Stop Lying: Truth at Every Level Simultaneously
A white lie is true at one level and false at another — a true statement works now, tomorrow, for you and for them
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 94%
In 1985, after years studying Nazi atrocity, Peterson decided to stop lying — including white lies. His test for a true statement is multi-level: if your words are landing properly they work right now, tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now, and they work for you and for the person you said them to. A white lie fails that test by being true at one level and false at another. He concedes you may not always have the wherewithal to produce a statement satisfying every condition, but treats being cornered into a lie as diagnostic: there are snakes you have not dealt with, and the real fix is honesty further upstream.
Origin
Peterson began studying atrocity around age 20 — Auschwitz, and specifically the prison guard who enjoyed his work — and concluded that the road to totalitarian hell is paved with lies, deciding in 1985 to stop lying entirely.
Core principles
- 01Lies are the pathway to hell, practically and metaphysically.
- 02A true statement serves truth at every level of analysis simultaneously.
- 03A white lie is true at one level and false at another; it is better than a black lie but still not optimal.
- 04Being forced into a lie means something upstream was already compromised.
- 05Truthfulness makes your praise legible — if you never flatter, your approval means something.
How to run it
- 1
Stop saying things you know to be untrue
Start with the negative rule rather than an ambition to speak profound truth — simply cease uttering statements you believe are false.
Pro tip Peterson pairs it with stopping doing things you know to be wrong.
- 2
Apply the multi-level test
Check whether a statement will hold now, tomorrow, next week and next month, and whether it works for both you and the listener.
Pro tip Failing any one of those levels is what makes a statement a white lie rather than a truth.
- 3
Reframe the trap question
When asked something engineered to force a flattering falsehood, decline the frame rather than picking a side of it.
Pro tip Peterson's example answer to 'How do I look in this dress?' is 'Don't ask me questions like that' — then have the actual discussion.
Watch out The easy answers — 'I love it, dear', 'of course not' — are white lies that muddy every future compliment.
- 4
Treat forced lies as diagnostics
When you are cornered into a lie, do not just note the lie — go find what you did upstream that put you in a position where all options were bad.
Pro tip Peterson invokes Leonard Cohen: there's no decent place to stand in a massacre.
Watch out Optimising your answer inside a compromised position leaves the actual cause untouched.
- 5
Move the honesty upstream
Correct the earlier decisions and evasions — with yourself and with others — so that the trap situations stop arising.
Pro tip In therapy the standard move is finding out what people did upstream; do it for yourself.
In the wild
Peterson enjoys clothes shopping for his wife and tells her honestly how he thinks she looks, though he says he almost never has to express displeasure because her taste is excellent.
→ Because he does not muddy the water with flattery, when he says she looks good she knows he means it.
Peterson cites the book about a German police battalion sent to Poland — middle-aged ordinary policemen, pre-Nazi upbringing, explicitly told they could go home with no repercussions. A few refused; the vast majority went along, partly out of loyalty to their peers.
→ Within months they were shooting women in the back of the head, sick at heart but doing it — evidence that the road to atrocity runs on lies rather than on monstrous people.
Common mistakes
Treating white lies as harmless lubrication
A white lie is true at one level and false at another. Deploying them routinely destroys the informational value of everything else you say, including your praise.
Believing you would have refused
Peterson's reading of the evidence is blunt: if you think you would not have been one of the ordinary men, that itself makes it highly likely you would have been, because you have no idea what you are capable of.
Fixing the lie instead of the upstream decision
You can arrive at positions where every option is bad. The lie is then a symptom of an earlier choice, and only the earlier choice can actually be repaired.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone whose relationships or work run on small habitual evasions and who wants their word to carry weight.
Not ideal for
Situations where disclosure is genuinely dangerous to a third party and silence, not falsehood, is the right move.
From the transcript
“the root road to totalitarian hell and atrocity is paved with lies”
“one of the things I decided, this was in 1985, was that I was not I was going to stop lying”
“a white lie is a statement that's true at one level and false at another”
“if you're forced into a situation where you have to tell a white lie, there's snakes somewhere that you haven't dealt with”
“Stop saying things you believe to be untrue.”
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