Elizabeth Holmes: The psychology of a liar

I'm surprised that video didn't mention the fact that her father worked for Enron, which is another company that became world-famous for its corporate lies. It seems that this sort of thing runs in her family.

She appeared in magazine covers and was called a self made billionaire without ever producing a product! It’s incredible. All based on a promise.

She is the example of how a lie turns into more and more lies until your entire existance turns into an enormous web of lies.

Lies are easy, the truth is hard. Lies get you off the hook, the truth holds you accountable. Lies get you something for free, the truth makes you earn it.

Dan Arielly is no longer a good source as recently he was in a huge scandal for data fabrication, including the studies you mention. Ironically, he is just like Elizabeth and lied and cheated on the topic of lying and cheating. He even supported her by providing explanations for why her behaviour was justified (and by extension, his behaviour).

Narcissist. Easy! I married one and every word out of his mouth was a lie. Comparing her to the average person who has empathy cheating on an exam is ridiculous. She lied without any empathy for those she harmed. Normal people don't lie when it clearly harms others. She didn't give a hoot about anyone except herself. She did it for power, control and fuel from those around who idolised her and fed her with praise. Her narcissistic grandiosity is clear to see.

The woman clearly has "Psycho Eyes". She'd give me the freakin creeps.

I once missed a doctor appointment and I told the doctor that I simply forgot. He immediately called his secretary and told her to remove my late fee or my cancel fee. He then told me most people make up excuses and I appreciate your honesty.

One of the interesting things to me about Elizabeth’s lying, and something that some people don’t realize, is that she was lying about everything from Day 1. As soon as she dropped out of school and started her company she was lying to potential investors and clients, partners, and soon media. Before it was even a blood testing company she was lying about other projects. She never even attempted to make it an honest company, or learn how do business legitimately. Her one and only plan was to fake it and then hopefully make it. You’d think someone would want to learn the business first before trying to find all the loopholes, shortcuts, and ways to cheat. But she went directly to cheating. So as a teenager she had already made lying her big career plan

It wasn't just the fact that she was a liar, but she aggressively went after people who she felt were a threat because they called her out on her lives or tried to expose the truth. Ian Gibbons was a chemist who was with Holmes during the early stages of her start up, committed suicide when he was threatened with litigation; Tyler Shultz was an entry-level employee, who noticed problems with the Theranos device, tried to address the problems with Elizabeth herself and wasn't only ignored and shouted down for his efforts, but was harassed, followed by private investigators, and threatened with litigation. Holmes even had George Schultz, a member of her Board of Directors, and Tyler's grandfather turn against him.

She began by lying to herself first. When she believed that lies, she decided everyone could believe them too

Many years ago I ended up in court for being late with my tax return and in my country the authorities place every case at the same court. I was last case to be heard so when I was called up to explain why I had taken so long I simply told the truth, "procrastination " It brought the house down, there were people roaring with laughter including the judge who after hearing excuses that were insults to his intelligence gave me the token fine of $140 the smallest for the day while other fines started at $500.

I think she lied to the jury, too. She claimed that the same woman who was very obviously drunk on her own self-importance and giddy with how great she thought she was, was really just a poor innocent pawn of Svengali Balwani. I don't buy it for a second.

I don't know whether the research in the book The Honest Truth About Dishonesty has been called in question, but I know Dan Ariely has been accused of fabricating research, which is ironic, given his field of study. Just something to note.

Even her deep voice was a lie

She really took "fake it till you make it"WAY too seriously

Pathological liar sums it up. She probably spent her entire childhood honing her skills. She would have made a good real estate agent, financial adviser... or politician.

I remember having heard about this and standing outside a kiosk window, looking at her picture in a magazine and having this gut feeling that 'she just doesn't look right. If it's that easy, why haven't anyone come up with it before? She looks too young, too un-scientist-y. If she really is that smart to have come up with this revolutionary thing, she wouldn't be on the front page of this magazine with those crazy eye. Something's off. So I didn't listen to the news about it anymore, and just waited for the thing to come crashing down.

This video is seriously undermined by its heavy reliance on psychologist Dan Ariely, whose own work is now being challenged as allegedly faked.

People also didn't call bullshit because Holmes had her own personal Stasi of private investigators and lawyers to go after any whistleblowers.