Why Do People Lie and Why Do Liars Get Angry When They Are Caught?

A brief guide to understanding why do people lie and the reasons behind them getting angry when they are caught or confronted whether in workplace or in life in general.

When we all were kids we were taught that lying was a super sin or the most notorious thing to do when confronted with. Often that was to inculcate the right, truthful behaviour in ourselves soaked with values, beliefs and a more disciplined part of the civil society and respectful behaviour. This was more to build that robust system to call spade a spade.

More often than not as young folks or adults when we lied for small little petty things like not doing our homeworks or breaking the window panes of the neighbours we often used to get angry when we were caught lying. We saw our elder siblings or other people around us lying to protect themselves, we adopted lying as a protective mechanism.

As we grow up the meanings and dimensions of lying changes however the values remain the same and still looked down by the many. Sometimes we lie at the drop of the hat just for the sake of lying and this is referred as mythomania or pseudologia fantastica and sometimes we lie to make ourselves look better or feel better in situations like when we are taken for granted in a relationship or when we are ignored by someone we love and when we are feeling unwanted. The worst part is when we become a compulsive liar or a pathological liar.

We will come to understand what a compulsive liar is versus who is a pathological liar later in this article.

Let us first understand the 10 biggest reasons why people lie –

1. When people are insecure about their own self
2. When people are taken for granted in a relationship
3. When people are ignored by someone they love
4. When people are feeling unwanted
5. When people are fearful of the results
6. When people do not want to address the real truth in life
7. When people try to cover up their faults everytime
8. When people are not willing to accept the reality in life
9. When people start to manipulate things for their convenience
10. When people become either compulsive liar vs pathological liar

This is true for people both in their workplaces and in their life in general and many understand that this is something that can be dangerous for them. People who feel that lying could actually become a habit and can destroy a lot of relationships in a jiffy tend to get more careful about this and end up mending their ways.

This could be at the workplace building more trust and transparency with your –

• Peers
• Bosses
• Leadership
• Juniors
• Colleagues
• Partners

When you have the above in order you don’t really have to lie to get things done but instead you have more trust and viscosity of how truthful nature can bring you more laurels and more handshakes in life.

Read more about Compulsive Liar Test: How to tell if you’re a Pathological Liar

At the workplace it is dangerous to lie but it is horrendous to do that in your personal life. The worst part is people lie and they get angry when they are caught, sometimes even red handed.

The sad story starts when you lie on your personal front. This is more of a snowballing effect and it keeps rolling in more so from the perspective of covering your first lie with multiple lies and charades which you have no idea where and how they will take shape in the future.

This has more to do with the fact how you have set your own systems in place on the personal front and how do you plan to take them ahead whether you personal relationship with your spouse, your kids, your parents, your friends and can be anybody close to you on your personal fronts.

More likely than not when we mentioned compulsive liar vs pathological liar this understanding comes out handy.

Anyone who is pushed to higher anxiety or levels of fear and then starts lying comes under the compulsive liar. It is often led by high anxiety, fear and mood swings when the individual is trying to cover up things under his or her anxiety. This is purely led with the concoction of fear and anxiety which takes the toll on the blanket of truth, thus the path of lie.

Meanwhile on the other hand a pathological liar is someone who lies , manipulates with a motive to deceive others. The objective is more led towards a revengeful mindset and not led by mood swings. This is a far worse and planned outlook which often people forget. In a compulsive liar vs pathological liar scenario though both mindsets are harmful however the pathological liar mindset is more planned for deception and misleading the others towards a manipulative scenario which never exists.

The last not the least part is irrespective of whether you are a compulsive liar vs pathological liar or whatever state that anyone lies, why do liars get angry when they are caught?

There are many reasons why liars get angry when they are caught some of them are –

1. This comes naturally to them as a pathological liar to be manipulative
2. They come under tremendous pressure of being in their mood swings
3. They try to dominate their point of view even when they know they are wrong
4. Superiority complex
5. Feeling of being the most important person around
6. To cover things up
7. Never owning up

Must Read: How to Deal if Your Partner is a Compulsive Liar

Always keep in mind that both compulsive lying vs pathological lying can be treated with the right amount of clinical intervention. Speak to some experts here.

Talk to Our Experts

There are many more millions of reasons why liars get angry when they are caught however the most critical line item is the basic inability to speak the truth and face it. The moment you realise that truth sets you free forever, the path of lying and manipulative thought process will be flushed through your system, this is where you are reborn.

This is where your second life starts.

Bon Voyage

Godspeed success to you.

Ravi Kikan
Global CMO, United We Care