Why Negotiating With a Liar is a Bad Idea

According to psychologists, lying is the act of being deceptive in order to mask a true fact, intention, or feeling, amongst other things. Common law fraud requires five elements: false representation of a material fact, knowledge of this falsity, intent to deceive someone using this false representation, justified reliance by the injured party, and damage or injury done to the innocent party. Lying in a negotiation is a bad idea mainly because a good negotiator will look to detect deception and expose liars. This could derail any future endeavors , and the relationship with the party in which you’re negotiating with. Also, a false statement can possibly be ruled a legally binding statement with the right combination of false claims. This can be quite costly, especially if a judge or jury believe you’ve acted immorally and greatly harmed an innocent party. The simplest reason is, it’s wrong and usually illegal. Lying can become a frequent, subconscious action; it should be curbed as to not be accepted as a norm. To me, the three most important tactics to flushing out liars were: including written claims as part of a final agreement, using contingent agreements, and trust but verify. Written claims extinguish speculation and essentially provides a commitment in writing, or a contract. This can be used to protect yourself against the false claims of others and prove deception. If need be, this could provide a great amount of leverage in a court of law. Next, using contingent agreements explicitly notify the other party of the consequences of lying. I think this tactic would flush out liars, at least causing them to backpedal. Once you spot a liar you can choose to cut ties and not do business with this person. Last, trusting then verifying is a simple tactic that could also flush out a liar. If much of their information comes back false or even slightly misrepresented, it should be assumed that this person has hidden interests and intentions. It seems fitting to dissociate with this person as they have little to no interest in reciprocating the desire to create an equally beneficial agreement between parties.