Is EXAGGERATION a form of LYING??

There is one time in life that I always tend to exaggerate according to my kids, opps take that back, two times. First is when I relay the size of a spider I saw - they are always bigger according to me. Is this lying? I don't think so because in my terrified state they look as big as I say. The second time is when I discribe how much my kids are driving me crazy, the kids say I was already that way but as far as I'm concerned they have created every single grey hair in my head, I am sure that is an exaggeration but in my heart and the heat of the moment I believe it. I suppose when it comes right down to it - yes exaggerating is lying.

i think its the same as lying..exaggeration on some events that do not exist or not happening is a lie..what could it be then if not a pure lie?/

I think it's a form of lying. If it's not 100% truth then it's lying. Perhaps stretching the truth a bit but still lying. I also think there's a time and place when small lies are acceptable but it's very rare. I think on average if a person wants an answer, they want a true answer and not some exaggeration of what happened.

In the strict sense of the word, I suppose you could call exaggeration an unintentional form of lying. I have known quite a few people who have tended to "embroider the truth" in order to make stories (and in the process, THEMSELVES) look "more" something... more interesting, more vicimized, more intelligent, etc. I suppose a LITTLE exaggetation can make the telling of a story more interesting... but there seem to be some people for whom it is a chronic habit-- and I can't help but think they must have a problem with feeling insecure; as in "the basic truth isn't interesting enough." Some people are also just "competitive" in all aspects of their lives, so their tales always have to be the "tallest" ones out there. As a sidebar note, you made me think about something related-- I was brought up being told that it was better to UNDERstate, than to OVERstate... technically speaking, wouldn't that be a form of "lying," too?

to make the story more exciting,thats it.i think most of the time,people unconciously add their personal emotion into what they're talking about.then there comes what we call exaggeration.its just an emotional thing,better not see it as lying.

Exaggeration is a form of lying. It is bad and an instrument of untruth. It depends. Sometimes, the artful exaggeration is a way of suggesting, of discovering, an essential truth lying below the ordinary surface of things. But distinctions must be made. There are times when exaggerations are highly useful; there are times when they may be deadly.

I think we are all guilty of exaggerating in some form or another, it's a great way of interesting your audience, just by adding a little lie here and there, embellishing the story to make it more exciting, why not? As long as it's not hurting anyone then I can't seem no harm in it and yes I exaggerate too.

I try not to exaggerate. My mom did it all the time when she would tell me what a great deal she got on something and I found out later what she really paid. It was not a lot lower but she always wanted you to know what a great deal she got. I don't know if this started with my mom telling my dad stuff so that he wouldn't be mad at her for spending money, or what, but by the time I came along she was in the habit. I agree, that we tend to exaggerate some when telling a story to make it more interesting!

You know...I just said to my son today, Stop exaggerating. LOL But that is also a way of saying, Stop lying. :0 ha ha My son was telling me about a kid at school today doing something and while doing it, his finger nail was ripped off. Don't ask me what he was doing, it was not clear. ha ha But then my son...whom is a Junior in High School and thinks he is all tough...preceeded to laugh because the boy in his class started crying. I told him that he should not laugh at a person's pain and that having a nail ripped off is very painful! Heck! Having your nail bend backwards is painful!!! I would hate to have mine ripped off. But then my son commented that it happened to him at work and he didn't cry. At that point, I had to tell him to stop exaggerating because he ripped his nail just enough to go into the nail bed a bit...far different than what that boy experienced! So...is exaggeration a form of lying? Yes, I guess it is. LOL

It is easy to say that exaggeration is indeed a form of lying. There have been many instances when I was told about a real experience only to learn later on that it didn't really happen that way. Like people having earned so much during the peak season of business, only to find out that they haven't in truth totalled half of it. The problem with me is, if I have faith in an individual, I have a tendency to put up a little fight defending what the friend told me firsthand. Perhaps, I should learn to keep my mouth shut when my opinion is not called for and, just listen to what people have to say.

Well this is a good one but I don't think there is any right answer. Sometimes people blow the story out a little bit to make it more interesting. That usually doesn't hurt anybody. But some blow the story way out of shape and it turns into a lie and does hurt people. So I say keep to the facts as much as possible and check the story before you repeat it in the first place. It may be nicer not to repeat something at all.. Tammy

ya I think it is kinda form of lying. From time to time, I always love story telling. I always tell my experiences to my friends and relatives and due to my excitement, I got carried away and make some points of the story my own. I create a little twists to give excitement to the listener and then they will ask "really? you did that" or "what did he do?" and then spill the beans to them that I'm just exaggerating to make the story livelier. I think it is my habit he he!

lying is not telling what exactly is the real thing right? and exaggeration is adding things to spice up a story right? so that means you are not really telling what actually is the truth therefore exaggeration is a form of lying. but i think it's not as sinful as lying lying. we tend to exaggerate to make our stories more interesting. but i think we should refrain from doing this because when we always exaggerate, people will just get tired and eventually not believe us anymore. besides you don't have to fabricate things to be interesting and sell it to people. all you have to do is believe in it and have confidence ;)

It is a way of lying, many half-truths can eventually come back and haunt you. Exaggeration is fun if you are telling a child a story and you want to make it more interesting. Some people do it to one another to add more spice to their story, but if one kept exaggerating, how would you know if it was true or not? So yes it is a form of a lie.

Yes i think it is. It would be classified as a little white lye, but a lye non the less. I think everyone does it time to time. Especially when you are telling a story. I have found my self telling a story that i thought was exciting, and not getting the response i like, so i spice it up a little, to get the response i want.

I think it depends on how & how much you exaggerate. My roomie exaggerates often, and sometimes I feel that the story becomes disceptive because of it. If the story is good enough, why exaggerate it? But if something weighs enough to be hard to pick up, saying it weighs a "ton" is an exaggeration, but it is understood that you don't really mean it weighs 2000 lbs, just that it was very heavy. I'm careful about saying "literally" because I have friends who are very literal & if I were to say "it literally weighs a ton" I'd better be able to prove it weighs 2000 lbs or 2200 or what ever a ton weighs now. Now, I will say that I opened the package & everything literally went flying, it means that the whole package & its in contents where everywhere, but if I leave off the "literally" word then I can mean that some or a few of the contents jumped out. "I could eat a horse" is an exaggeration, but nobody expects the person who utters the words to actually eat that much food. What I want to know is how the term "eat like a bird" came to mean eating very little, most small birds consume pretty near their weight in food each day. Probably because people just see them picking at their food, not how much they really put away.

It you are doing it in a good-natured way, I think it is already. Of course, if you look at it strictly, it would be lying. But done fine, it is just a minor form of white lies that I feel is acceptable in reasonable amount.

anything thats in contrast with the truth is lying. some might say that exaggeration might add spice to the topic, yet its not the truth. it might be half-truth but its not the truth. half-truth could never be true. but exaggerating things wont do any harm either. its understandable that its purely exaggerated, whats important is the message conveyed and not how it was conveyed