Nobody likes it when people renege on a promise. You don't have to look very far to see how we as a society view people who lie, break promises or misrepresent themselves. In movies, the bad guy is always dishonest. In books, liars invariably get clobbered: Iago gets tortured, Claggart gets walloped, and Dante puts the liars all the way at the bottom of hell. In fact, even our English word "hell" is derived from the Old Norse "hel" -- a place for punishing "oathbreakers and criminals." So why all the negativity for the dishonest? In my opinion, it's hardwired.
May 21st 2008