lie, deceive and mislead

ddraver

Bit of fun...

What would you have answered to the interview question whats the difference between the words lie, deceive and mislead

I'd say that a lie is to speak/write any sort of untruth, deceive is to deliberately try to give someone wrong information and is usually mallicious whereas mislead can be accidental, for example if I wrote a post badly that the point I made got garbled and the next poster got the wrong end of the stick


( http://www.independent.co.uk/student/ne ... 82074.html )

team47b

ddraver wrote:

Bit of fun...

What would you have answered to the interview question whats the difference between the words lie, deceive and mislead)

4

which is why I don't have a job

the playing mantis

deceive and misleading are closer bedfellows imo. although i would agree deceive is intentional and misleading potentially isnt in rare circumstances, and of the 3 has the least negative connatations.

markhewitt1978

Lie is a method, deceive and mislead are intents.

ddraver

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Lie is a method, deceive and mislead are intents.

oooh nice...

capt_slog

To lie is to tell an untruth.
To deceive is to cover the truth.
To mislead is to steer the listener away from the truth.

I agree that deceive and mislead are very close. Deception tends to be a positive action on the part of the person doing the deceiving, whereas misleading tends to be passive in that it's listener that 'wants' to believe.

team47b

Oh Fun...

There is no difference in these words, they can all be interchanged and used to make different points, as all language is metaphor, so meanings can vary. It is a standard question to get people to change their understanding of each word under examination.

the only possible answer is 4

See why I don't have a job

Pross

To use a cycling analogy, today I rode to work at an average speed of just under 17mph. If I told someone I did 25mph average I would be lying (and posting in the Road Beginners section), if I manipulated by Strava data to 'prove' I averaged 25mph I would be deceiving you, if on the other hand I actually did average 25mph but failed to mention my entire commute was downhill with a tail wind I would be misleading you. So lying = telling an untruth, deceiving = taking action to support a lie, misleading = deliberately failing to provide all the information available or correct a misunderstanding in an attempt to let someone draw the wrong conclusion (in the example above that I am a fast cyclist).

ballysmate

25mph! Well done!
Or have I been lied to, deceived or misled?

rolf_f

the playing mantis wrote:

deceive and misleading are closer bedfellows imo. although i would agree deceive is intentional and misleading potentially isnt in rare circumstances, and of the 3 has the least negative connatations.

I'd disagree on the latter point. There is an implication that to mislead someone implies a deliberate purpose of taking someone down a path that is not in their best interests. To lie is a simple descriptive term - there is nothing implicit in it that you are trying to achieve something at someones expense by lying to them. You can lie to someone to spare their feelings or to gain unfair advantage from them. There is nothing of right or wrong implicit in the term.

Mislead is probably a form of deception.

ballysmate

Rolf F wrote:

the playing mantis wrote:

deceive and misleading are closer bedfellows imo. although i would agree deceive is intentional and misleading potentially isnt in rare circumstances, and of the 3 has the least negative connatations.

I'd disagree on the latter point. There is an implication that to mislead someone implies a deliberate purpose of taking someone down a path that is not in their best interests. To lie is a simple descriptive term - there is nothing implicit in it that you are trying to achieve something at someones expense by lying to them. You can lie to someone to spare their feelings or to gain unfair advantage from them. There is nothing of right or wrong implicit in the term.

Mislead is probably a form of deception.

Mislead can be qualified as in 'Deliberately misleading' or 'Unintentionally mislead'

the playing mantis

I still think mislead is considered less bad as lying. If someone is labeled a liar it is worse than being labeled a misleader.

GiantMike

Capt Slog wrote:

To lie is to tell an untruth.
To deceive is to cover the truth.
To mislead is to steer the listener away from the truth.

I agree with this.

veronese68

I think the plebgate police need to learn theses definitions.

"We would like to emphasise (as we did to the investigation) that in no way did any of us ever plan or intend to mislead anyone about what occurred during this meeting or otherwise."

Really?