The Position Of Honesty Analysis

Truth telling is “the foundation of authenticity, self-regard, intimacy, integrity, and joy. We know that closeness requires honesty, that lying erodes trust, and that the cruelest lies are often told in silence” (Lerner, 1993, p.15). Truth telling is more than simply telling the truth. It is a way to build confidence and trust. I recently had the experience where two candidates applied for the same prestigious program. The first candidate was qualified, but was not chosen. When I had to announce the winner of the position, I had to choose between the easy way and the honest way. Being honest is a huge attribute of truth telling. Like Dance of Deception described, dishonesty and honesty can be classified into three options: telling the truth, not telling the truth, and misleading the truth. Each of the three options can be exhibited in my recent experience and are evaluated below. While preparing to tell the rejected candidate of our decision, I fully intended to say that the reason for their loss was because the other candidate had applied earlier, and the decision was made on a first come first serve basis. This would have been an outright lie. …show more content…
I could not continue because I felt it was unethical to lie. I reconsidered my words, and reconstructed my email. My next attempt was not a lie, but I still ended up writing misleading information. The letter was filled with distractions that would hopefully disguise the real message. I wanted to feel ‘guiltless’ so I knew I could not lie. In addition, I wanted to protect myself against any anger or resentment that I would have encountered for bearing the bad news. Ultimately, I understood that I was just trying to protect myself, and that was incredibly selfish. I also understood that I was wrongly assuming the actions of the other