Most people are familiar with the term “white lie,” meaning a small lie told to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. But you probably have not heard the term blue lie, even though they, too, are common.
A blue lie is a lie told to benefit a group. As Christian L. Hart, writing in Psychology Today, explains, “Blue lies are lies told to benefit the group or collective to which one belongs or to undermine the group’s adversaries.” While children as young as three have been shown to tell lies for their own personal gain, telling blue lies is a behavior we tend not to develop until roughly the age of seven. Research suggests that older children are more likely to lie for a group, but less likely to lie for their personal gain, than younger children are.
Blue lies are prone to being an especially dangerous type of lie.
One reason blue lies are dangerous is that they are easy to justify. When someone lies for their personal gain, it is generally regarded as the wrong thing to do. But when someone lies to protect others, it is easy to think it is the morally right choice. So the liar may not question the decision to lie, or think about who it might hurt.
Imagine, for example, a hypothetical basketball team. If they win a particular game, they will advance to states. Otherwise, the season will be over. Suppose that the score is tied, with just seconds remaining. By fouling a defender on the other team without the referee noticing, this team is able to win the game. Afterwards, a member of the team lies about the foul, denying that it happened. This athlete knows it is wrong to lie, but their loyalty to the team makes it feel right. By focusing on helping their own team, they may be able to ignore the fact that they have harmed the other team.
Another reason blue lies are dangerous is that when someone lies to protect a group, they may receive positive feedback from the group. This can encourage lying because the liar gains social acceptance through the lie. When other people give you positive feedback for lying, it reinforces your perception that the lie was justified—and may even make you think it was at least partially truthful.
In addition, because blue lies are intended to help those inside the group, often at the expense of those outside it, such lies can increase polarization by strengthening the bonds within the group through shared falsehood, while isolating it from those outside the group. That might lead to people in the group believing the falsehood.
In recent years, blue lies have often been in the news. For example, after Alex Pretti was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis in January, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that Pretti had “attacked” ICE officers, even though he had not. Perhaps, Noem thought that she was doing the right thing by protecting members of her department, but in doing so, she misled the American people, whom she was supposed to serve. This contributed to confusion and polarization.
Next time you hear a questionable statement, you can ask yourself: Is this a blue lie? Consider who it might benefit and who it might harm.
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