Throughout the entire series of The Office, there are many cases of deceptive communication (occurs when a speaker transmits information knowingly and intentionally for the purpose of creating a false belief in the reciever).
An example of deception (the knowing and intentional transmission of information to create a false belief in the hearer (384) happens over and over again throughout the series with Michael and Jim. There have been many exchanges between the two of them where Michael will attempt to get together with Jim and Jim comes up with an excuse as to why he can't, in reality Jim has no desire to get together with Michael outside of work. One occasion where this happens is when Michael invites Jim to hang out after work and Jim says, "Oh! I can't today. I am giving blood." Then Michael says, "Is there a limit to how many times you can do that? You only have so much of it." Obviously, this shows that Jim has used this same excuse over and over. Because of our truth bias, Michael believes Jim everytime. The excuses that Jim gives to Michael are considered low-stakes lies. These are not lies that have extreme consequences.
While Jim is partaking in low-stakes lies, Ryan Howard gets involved with a high-stakes lie. Ryan starts out in this show as a temp in the office while he is also going to business school. Eventually in the show, Jan Levinson, an executive at Dunder Mifflin loses her job. Many people from the office apply for her job and unexpectedly Ryan gets the job because he has gone to busniess school. While obtaining this job, Ryan comes up with a website that people and companies can order paper from. In season four, episode twenty-two, the website was not doing very well. In order for the website to look successful making sales, Ryan has all the salesteam record their sales in the company system as well as the website. Therefore, recording sales twice, which is fraud. Ryan gets caught and goes to jail. This is a prime example of a high stakes lie.
An example of deception (the knowing and intentional transmission of information to create a false belief in the hearer (384) happens over and over again throughout the series with Michael and Jim. There have been many exchanges between the two of them where Michael will attempt to get together with Jim and Jim comes up with an excuse as to why he can't, in reality Jim has no desire to get together with Michael outside of work. One occasion where this happens is when Michael invites Jim to hang out after work and Jim says, "Oh! I can't today. I am giving blood." Then Michael says, "Is there a limit to how many times you can do that? You only have so much of it." Obviously, this shows that Jim has used this same excuse over and over. Because of our truth bias, Michael believes Jim everytime. The excuses that Jim gives to Michael are considered low-stakes lies. These are not lies that have extreme consequences.
While Jim is partaking in low-stakes lies, Ryan Howard gets involved with a high-stakes lie. Ryan starts out in this show as a temp in the office while he is also going to business school. Eventually in the show, Jan Levinson, an executive at Dunder Mifflin loses her job. Many people from the office apply for her job and unexpectedly Ryan gets the job because he has gone to busniess school. While obtaining this job, Ryan comes up with a website that people and companies can order paper from. In season four, episode twenty-two, the website was not doing very well. In order for the website to look successful making sales, Ryan has all the salesteam record their sales in the company system as well as the website. Therefore, recording sales twice, which is fraud. Ryan gets caught and goes to jail. This is a prime example of a high stakes lie.
See Notes for Photos V&W.
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