The Importance of Truth Telling and Trust

• Author: Destynie J.L. Sewell,Tammy W. Cowart,Kenneth J. Sanney,Eric D. Yordy,Lawrence J. Trautman
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jlse.12099
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Date: 01 December 2020

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 37, Issue 1, 7–36, Winter 2020

The Importance of Truth Telling

and Trust

Kenneth J. Sanney,∗Lawrence J. Trautman,∗∗ Eric D. Yordy,∗∗∗

Tammy W. Cowart,†and Destynie J.L. Sewell‡

I. INTRODUCTION

Few principles influence success as fundamentally as truth. Truthfulness is

the foundation upon which human relationships are built. Truth is the an-

tecedent to trust, and trust is the antecedent to cooperation. Without truth,

sustainable success is impossible in human dealings.1

Hence, the importance of truth has been the subject of theological and

scholarly pursuit for centuries.2Since the latter part of the twentieth century,

∗Associate Professor of Business Administration and Law, Western Carolina University.

∗∗Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics, Prairie View A&M University.

∗∗∗

Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics, W.A. Franke College of Business, Northern

Arizona University.

†Associate Professor of Business Law, University of Texas at Tyler.

‡Assistant Professor of Business Law and Ethics, College of Business, University of Nebraska

Omaha.

The authors wish to extend particular thanks to the following for their assistance in the research

and preparation of this article: Debra D. Burke, Lucien Dhooge, Shawna Meyer Eikenberry,

Timothy Fort, Jo Hannah Hadden, Sherri Harte, Dylan Hastings, Todd Haugh, Marianne

Jennings, Lora Koretz, Joseph Lakatos, Taylor Luibrand, Virginia G. Maurer, Josh Perry,

Rebecca Peterson, Robert Prentice, Lee Reed, Matthew Robbins, Madison Surrett, Tuyen Tram,

John Trautman, and Ting Zhang. We would also like to extend our gratitude to the anonymous

reviewers and editorial staff of the Journal of Legal Studies Education for the constructive feedback

and outstanding editorial support. Any errors or omissions belong solely to the authors.

1SISSELA BOK,LYING:MORAL CHOICE IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIFE 20 (1989).

2See generally STANFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPHY, https://plato.stanford.edu/ (last visited

Dec. 29, 2019) (examining the ideas of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Hume,

Kant, Moore, Russell, Wittgenstein, Peirce, Tarski, Field, Armstrong, Dummett, Horwich, and

Davidson); see also Vaca Sutta: A Statement,Thanissaro Bhikkhu trans., ACCESS TO INSIGHT (2010),

C2020 The Authors

Journal of Legal Studies Education C2020 Academy of Legal Studies in Business

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8 Vol. 37 / The Journal of Legal Studies Education

the burgeoning field of applied ethics has joined in this pursuit.3In business,

for instance, executives and scholars alike have acknowledged the value of

truth. In his Owner’s Manual addressed to Class A and Class B shareholders

of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., Warren Buffett wrote, “We will be candid in our

reporting to you . . . We owe you no less. We also believe candor benefits us

as managers: The CEO who misleads others in public may eventually mislead

himself in private.”4Similarly, in a 1992 essay, Stanford Business Professor

Ronald A. Howard observed, “[t]he ethical dilemmas which my students and

business associates seem to face evolve around issues of truth telling.”5

From Wells Fargo’s creation of over two million fake accounts,6to

GM’s deadly ignition switches,7to the ten-billion-dollar fraud that was the

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an05/an05.198.than.html (noting that the third

path of the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path is “right speech,” which belongs to the virtue category

of the path and consists of five factors: it is true, it is kind, it is helpful, it is conducive to harmony,

anditisspokenattherighttime).

3See United States v. Kontny, 238 F.3d 815 (7th Cir. 2001) (holding that trickery, deceit, even

impersonation do not render a confession inadmissible, certainly in noncustodial situations and

usually in custodial ones as well, unless government agents make threats or promises); Frazier

v. Cupp, 394 U.S. 731, 739 (1969); Holland v. McGinnis, 963 F.2d 1044, 1051 (7th Cir. 1992);

United States v. Rutledge, 900 F.2d 1127, 1131 (7th Cir. 1990) (“far from making the police

a fiduciary of the suspect, the law permits the police to pressure and cajole, conceal material

facts, and actively mislead”); United States v. Byram, 145 F.3d 405, 408 (1st Cir. 1998) (“trickery

is not automatically coercion. Indeed the police commonly engage in such ruses as suggesting

to a suspect that a confederate has just confessed or that police have or will secure physical

evidence against the suspect. While the line between ruse and coercion is sometimes blurred,

confessions procured by deceits have been held voluntary in a number of situations.”); BARRON H.

LERNER,THE GOOD DOCTOR:AFATHER,ASON,AND THE EVOLUTION OF MEDICAL ETHICS (2014)

(examining the conflict between physician-based paternalism and the more truth-oriented ethic

of informed consent); See Elletta Sangrey Callaghan et al., Integrating Trends in Whistle Blowing

and Corporate Governance: Promoting Organizational Effectiveness, Societal Responsibility, and Employee

Empowerment, 40 AM.BUS. L.J. 177 (2002); M. Neil Browne et al., Legal Tolerance Toward the

Business Lie and the Puffery Defense: The Questionable Assumptions of Contract Law, 37 SO.ILL.U.L.J.

69 (2012) (discussing the concept of mere puffery); Mark P. Gergen, A Wrong Turn in the Law of

Deceit, 106 GEO. L.J. 555 (2018) (discussing how the “requirement of justifiable reliance in the

law of deceit came to be turned into a requirement of reasonable reliance”).

4Warren Buffett, OWNER’SMANUAL, (June 1996), http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/ownman.

pdf.

5Ronald A. Howard, Business Ethics: Tell the Truth, 11 J. MGMT.DEV. 4, 5 (1992).

6See Joseph Lakatos et al., Calling Wells Fargo’s CEO: Drive Widespread Cultural Change via Imple-

mentation of the Dynamic Organizational Model and Permeation of Servant Leadership Throughout the

Financial Institution,12J.I

NT’LMGMT.STUD. 1, 6 (2017).

7See Marianne M. Jennings & Lawrence J. Trautman, Ethical Culture and Legal Liability: The GM

Switch Crisis and Lessons in Governance, 22 B.U. J. SCI.&TECH. L. 187 (2016).