Hedging is one of the oldest games in town. It's seen as "not really lying." There are a number of ways to hedge. One can express uncertainty. One can just give partial knowledge of what is happening and withhold the other part of what (s)he knows. One can stall by using "um..." and pausing, hoping that the other party will come back in on the conversation and continue talking. One can also give mitigators to anything certain, such as starting a thought with "I think..." or "I believe" or ending a thought with "I'm not really sure" or simply trailing off without completing a thought.
Many people would not give hedging a second thought, or they would think that hedging is not really circumventing the truth, merely delaying how to say the right words. That would be false. Hedging is deliberate. However, when taken together with a type-token ratio, it helps put the right perspective on what the person is trying to lie about. Sometimes it shows that a person really has not rehearsed a stretch of statements. The more the hedge, the less rehearsed a statement is. Sometimes it shows that a person has definitely rehearsed a statement. The more direct an answer to a question, the less the hedge, and the receiver of the information is deceived into thinking that the direct answer was not a lie.
One of the most obvious hedges is the person who says, "I don't know, but..." The speaker thinks (s)he has put the listener off the trail of truth with "I don't know." But, it's a deliberate distractor for the truth that follows, usually not in whole but in part, and usually the last part of the statement.
Hedging is fun because it doesn't have to be counted. It just has to be noticed. Hedging is also part of the chess game with liars. They use it to enshroud their real lies or throw hunters off the smell of the game they are hunting. But, game playing is fun. One can get really good at chess, figuratively speaking of course.
2 comments:
I think I might say, "I don't know, but..." like 50 times a day...am I hedging or is it just habit? WEIRD...I knew you were up to something...counting, noticing, whatever...
Maybe you are right, it is fun to throw people off and act like I don't know what is going on...but that would have to be one naive person to fall for that act don't ya think?
Nicely woven humor!
The "I don't know, but..." routine is even picked up by comics when they make some statement that is often absurd, such as, "Buying $20 a roll tissue paper should strike someone as expensive. I don't know, but..." then everyone laughs.
But liars use the routine a bit more subtly. Because a great number of people like to think the best of others, there are a lot of naive people out there.
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