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90 Deception at Work

BILL CLINTON saying was true, and resulted from his very
mealy-mouthed definition of ‘sexual relations’.
No one could forget President Clinton’s At another point in his testimony we find
emphatic, but rehearsed, finger jabbing another classic statement: ‘It all depends what
denial that: ‘ I would like to tell the American the definition of “it” is’. It should be noted that
people, and I will say it again, I did not have were Neil Hamilton’s definition of ‘relations’ to
sexual relations with that woman: Monica be applied (page [xref]) to this story, a single
Lewinsky’. rogering would not have qualified!

This apparent denial was based on his
internal rationalization that what he was

A classic example of a subjective truth is the statement made by a person who stole
£100,000 through a wire transfer fraud. He said: ‘As I told Mr Smith last week, I did not take
the money’. The statement that he ‘told Mr Smith’ is subjectively true (and thus minimizes
the liar’s anxiety in saying it) even if he did make the transfer as, in fact, he did. It is also true
because he did not take ‘money’ but merely rearranged a few electronic impulses.

Subjective truths often appear in pseudo denials (see page [xref]). For example, when the
subject is told, ‘I think you are involved in this, Bill’, he responds, ‘I would have been crazy to
do that’, which is subjectively true and not a denial.

Job candidates are great at subjective truths and the phrase ‘I pursued a degree course in
mathematics’ does not mean that he caught up with it and actually qualified.

Subjective truths can arise because the liar has rearranged his memory (see page [xref])
and given himself the benefit of the doubt. His anxiety in delivering the lie is thus reduced
because he has rewritten history. This is a very common form of deception in business, which
makes it imperative that you have an accurate record of conversations in which achievement
lies may have been told.

THE TRUSTY BUSINESSMAN

A businessman and an apparent pillar of doing what in fact he had promised.
society routinely makes promises which, The routine is made even more abhorrent
possibly, he may intend to keep at the time.
However, on reflection, he believes they were because he systematically delegates
too generous and convinces himself he did execution to his deputy, who denies all
not say he would do something, merely that knowledge of any promises made by his
he would ‘do his best’ or would ‘consider’ boss. The only way to deal with such people
is to tape-record their every word.

Truth is always in the detail and subjective truths must always be challenged.

Not answering the question

Although it is rare for a person to accept personal responsibility for saying, ‘I am not going
to answer that question’, there are many other ways in which the liar can achieve the same
result including: