A lie is a lie: the ethics of lying in business negotiations

Charles Sherwood

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: I argue that lying in business negotiations is pro tanto wrong and no less wrong than lying in other contexts. First, I assert that lying in general is pro tanto wrong. Then, I examine and refute five arguments to the effect that lying in a business context is less wrong than lying in other contexts. The common thought behind these arguments—based on consent, self-defence, the “greater good,” fiduciary duty, and practicality—is that the particular circumstances which are characteristic of business negotiations are such that the wrongness of lying is either mitigated or eliminated completely. I argue that all these “special exemption” arguments fail. I conclude that, in the absence of a credible argument to the contrary, the same moral constraints must apply to lying in business negotiations as apply to lying in other contexts. Furthermore, I show that for the negotiator, there are real practical benefits from not lying.

Keywords: business ethics; negotiation; lying; consent; self-defence; fiduciary duty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2022-10-23
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hme and nep-hpe
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Published in Business Ethics Quarterly, 23, October, 2022, 32(4), pp. 604 - 634. ISSN: 1052-150X

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