Pathological Lying and Aspergerians. Possible?

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Everyone knows aspies aren't very good liars. But, in theory, they can become very good ones.
If they can believe everything in their mind is the truth, it will be.

Here are some ways to tell someone is a pathological liar contributed by a WikiAnswers Contributor:


They lie about even the smallest things. For example, saying "I brushed my teeth today," when they didn't.

They add exaggerations to every sentence.

They change their story all the time.

They act very defensively when you question their statements.

They believe what they say is true, when everyone else knows it isn't.
Here's an alternate "checklist":


Lies when it is very easy to tell the truth.

Lies to get sympathy, to look beter, to save their butt, etc.

Fools people at first but once they get to know him, no one believes anything they ever say.

May have a personality disorder.

Extremely manipulative.

Has been caught in lies repeatedly.

Never fesses up to the lies.

Is a legend in their own mind.

I would like some input on this, but no bashing, please.

Anyone can be a pathological liar if they grew up in a harsh, restrictive and/or abusive household. As children, people who lie compulsively do so because it was a defense mechanism to avoid punishment and abuse. They may be copying a parent or a sibling who lies, as well. Learning by example. An Aspie can lie just as well as anyone else, if they're either taught to or forced to by society or home life. As rule, though, they tend to be brutally honest, even if it hurts them.

I don't have a problem with this now...(honest injun!)

But I did have a problem with this when I was a kid.

It was a sort of coping mechanism...

Mostly what I did was make up rediculous impossible to believe stories, and i couldn't seem to help myself.

I did, too. I grew up in a type of household where if you admitted you did something wrong, you got hit with a belt or otherwise got the crap kicked out of you. I also had an extremely vivid imagination. Eventually I grew out of it and these days I'm blunt and honest to a fault, even if it gets me into trouble. My imagination is still vivid, but these days I channel it into my writing.

I had to do it on occasion, but I'm so bad at it I usually use the truth in creative ways...

I usually avoid telling the truth by not answering the question and saying 'I don't know.' I'm terrible at it, too. Better to dodge the question than give an answer they may not want to hear.

I used to pretty much PRIDE myself on that! I was even hurt by people misunderstanding me, etc.... I even came up with the concept of lying to tell the truth! If someone believes A to be bad, but B is, and they believe B to be good, but A is, then if they ask me if it is B, but it is A, I will say it is B! They make the right moves, and do everything as if they understood correctly. Sometimes that is just easier than explaining the full truth to them, ESPECIALLY when they "just want a yes or no" answer!

It IS odd! I wonder how daniel feels about THIS! He believes intentional deception to be a lie, which it IS! But is intentional deception, to deceive a person into believing the truth because they have been deceived as to what the truth is TRULY a lie?

BTW if you had trouble following the above, SORRY! It just goes to show some of the stuff I have to put up with.

remember that movie liar liar with jim carrey? that kind of reminds me of me. I tell the truth even when its stupid and embarassing to do so, i admit things and my whole family is like... WHY did you say that? or you don't really have to tell the truth in that case... etc...

A bit convoluted but I understand what you're saying. I can't think of any Aspie I know that can give a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer, LOL. It's always, 'Yes...but...." or 'No...because...."

I agree. When it finally dawns on me what people 'want' to hear, I just shut up and let them think what they want.

Yeah, on my last job, I would discuss all sorts of things when asked to give an answer. I was never content with just yes/no. There were a few reasons why, after about TWENTY years, I started having terser answers.

I'm funny. I rarely ever lie to try and conceal something I've done wrong. I also hate hiding my true feelings or intentions from someone for “political” gain. For example, I would have a hard time telling a boss that I enjoy my job when I don’t.

However, I have this habit of lying about little things that nobody would ever suspect. Like when I recall something to someone I often fib about the details... just to make the story simpler or easier to explain. I think I do this too much out of habit. I need to be really careful in situations where it’s necessary to describe an event as accurately as possible.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=87922568

Less than a month ago, this article came out. According to this article, autistic brains are designed opposite to those of a pathological liar. I've been researching brain scans on people in the autistic spectrum as of tonight (since I stayed home and didn't go to that party, and what else is there for an NLDer/ADD/AS person to do on a Saturday night alone except dwell on their oddities)

In the final section of this article, it says:

"Still, the study provides a promising starting point for exploring the relationship between lying and white matter in the brain. For example, brain scans of autistic people, who have difficulty telling lies, show the exact opposite profile of Yang's liars: They have less white matter than other people. In autistic children, white matter doesn't develop at a normal rate."


Edit -- Well, once again I didn't read the thread itself, just the topic.. I guess this thread is more about personal examples of lying or not.. Sorry.. I got all technical and scientific on this thread.. I've been researching brain scans all night.. Also, This article came out less than a month ago, but apparently the study was done 2 years ago.. just thought I'd add that.. I wonder if there's been any other studies along these lines..?

Last edited by Felinity on 06 Apr 2008, 4:10 am, edited 2 times in total.

I also read about this. It's very interesting, but I don't think it's completely true.

Edited to say: sorry about being all technical stuff here again.. I didn't realize the thread was about personal examples of lying and had just happened upon all these articles while doing research on brain scans, MRI's and autism.. I've actually caught myself on occasion lying in the form of exaggeration when it really was not necessary at all.. This is an interesting thread..


http://www.possibility.com/epowiki/Wiki ... hiteMatter

Here's another link about this subject and white matter in the brain being associated with lying.. I just read another study and put the link in the evolution thread --

http://tinyurl.com/5djxxr

It's about where they compared Primates brains and humans brains. It was found that humans have a greater degree of white matter in the frontal part of the brain... This would allow people to be able to lie and deceive with far more proficiency than primates and probably with more proficiency than autistics if you add up the 2 studies... I wish they'd do more studies on the brains of autistics themselves though.. especially concerning white matter volume, etc..

Oh Microban, I guess since humans conducted the study, ha! yeah, it could be a lie (not completely true?) I'm hoping to find more research on this..

Last edited by Felinity on 06 Apr 2008, 4:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

I don't think this study holds any water..
I thought the brain scans of autistics concluded to AD's
having more connective tissue, period.
If autistics have less "white matter",
than how come autistics are better
at photographic memorization?

I think I'm going to root for that excerpt...

I'm not sure, but I think it's white matter that is located in a certain structural part of the brain that is associated with lying? not just the volume of white matter in general? I wish there were more studies like this to read..

Let me know if you find any more studies involving brain scans, MRI's and that type of thing.. I find this all really fascinating... it's almost been like an "obsession" tonight!

Edit - Again, sorry for all the scientific technical jargon... They haven't done enough studies to really know one way or the other anyway..

Last edited by Felinity on 06 Apr 2008, 4:15 am, edited 1 time in total.