then totally forgot to do it. It may be that you felt the need to send a longer message and knew that you’d need to take some time crafting your reply, and you couldn’t quite bring yourself to do it at that moment (favourite TV show is on? You’ll reply after it finishes…).
Saying your phone died sounds better than saying “I forgot you’d messaged me”.
“Yep, I understand it now.”
There does come a time, perhaps after the fourth or fifth time of it being explained to you, and you still not getting it, that it is just a kindness to you both to pretend that you understand so you can both move the conversation on.
“Sorry, I can’t come out tonight – I’m not feeling well.”
You may not be feeling well, but not sick enough to warrant cancelling. You could also just be really tired and not in the mood to go out. You could go, but you know you wouldn’t be much fun to be around. So to try to make sure that you don’t hurt anyone’s feelings you say that you’re feeling ill.
Do you hate white lies on principle, or are some white lies alright if they are told for a good reason such as to save someone’s feelings?
