The answer is situational. Let's take "how are you today?" as an example.
In a business situation, where the need is to establish polite contact and move on to business, "good" is not a lie as long as you mean "good enough to conduct our business"
If a doctor asks, "good" is a lie if you have symptoms, even minor ones.
Of course, those squishy social situations are harder. However, I've found that often I can find something true to say that is pertinent to the person and situation and is not oversharing. Thankfully, some of the context information that you need to decide what someone means by asking "how are you" is logical in nature, or at least can be pegged down by experience with a particular person or group. Body language and facial expression aren't the only clues.
You might find vocal tone more helpful, if you think of another person's words as having a "tune"--is it a happy tune or a sad one or an angry one?
Even so, some people speak in monotones, and many times (for instance) people can be angry about something that has nothing to do with you, yet that still can affect their non-verbal cues while they talk to you.
For the people whose brains naturally "get it" it comes natural. For the rest of us, it's an endless and complicated puzzle.
Personally, I get some things, but miss many. And paradoxically, there's some people that others say they find inscrutable, because they can't "read" their body language, that I read easily.
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In a business situation, where the need is to establish polite contact and move on to business, "good" is not a lie as long as you mean "good enough to conduct our business"
If a doctor asks, "good" is a lie if you have symptoms, even minor ones.
Of course, those squishy social situations are harder. However, I've found that often I can find something true to say that is pertinent to the person and situation and is not oversharing. Thankfully, some of the context information that you need to decide what someone means by asking "how are you" is logical in nature, or at least can be pegged down by experience with a particular person or group. Body language and facial expression aren't the only clues.
You might find vocal tone more helpful, if you think of another person's words as having a "tune"--is it a happy tune or a sad one or an angry one?
Even so, some people speak in monotones, and many times (for instance) people can be angry about something that has nothing to do with you, yet that still can affect their non-verbal cues while they talk to you.
For the people whose brains naturally "get it" it comes natural. For the rest of us, it's an endless and complicated puzzle.
Personally, I get some things, but miss many. And paradoxically, there's some people that others say they find inscrutable, because they can't "read" their body language, that I read easily.