Honesty is always the best policy. Lying is a surefire way to end up a failure, right? Well, maybe not all the time.
Most employees want transparency in the companies they work for. We all want to know that we’re not having the wool pulled over our eyes. But research done by a Wharton professor, Maurice Schweitzer, and Wharton doctoral student, Emma E. Levine, has turned that theory on its head. They have found that in dire times, lying can be not only ethical, but necessary to boost morale and gain trust.
“We found that when participants are lied to in a way that helps them, they actually really appreciate that dishonesty. It boosts trust, and it causes them to think that their counterpart is moral,” Levine says. “Also, when they simply observe somebody who is lying to help someone else, to earn someone else more money, they also trust this person more, and think this person is more moral than someone who is always honest.”
Sometimes, lying can a tool for success!