Lying

Recently I discovered that someone had lied to me about something I considered important. As with all lies it led me to the inevitable question of "Why did they lie?". Which of course led me to think about why anyone lies. As I went through the list I thought how odd some lies were, and how much trouble they can get you into, so I thought I would share some of the reasons I came up with on why people lie.
The first one that popped into my head was the "white" lie. That one you tell someone to spare them some pain or perhaps to make them feel better. The most famous of these is when any woman asks "Does this make me look fat?". Now no man or lesbian in their right mind would ever say yes to that. I thought about the times Ive used this and the most often was when I rejected someone. I would say things like "Oh, Im not interested in dating right now" or "I'm actually interested in someone else right now." Both of these were really code for "You are not my type and I don't find you attractive and you annoy me." Now that's not to say that sometimes the above statements weren't true, but most of the time it was my effort to be nice. Only if someone kept prying or trying to convince me that I should go out with them would I finally tell them the truth(and then they thought I was mean, like they hadnt brought it upon themselves).
The next kind of lie I thought of was the one to keep yourself out of trouble. This is an obvious one and generally considered to be worse than a white lie. This is like if you kill someone and then say "Oh no, I didn't do it. Those aren't my fingerprints on the murder weapon." Kids use this all the time, but they suck at it. They will lie to you even if you clearly saw them do it. And since criminals are essentially kids in big bodies...well you get the idea.
The last major lie I could think of is where you lie about something you don't want people to know. Like sex. For example "No, that's not my leather harness and chaps and handcuffs, those belong to my roommate." Or how about "I'm a virgin." You tell these when you are ashamed of something. I personally try to avoid any of these, and will just tell anyone anything I do, but maybe I overshare.
So after going through all these I was still stumped. I couldn't figure out why this guy lied to me. Just so you know the background, I asked this guy out and he told me that he was dating someone in L.A. Well obviously that doesnt fall into the ashamed category or the kind to keep yourself out of trouble. But it could clearly be in the one where he didnt want to hurt my feelings. But then I even gave him an out and asked if he was just saying that to let me down easy. And yet he continued the lie! Personally I would rather the harsh truth than a candy coated lie, but I realize most people aren't like that. Yet still, it was a dumb lie to tell, especially in a place as small as Iowa City where I was gonna find out he was sleeping with folks. I guess there is fourth kind of lie-the irrational lie. The one you tell just to tell, since you don't really need to. So I'm going to say I was the victim of an irrational lie. It sounds so much better than he lied cause he didnt think I was cute, lol.