De Anza College students decided there is potential justifications in the act of lying, typically if meant to protect another person, when asked to react to a poll based on the topic of lying on Wednesday.
The Associated Press-Ipsos poll reported half of the 1,000 respondents said lying was never justified. With many of the answers saying lying is bad and should not be excused, a set of five students at De Anza College that were asked similar questions as the initial poll did find reasons to say lying may be justifiable.
“It’s justified only if you don’t want to hurt another person,” said Cassie Tang, 20, liberal arts major. “Most of the time it’s bad.”
Although 52 percent of the people of the original poll had stated lying was overall never justified, almost two-thirds had also said it was an OK act in cases such as protecting one’s feelings.
The five De Anza students responded differently from this by being almost unanimous with saying that it is justifiable when it is to protect someone.
May Cortez, 20, photography major explained how she would be certain with lying if it meant protecting someone else.
Questioned if exaggerations were considered as a part of lying, the results were four in 10 people in the poll saying that exaggerations are OK. De Anza students were mixed on whether these actions were inherently bad, while all of them admitted to exaggerating or being false about themselves at some point.
“Exaggerations can be OK to some point,” said Sasha Liu, 19, business administration major.
Another student, Cody Connors, 18, computer science major stated that exaggerations may be ok if a person “May just want to sound cool,” but never when dealing with serious matters such as the news.
Asking students about the frequency of lying in school and work, Vi Trin, 20, business major, said that it really was dependent on the situation, a sentiment other students expressed.
De Anza students brought up additional scenarios not originally stated in the polls, such as trying to define degrees of lying, including telling a white lie.
“I have told many. But I guess all they are at the end of the day is a lie,” Tang said.
The poll and the De Anza respondents showed a large variation in the gray topic of what makes a lie and if it is something that is natural and necessary.
“I don’t think they’re justifiable,” said Connors, “the truth should always be first.”