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Small Deceptions Matter

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Ethics is a Daily Deal

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Abstract

The reality of being human is that we all bend the truth. We lie. Whether intentionally for unethical reasons or in a backward manner to try and do good, mistruths are everywhere we go. We lie, and we lie a lot. One study found that telling lies to partners, bosses, and coworkers occurred, on average, six times a day for men and three times a day for women (Daily Mail Reporter 2009). In the workplace people share social fictions all the time, claiming that “nothing is wrong” (when something is wrong) or that we go along with something “that’s fine” (when it is really troubling).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A YouTube on the “Science of Lying” can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX3Hu8loXTE.

  2. 2.

    Some of this material originally appeared in Sekerka, L. E. 2012.

  3. 3.

    A commentary can be found at: http://blogs.cfainstitute.org/insideinvesting/2013/10/14/the-enron-code-of-ethics-handbook-from-July-2000-is-a-fascinating-read/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Menlo College, Pacific Grove, California, USA

    Leslie E Sekerka

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  1. Leslie E Sekerka
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Correspondence to Leslie E Sekerka .

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Sekerka, L. (2016). Small Deceptions Matter. In: Ethics is a Daily Deal. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18090-8_6

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