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Basics

-Your responses are anonymous

Instructions:

-There are sixteen stories.  At the end of each story, you will see a prompt that says

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

Indicate your choice for each story.  If you want to make any comments about your answers, feel free to do so.  

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1

Rodrigo and Carmen are going to the beach together. Once they are stretched out on their beach

towels and have begun to sun themselves, Rodrigo says \Oh no, I left the bathroom faucet running."

He then laughs and so does Carmen, because of course he could not have done something so

inattentive. It turns out that he really did leave the water running, and 40 gallons of water were

wasted.

Did Rodrigo lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

2

Rodrigo and Carmen meet their friend Jerry in the parking lot of an auto parts store and they all

drive together to a drug dealer's house. Jerry is not familiar with the inhabitants of the house, but

still wants to buy some marijuana. He gives his money to Rodrigo, who is on good terms with the

house inhabitants so that Rodrigo can buy marijuana on his behalf. On reaching the house, Jerry

waits in the car while Rodrigo and Carmen go into the house to buy drugs. They return to the car

twenty minutes later. Rodrigo announces that he spent Jerry's money on crack and that there is

nothing for Jerry, whom he doesn't intend to reimburse.

Did Rodrigo lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

3

Rodrigo and Carmen are at a local shopping center. Carmen tells Rodrigo that he should go to the

grocery store while she goes to the bank teller, so as to save time. Carmen withdraws money from

the bank and then uses it to buy a 

u y siamese kitten as a gift for Rodrigo, even though Rodrigo

would have objected if he knew before hand that she was going to spend money on a kitten.

Did Carmen lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

4

Rodrigo and Carmen are planning to have a picnic at the park. Carmen makes sandwiches and

Rodrigo cleans out the ice chest. But the ice chest that he cleans out is not the one that Carmen

wants, but rather the one that he wants. When Rodrigo presents Carmen with the cleaned ice

chest, she asks him \What happened to the other ice chest?" Rodrigo answers that he cleaned out

the one that he liked best.

Did Rodrigo lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

5

Rodrigo and Carmen were having co ee with Rodrigo's father at the country club. They were

discussing the economy, and Rodrigo's father quipped \Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

Rodrigo says \Yes, I like that one, William Blake." Carmen corrected Rodrigo, noting that the

quote was due to Alexander Pope.

Did Rodrigo lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

6

Rodrigo works in a laboratory and he 

agrantly disobeys the rule against bringing food or drink

into the room where chemicals are stored. He and Carmen always joke about how one day he will

accidentally ll his drinking 

ask with benzene instead of the pure grain alcohol that he routinely

steals from the lab. Their mutual friend Jeannie is in on the joke. They are all meeting up after

work at a fried chicken restaurant. Rodrigo says to Jeannie, \Care for a drop of benzene?" Jeannie

takes a sip from his 

ask. She has died from benzene poisoning before the next day.

Did Rodrigo lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

7

Rodrigo and Carmen drive to Toronto to visit Rodrigo's mother's cousin, Florence, unannounced.

While Florence is busying herself in the kitchen to prepare tea and biscuits for her guests, Carmen

nds Florence's wallet and steals six hundred dollars from it. Rodrigo and Carmen run out of the

house while Florence is still in the kitchen and spend all of the money at an underground strip

bar / whorehouse where all of the workers are imported from Korea and treated as slaves. After

getting very drunk, they start driving back to Calgary. Carmen turns o the headlights because

they are killing her buzz. A police o cer pulls them over and asks what business they had in

Calgary. Carmen says that she was visiting a relative.

Did Carmen lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

8

Six years ago, Rodrigo raped his then-girlfriend's daughter. His girlfriend's brother found out, and

reported the matter to the local police department. Fortunately with Rodrigo, he was able to secure

the Sheri 's promise that he would not prosecute the crime, provided that Rodrigo left town and

that he paid the Sheri two thousand dollars in cash every month. The sheri 's bribe was late in

coming this month, so the Sheri telephoned Rodrigo's house. Carmen answered the phone and

the Sheri told her that Rodrigo would be prosecuted if the money didn't reach him in 48 hours.

Carmen, blu ng, told the Sheri that he wouldn't be seeing his money anymore, since the statute

of limitations in the particular jurisdiction where Rodrigo had committed the crime had already

expired. The sheri later investigated and was upset to nd that the statute of limitations had in

fact expired.

Did Carmen lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

9

Carmen's cousin's husband, Ngosong, was facing deportation for having overstayed his visa. Ro-

drigo happened to be an immigration lawyer and the judge happened to owe him a favor, so he

o ered to take care of Ngosong's case. The night before the deportation hearing, Ngosong asked

Rodrigo whether he was sure that he was ready to argue the case. He also asked him whether it

was necessary for him to be present at the hearing. Rodrigo told him that he didn't have to bother

showing up and that everything was under control. The next day, Rodrigo found out that the judge

that he thought would be hearing the case wasn't there, and the replacement judge was not at all

on good terms with Rodrigo. Rodrigo blew o the whole hearing and got drunk at a Lebanese

restaurant. Ngosong was arrested and died two months later in a detention facility while awaiting

deportation.

Did Rodrigo lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

10

On January 28th, Carmen and Rodrigo both decide to take the day o of work in order to volunteer

at the local homeless shelter. Rodrigo's boss is sympathetic to such a cause and is happy to allow

him a day's leave. Carmen, on the other hand, cannot leave her post at the hospital except under

very speci c circumstances. Knowing that her supervisor is religious, she tells her that she must

take the day o to celebrate the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas (the rst saint that came to

Carmen's mind), her guardian saint. Carmen's supervisor reluctantly gives her the day o . Two

years later, Carmen's mother tells her a story about when she was young. When Carmen was four

years old, she was diagnosed leukemia. Even the doctors had given up hope on her. The doctor

told Carmen's mother that the only treatment left was prayer, and that he recommended praying

to St. Thomas Aquinas, whose feast day happened to be on January 28th. Carmen survived.

Did Carmen lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

11

Carmen has been invited for a party and she is the one responsible for bringing the cake. It is a

birthday party for her ve-year-old niece. She is running late, having just pulled out of her driveway,

and her sister calls to ask where she is. Carmen says \There's a long line at the cake shop, but I'll

be right over." In fact, the line at the cake shop is normally long, but on this particular day there

was no line at all. Carmen walked right in, bought the cake, and was at the party shortly.

Did Carmen lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

12

Carmen and Rodrigo have arranged with a group of Vietnamese gangsters to purchase two pounds

of heroin, which they plan to sell to their coworkers and members of their immediate family, after

diluting it. The way the deal works is that Carmen's uncle will leave a bundle containing the cash

in a locker at a Greyhound bus station. Likewise, the gangsters will have left the heroin in a locker

at di erent bus station. To prevent anything funny from happening, Carmen has left her young

niece with the gangsters, and the girl will be safely returned after the gangsters get the money.

What the gangsters don't know is that the bills that Carmen's uncle is delivering are counterfeits,

and the gangsters won't nd this out until everything is already wrapped up. Carmen receives a

phone call from the gangsters, and they ask her if everything is in order. She says \Yes, the money

is there." But Carmen's uncle was arrested on the way to the bus station and he never managed to

drop the money o , counterfeit or not. The deal went bad, and Carmen never saw her niece again.

Did Carmen lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

13

Carmen is supervising the construction of a commercial building in a large city's business district.

She accepts payo s from the contractors, who do a slipshod job, and she bribes the inspectors to

certify the work without them having truly inspected it. One year after its completion, the building

collapses, killing 14 people and leaving one paralyzed from the waist down. Carmen appears on

television and tells the citizens that to the best of her knowledge, the construction was carried out

professionally and no corners were cut.

Did Carmen lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

14

Rodrigo's friend Curtis is suicidally depressed and highly self-conscious, and Rodrigo knows this.

Rodrigo also knows that Curtis is extremely talented and that he will surely achieve many great

things. One day Curtis comes to Rodrigo and tells him that he his feeling particularly down.

Rodrigo tells Curtis that he will surely never amount to anything, and that he is truly curious

why he even goes on trying. On hearing this, Curtis goes home and convinces his female cousin to

commit love suicide with him, and they are both found on the riverbank the following morning.

Did Rodrigo lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

15

Rodrigo and Carmen have travelled to Toronto for the weekend. Before heading back, they buy a

large box of a type of fruit that is di cult to nd in their hometown, but which is cheap in Toronto,

Logan Berry. When they reach the border crossing, the border guard asks Carmen whether she is

bringing back any produce. She says that she isn't.

Did Carmen lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.

16

Rodrigo, Carmen, and some friends are enjoying brunch at the country club. Rodrigo takes o his

bowler hat and says \If McCain loses, then I'll eat this hat{With mustard!" Everyone laughs and

they are having a good time.

Did Rodrigo lie?

It was ( a lie / not a lie / I can't say ). I am ( very sure / fairly sure / not too sure ) most

others would agree with my choice.