Quora Answer: Is Hyperbole Lying?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Is hyperbole lying?”

A hyperbole is a rhetorical device that utilises forms of exaggeration to illustrate a point, magnify a feeling, or create an impression of the import of the point.  As an exaggeration, an auxesis, it must be based on something real, an actual feeling, an event, or people.  It cannot be based on a lie.

A lie is a false statement or assertion with the intent to deceive or mislead.  As such, hyperbole in speech or writing cannot be lying since the intent is to magnify something already extent, not deceive the audience.

However, hyperbole may be utilised as a form of misdirection to bring the audience to a position that is not true.  In such a case, whilst the hyperbole itself is not the lie, the entire exchange is, and hyperbole is merely one of the rhetorical devices utilised.

For example, it would be hyperbole to exaggerate the rate of immigration into a country to emphasise the position that there is too much immigration, and build an argument that it may be a problem.  That, in itself, is not a lie.  To then draw a conclusion based on the manipulation of facts that it leads to increased crime when it is not explicitly correlated is the lie.  The hyperbole itself was not lying, but the entire structure of the contention is deception.  This is a generic example, and is unrelated to any real world issue.