> By that metric, psychics saying they can talk to your loved ones can be morally justifiable. A truly altruistic lie, while less moral to tell than the truth,

> By that metric, psychics saying they can talk to your loved ones can be morally justifiable. A truly altruistic lie, while less moral to tell than the truth, can in many cases be more compassionate and do less harm over the long run. Issue is, there are very few truly altruistic lies (most of them are told in obituaries, goes the pithy one-liner). Most seemingly-non-damaging lies are told for dual benefit if the liar and the recipient. In your example, the psychic is out to make a buck. This is personal and debatable, but I consider such "it makes you feel good but I'm only telling you 'cause it enriches me" statements to be less moral than truly altruistic lies (which are less moral than the truth), but more moral than malicious/victimizing lies (e.g. "no, Charlie Brown, I won't move the football this time").