CA Essay Planning Sheet!
Complete this worksheet by the beginning of class on Wednesday (September 9), and submit it to
your rampages blog.
1) Summarize your specific instance of lying. Why did you select this instance? What about it
captures your attention? (50-100 words)
The lying instance I am going to use is during the 1990's, Bernard Madoff started to begin his Ponzi
scheme. A Ponzi scheme is when someone claims high rates of return with little risk when in fact, the
money that the investors will receive come from the new investor's money. The cycle continues until
there are no new investors. When that happens, the scheme is found out. Bernard Madoff hid his
scheme for more than 15 years. As a result, although he earned a lot of money and was a very rich
man, when he got caught, he lost everything and is in prison for 150 years.
2) Write your framing question. How does this question apply to the primary text you selected
and the course theme (lying)? Why are you interested in answering this question? (150-200
words)
Do potential consequences inhibit us from lying? This question applied to the primary text
that I have selected because it seems that Bernard Madoff was aware of the potential
consequences that would happen when he was caught. He misused other people’s money in
a way that would have resulted in his capture. Usually, people fear punishment if they are
caught. No one likes to get caught, but yet, people risk the consequences to get what they
want. I am interested in answering this question because I would like to see why people do
things and to see the motives behind lies. To me, lying is wrong, but yet, when I do it, I feel
bad, but yet good at the same time because I avoided a consequence that I did want to go
through, but then, in the future, I might have to pay for the consequences. I am also
interested in the instance because it was always perplexing to me why someone would do
such a big scheme.
3) Which shared reading (“Natural Born Liars,” “Do Police Interrogations Produce False
Confessions?,” or “Lying in Everyday Life”) are you going to use in your essay?
Cite the source according to APA or MLA standards.
Smith, David. Why We Lie. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004. Print.
Write a summary of the text. Make sure that your summary states the main claim
and the reasons given to support it. Refer to A Writer’s Reference for instructions on
writing a good summary. (75-125 words)
In this article, "Natural Born Liars," by Smith, Mr. Smith explores the history of
lying and the many ways to lie. Mr. Smith asserts throughout the article that humans
due to biology are natural liars. He asserts through the mention of Darwin's theory
and many examples of studies done to show the prevalence of lying. In the end, he
makes the claim that "normality" as we perceive is a facade in of itself by showing
how depressed people are deficit in their level of self-deception.
List keywords that capture why you think the source is important for your research.
Natural born liars, deceit, self-deception
Identify at least two brief quotes from the reading. Thoroughly explain each quote,
and then articulate why you think it will help you formulate a reasonable response to
your question. Be as precise as possible. (275 words)
“Lying is a natural phenomenon” (29). According to this quote, it says that it is only
natural that we as humans lie to each other. It is like the sun rising every day
or the moon coming out at night, it is only natural. This will help me with my
question because then we see that lying is not all that strange. There is a
perception in society that we should always be “good and honest” people
and that we should always tell the truth. The truth of the matter is, that is not
possible.
“Although these individuals believed that their behavior had nothing to do with the
presence of others around them, they were clearly self-deceived” (27). This
quote tells us that people deceive themselves although it was obvious that the
data was in contra of their beliefs. Also stated in the article was that the
people who were involved, when asked if they thought that being with other
influenced their behavior, no matter how the question was asked, each time
the person would deny the fact that people being around influenced their
behavior.
“’Normality’…may rest on a foundation of self-deception” (28). This quote shows us
that maybe what we perceive as normal is in fact just a wall of self-deception
that we put up to look like good people, when in fact, we are just deceitful
creatures. This will help me with my question because it goes to show how
society is based around perceptions that may be based on deception when in
fact the said society condemns lying. So we can see the prevalence of lying
through this.
Copy and paste the claim of the piece from the source. Then state the claim in your
own words.
“Deceit is part of our nature” (29). We, as humans, have thought of ourselves as
people who try to strive for being good and honest people, but when we dig down
deep to the inside, there is still the dark side of deceit which has always been there
since the beginning.
4) Substantive Source (provide link or .pdf)
Cite the source according to APA or MLA standards.
Madrid, Cienna. “The Lying Disease.” The Stanger.com. Web. 5 Sept. 2015
<http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-lyingdisease/Content?oid=15337239>
Write a summary of the text. Make sure that your summary states the main claim
and the reasons given to support it. Refer to A Writer’s Reference for instructions on
writing a good summary. (75-125 words)
In this article by Madrid, she follows the story of a woman named Valerie and
her struggle with breast cancer. In her story, Valerie starts a blog and the article
reports about how Valerie found out that other people faked illnesses to get
sympathy or they go to the extent of receiving gifts from genuine sympathizers from
their false illness. The article goes between personal narrations with some outside
sources with scientific evidence of the phenomena called Munchausen syndrome.
List keywords that capture why you think the source is important for your research.
The title also caught my gaze. It is interesting that the author would title the article
“The Lying Disease.” Also, when I saw what kind of disorder is Munchausen, it says
that it is under the factitious disorder, or basically, mental disturbances in which
people fake physical/mental disorders.
Identify at least two brief quotes from the reading. Thoroughly explain each quote,
and then articulate why you think it will help you formulate a reasonable response to
your question. Be as precise as possible. (275 words)
"I've encountered two women who've lied to their doctors in order to get
mastectomies unnecessarily," says Dr. Marc Feldma… That's how desperate their
need for hospitalization and love and attention is." This quote tells us that two
women lied to their doctors to get mastectomies to fake a sickness. These women
did that to gain sympathy from people so that they feel support from other people.
This will help me with my question because if these women get caught, then they will
have hurt the feelings of many people online who are actually suffering from real
diseases and need real support.
“… many Munchausen by internet sufferers are motivated by one of two dominant
personality traits: narcissism or sadism.” According to this quote, people who suffer
from this disorder exhibit two dominant traits: Narcissism or sadism. This is
interesting because then it can be assumed that people who exhibit these traits are
more prone to have Munchausen by internet. So in a way, lying can be influenced by
our innate personality and brain function. This quote can help with my question
because it helps show that people can feel justified in lying when they have these
kinds of personalities (narcissistic or sadistic).
“The lies slowly escalate, pile up, and create an improbable whole…And on that day,
you feel like a total schmuck.” This quote shows us how the lies that are told slowly
do not add up and then the person is found to be a fraud and then the quote
describes the feeling of the discovery. This helps with my question because this is
one of the consequences that people have to consider when lying, the emotional hurt
that the person is put through when they he/she finds out he/.she is being lied to.
Copy and paste the claim of the piece from the source. Then state the claim in your
own words.
“It's these people, who are already battling the betrayal of their bodies, whose worlds
have essentially been reduced to bedrooms and hospital rooms, that Munchausen by
internet hurts the most.” People who actually suffer from diseases are the worst off
among the victims of people with Munchausen by internet.
5) Scholarly Source (provide pdf)
Cite the source according to APA or MLA standards.
Conrads, Julian, Bernd Irlenbusch, Rainer Rilke; Gari Walkowitz “Lying and Team
Incentives.” Journal of Economic Psychology 34 (2013): n. pag. Web. 8 Sept.
2015< http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0167487012001365/1-s2.0S0167487012001365-main.pdf?_tid=cde5ef9a-5701-11e5-ad9900000aacb35d&acdnat=1441810277_39b0170027fa9bd38a8c42c8942fd17d>
Write a summary of the text. Make sure that your summary states the main claim
and the reasons given to support it. Refer to A Writer’s Reference for instructions on
writing a good summary. (75-125 words)
In this text, a team researches the rate of lying when individuals are playing a game
involving rolling a die and the participant, based on the number they rolled, received their
pay. The experimenter could not see what number the participants rolled. There answers
were based on the honor system. With this in mind, there were two types of experiments
given, one were their dice roll only influenced their pay, and the other is when the person is
paired with someone else. In the end, they concluded that people do lie more when there are
team incentives and that people who are younger, male, are more extrovert lie more.
List keywords that capture why you think the source is important for your research.
The keywords for me were lying, team incentive, experiment
Identify at least two brief quotes from the reading. Thoroughly explain each quote,
and then articulate why you think it will help you formulate a reasonable response to
your question. Be as precise as possible. (275 words)
“Subjects scoring high in the Neuroticism domain report higher production
outputs.” With this quote, the experimenters are showing that having a negative
outlook on life leads to a higher rate of lying. This can support my question because
people with a negative outlook on life do not tend to think straight or have long term
thinking. Which would lead to a preference of short term thinking and not much
thinking about the long term consequences. With my instance, this is relevant
because it seems that Madoff was too preoccupied with the short term rewards
without thinking what would happen in the future with his family, his clients, and his
reputation if he were caught in the future.
“Lying is more pronounced under team incentives than under individual piece rates.”
This was a conclusion that the experimenters drew from the results of their
experiment. This helps with my question because when we work as a team and try to
achieve a personal goal, according to the research, we are more prone to lying
because if we get in trouble, we can diffuse the responsibility to the other person and
not have to take so much of the blame.
“We also find that women and older subjects on average report significantly lower
production outputs than men and younger subjects, respectively.” This quote is
showing another result that the experimenters got and it shows that women and
older people, on average, reported “significantly lower production outputs” than
men and younger subjects respectively.” This can support my question because then
we can see the implications of how lying can be based on sex and age and that can
help us see the prevalence of lying and how it is distributed
Copy and paste the claim of the piece from the source. Then state the claim in your
own words.
Subjects who are younger, male, high on Extraversion and Neuroticism lie more.
The rate of lying can be based on characteristics of people. IN this study, it was
shown that people who are young, are male, are extroverts, and have a long term
tendency to be in a negative emotional state are more prone to lying than other
people.
6) Synthesis Matrix
Seeing how various sources fit together is challenging. The synthesis matrix is designed to
establish how your sources converse with one another to help you have a robust understanding
of how they weigh in on your question. You will design a matrix using the four sources (1
shared reading, 1 substantive source, 1 scholarly source, and 1 popular secondary source or
primary text) you will use in your Critical Analysis Essay. This will illustrate the main
ideas/topics of your sources in relation to your question: what they specifically assert regarding
it.
Fill out the template at the bottom of this assignment (page 2). Line up your four sources in
the left hand column of the grid and then write your two or three categories across the top
column. Your categories should be important aspects of the topic of your paper. Example: If I
were writing about a particular song, I might generate the following categories as important
aspects of why it is my favorite: tempo, lyrics, & syncopation. Note: The point here is to weave
together the commonalities between your sources—what do all your sources say about each
category. Be thorough with what each source has to say regarding the categories.
You must write the information in the grid using complete thoughts/sentences. Use direct
quotes from your sources, making sure to provide in-text citations. Additionally, you must
provide nuanced and clear explanations of what each quote reveals about its category.
Framing Question: Do potential consequences inhibit us from lying?
Category #1
Category #2
Category #3
Deception
Potential Consequences
(If applicable)
Source 1
Madoff is
Sentenced
to 150
Years for
Ponzi
Scheme
“They pointed to the extent of the
crime: a fraud that ensnared millionaires,
private foundations, a Nobel Prize
laureate and hundreds of small investors
who lost their life savings….” This
shows the extent of how someone could
lie.
“….the largest, longest and
most widespread Ponzi scheme
in history- ended… as Bernard
L. Madoff was sentenced to 150
years in prison, the maximum
for his crimes. Getting life in
prison is a pretty big
consequence when it comes to
deceiving people and yet,
Madoff still went on with the
Ponzi scheme.
“Lying is a natural phenomenon”
(29). This quotes shows that lying is
in fact normal and that deception is a
“natural phenomenon.” This can be
used as a justification for people that
lie and that explains why we do it so
often, it is just part of our nature.
“Although these individuals
believed that their behavior
had nothing to do with the
presence of others around
them, they were clearly selfdeceived” (27). As we can
see, lying can be dangerous
because then we become
blind to our flawed
judgements and we cannot
see situations clearly and
make a wise decision.
By: Diana
Henriques
Source 2
Natural
Born Liars
By: David
Smith
Source 3
"I've encountered two women
The Lying who've lied to their doctors in order
to get mastectomies unnecessarily,"
Disease
says Dr. Marc Feldma… That's how
By:
desperate their need for
Cienna
hospitalization and love and
Madrid
attention is." This shows are
desperate people are to get attention
and deceive people into giving their
sympathies, support or gifts to these
people who are in fact lying.
“The lies slowly escalate, pile
up, and create an improbable
whole…And on that day,
you feel like a total
schmuck.” This helps us in
that we see that when people
lie, it takes more lies to make
a believable story and after a
while, the liars lose track and
eventually, they are caught
deceiving everyone and the
other party feels bad because
they were lied to.
Source 4
“This procedure ensured that the
experimenter was not able to observe
Lying and
the truly diced numbers whatsoever
Team
and this was known to the subjects.
Incentives
Hence, subjects could easily lie about
By: Julian their rolled number and consequently
Conrads could secretly manipulate their
payoff that was solely dependent on
their reported production
output.” In this quote, it shows that
the experimenters wanted to see if
being alone would raise the rate of
lying than if the subject was being
observed while rolling the die.
“It shows that organizations
are well advised to be vigilant
regarding potentially harming
side-effects of compensation
schemes, especially when
agents can diffuse and
displace their responsibility
for unethical conduct.” This
shows that companies have
to be careful when doing
compensation schemes
because of the chance of
workers lying about their
need for compensation.