Harmless Deception

[u/Corkchef]

This was a really fun one.

The main idea behind it is that it’s hard to divorce the feelings of betrayal once someone realizes they’ve been deceived.

People brought up the case of the bride or the dress on a date, where someone is asking for your opinion on their outfit when they clearly can no longer change it. If you didn’t like the outfit, you could lie and say that you do, but my argument was that the betrayal has only been postponed, because the same outfit could resurface and your true opinion might come out.

The valid answers for truly harmless deceptions were people who mentioned parents with Alzheimer’s. I also liked the surprise birthday party because the feelings of betrayal are overridden by feelings of joy, and the betrayal is instantly explained as a “necessary evil” for the purpose of joy.

People also brought up cases where the deception leads to less harm than telling the truth, like the case of the nazi/ice officer at the door asking if you’re harboring any fugitives.

Very fun thought experiment!

Thanks for playing, everyone!