On Lying by Omission

If lying is common in your workplace, gaining some expertise in detecting lies is only prudent. But workplace liars, and probably all liars, know that the people they lie to are always trying to improve their ability to recognize lies. That's one reason why misleading without making plainly false assertions is so popular.

Lying by omission is one way to mislead without making plainly false assertions — that is, without literally lying. Lying by omission is commonly defined as making a statement that's technically correct in its literal content, but which omits some important elements that change the import of the statement.

That common definition of lying by omission is sometimes elaborated to require that the elements omitted must be of a kind that custom or convention would normally require be included in the statement. That elaboration implies that if the author wouldn't be required by custom or convention to include the omitted items, the author wouldn't be lying by omission. I call those omitted but required elements Obligatory Facts.

For the A statement contains a lie by omission if
the author intentionally omits elements so
as to mislead, if custom requires inclusion
of those elements, and if their absence
renders the statement misleadingpresent purpose, the definition includes one more factor: intention. I here consider a statement to contain a lie by omission if and only if the author of the statement omits Obligatory Facts with intention to mislead, and the absence of those facts renders the statement misleading. This definition leaves room for what I call Costanza's Escape.

The Seinfeld character "George Costanza" is famous for having said, "It's not a lie if you believe it." (See "The Costanza Matrix," Point Lookout for March 16, 2016) By analogy, with respect to omissions, George Costanza might say that it's not a lie by omission if you honestly forgot to mention some or all of the Obligatory Facts. Nevertheless, honestly forgetting to mention the Obligatory Facts is very clearly professional malpractice, even if it isn't a lie by omission.

Four examples

Below are some of the many ways people have invented for lying by omission. In what follows, I use the term Author to refer to the person who seeks to deceive. I use the term Obligatory Fact to refer to what is being withheld in a lie by omission, and the term Audience to refer to the Author's target. Although I've written these four descriptions, for clarity, as if they were in a field manual for people intending to lie, I'm not advocating their use.

Avoid conversations or meetings likely to stray near the Obligatory Fact

If you're present in a conversation that might touch on the Obligatory Fact, and if you fail to mention it in a statement that therefore becomes misleading, you might later be called on to account for your misleading statement.

Such an uncomfortable situation is much less likely if you can somehow arrange to be elsewhere when that conversation or meeting occurs. That might not be a lie by omission exactly, but the end result is similar in that you have avoided mentioning the Obligatory Fact.

Steer discussions away from topics related to the Obligatory Fact

If you can't avoid the conversation, the meeting, or other interaction, do what you can to steer the discussion away from any topic even indirectly related to the Obligatory Fact.

If you're a participant in the discussion, and topics related to the Obligatory Fact do arise, and you fail to mention the Obligatory Fact, people might later fault you for lying by omission, because many do believe that discussion participants are obliged to offer what they know about important and relevant material when related topics do arise.

Lie by omission by proxy

Having a proxy make statements is another way to avoid making direct statements, but it provides additional cover when the proxy isn't knowledgeable about the Obligatory Fact. In that case, the proxy is unlikely to reveal much about the Obligatory Fact, but there is the added benefit to the Author that the proxy might not even be aware that the Obligatory Fact is being concealed.

This is the method commonly used by heads of state when dealing with the media. The "press secretaries" are limited in what they can reveal because they're often limited in what they know.

Exploit ambiguity with priming

An ambiguous statement can be a lie-by-omission when the Obligatory Fact is hinted at in one branch of the ambiguity. [Vincent & Castelfranchi 1981] To prevent the Audience from discovering the Obligatory Fact by venturing down that branch of the ambiguity, the Author primes the Audience in a way that discourages them from noticing that branch.

Priming is a psychological phenomenon at the root of many cognitive biases. [Brenner 2020.7] We are primed to respond to a particular stimulus in a particular way when a prior stimulus has influenced our thinking or perceptions. For example, when Management asks for a plan to produce a result R by date D for cost C, they are priming the planners to produce such a plan, even if it is unreasonable.

Last words

Those who are determined to mislead can be endlessly inventive. Learning to detect their tricks in real time is a worthwhile pursuit. But there are other opportunities for learning. For example, when you suddenly find that you've been misled, take time out to review how the Author did it.  Top    Next Issue

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Footnotes

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