Why do people lie?

[Blackandblue]

At the lights on the south side of Lambeth Bridge this morning. For those that know it, I am approaching from Vauxhall Cross.

I start off from the lights as they turn green. A cyclist comes through from the right. The stop line at the lights controlling the traffic from the right is immediately to the right of my stop line (ie not set back). I have to brake to avoid hitting the cyclist and I shout "Oi, watch out, tw@t". He shouts back at me: "I went through on bl00dy green!"

Due to the proximity of the stop lines, this is only possible if his lights and my lights were green at the same time. I'm assuming this was not the case.

Why such a blatant lie?

 

[thomas]

Due to the proximity of the stop lines, this is only possible if his lights and my lights were green at the same time. I'm assuming this was not the case.

Why such a blatant lie?

Was he slow? He might not have been lying. Traffic lights are sometimes faulty (rarely - though I have had to red light jump as the stupid contractors left a note saying "lights don't work" at one end of the road works).

 

[HLaB]

I don't know the junction the lights probaly weren't faulty however, after all your in London and there woul of been chaos if they had been. It could be the person genuinely thought they had green, when infact they had red, multiple signal heads can be confusing.

 

[Jonathan M]

He wasn't paying attention and glanced, saw some green (green man on ped part of crossing) and went through.

Or he RLJ'd and didn't have the bollox to admit it when challenged.

 

[Lell]

I encountered some blatant lying yesterday.

Cycling down a bridleway on my way home from work, I saw a dog walker up ahead throw some rubbish into the hedge. I have been known to challenge people when I see this kind of thing, however, yesterday decided better of it, not least because the guy was walking a large Doberman! After I passed the guy, I heard him shout something along the lines of “what you f’in lookin’ at” – clearly I am not very good at hiding my thoughts on litter louts! I stopped, and asked the guy what he thought I would be looking at him for. He responded by suggesting it was because of his dog (which was large, and off its lead). I explained that I in fact looked at him as he had dropped some litter. At this point it turned into the usual tirade of “no I f’in didn’t… Show me where the litter is… Who the F are you to judge me… Are you dissin’ me…” etc etc.

I had clearly seen him drop the litter, why did he have to lie? Was it because he was embarrassed about it? Perhaps someone stupid enough to drop litter in the first place is slow witted enough to have forgotten about it 20 seconds later?

 

[garrilla]

This is only remotely cycling related as I was on a cycle at the time but pulling up outside the house. A woman was stationary by my gate with her pooch had just taken a shoot. I moaned at her about dogs shitting on the pavement etc and asked her to clean it up. She denied it belonged to her dog. "Really?" I asked "Then why is it still steaming?"

She just walked off as though I wasn't there and I had to clean it up.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

My immediate reaction is that there are plenty of people around who know all about their rights, but don't want to know about their responsibilities. When challenged, they won't want to admit it - even to themselves.

Actually, I'm not sure that's it. I just don't know, I guess.

 

[Tharg2007]

This is only remotely cycling related as I was on a cycle at the time but pulling up outside the house. A woman was stationary by my gate with her pooch had just taken a shoot. I moaned at her about dogs shitting on the pavement etc and asked her to clean it up. She denied it belonged to her dog. "Really?" I asked "Then why is it still steaming?"

She just walked off as though I wasn't there and I had to clean it up.

you should have scooped it up and flung it onto her back and then denied it was you

 

[joolsybools]

I think its just human instinct to bite back, i.e. not admit you are responsible for doing something. It take's a big person to admit they've made a mistake, especially to a complete stranger.

 

[Blackandblue]

S'funny - it's just not in my nature to lie. In the above circumstances it just seems cowardly to me. I'd have much more respect if they just told me to bog off. And even more if they apologized!

All relative of course. I mean when accused of bank robbery for example, outright denial would seem understandable.

 

[Alan Whicker]

Like the jackass who turned left without indicating in front of Mrs Whicker a couple of weeks back, almost knocking her off. When I told him - politely - that he'd be better off using his indicators, he denied that he hadn't used them. Within seconds he was threatening to "punch me out" and accusing me of calling him a d!ckhead. Well, he demonstrably was one, but I had hadn't called him one. Male drivers absolutely cannot admit they are in the wrong.

 

[PBancroft]

People lie because they know 9 times out of 10 it will lead them out of trouble.