3 ms·
Dishonesty is about misleading somebody, regardless of what you say. You can say 100% truthful things and still mislead people, which is still dishonest. A comm
by dkersten 8y ago
Dishonesty is about misleading somebody, regardless of what you say. You can say 100% truthful things and still mislead people, which is still dishonest. A common method of dishonesty is by omitting important things. We are saying that we feel that your response is sidestepping the question asked of you, which is dishonest by omission, because this omission misleads. Communication is about more than the words you say.
- nocman 8y agoWhile it is true that you can mislead by omission, every ommission of information is not an attempt to be dishonest. Sometimes you just don't want people to know one way or the other. That is the scenario I described. Many in this thread say that not answering is dishonesty, and ascribe my not answering the question to intending to lead my wife's grandmother to believe that I liked her food. As I believe I pointed out earlier, my intention would not be to lead her to believe that I thought it was either good or bad -- I was not going to reveal the answer at all. Leaving someone in the dark with no intention of pushing them to incorrect assumptions is not dishonesty. Also, people can make incorrect assumptions about what is meant by what is said, even when the speaker has no intention of them making those assumptions. It is the intention of the speaker that makes omission of information honest or dishonest.