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From MIT Technology Review:
Evolutionary biologists have long thought that lying ought to destroy societies. Now computational anthropologists have shown that nothing could be further from the truth.
It's easy to see how lying reduces the level of trust between individuals and so threatens the stability of societies. So how do societies survive all this lying?
Today, we get an answer thanks to the work of Gerardo Iñiguez at Aalto University in Finland and a few pals (including Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist from the University of Oxford of Dunbar's number fame). These guys have simulated the effect that lies have on the strength of connections that exist within a social network.
But they've added fascinating twist. These guys have made a clear distinction between lies that benefit the person being lied to versus lies that benefit the person doing the lying. In other words, their model captures the difference between "white" lies, which are prosocial, and "black" lies, which are antisocial.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 13 2014, @07:45AM
How about "simulations Reveal How White Lies CAN/MIGHT Glue Society Together and Black Lies Disrupt"? You know raise the level of writing and therefore the discourse here?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 13 2014, @11:48AM
At the honest level - it's just a polite greeting.
At the dishonest level - the OK reply is often not honest, but the questioner probably doesn't really care either.
I've personally found that most people can't handle the truth. There are very many truths that most people don't like - and they prefer to be told lies instead.
Boyfriends lie to girlfriends. Even churchgoers often sing lies to their God every week (how many of them can actually honestly sing "I surrender all" ).