According to LessWrong, there's a meaningful philosophical distinction between lying and withholding information. The author proposes the 'Behavioral Intentional Stance'—whether you treat another person as an agent whose preferences genuinely matter in your decisions. When collaborating with someone, you either factor in their preferences or you don't; there's no middle ground. Concealing information because you're unsure how they'll react isn't technically a lie, but it signals you've decided their preferences don't count. The author uses dating as an example: a man seeing multiple women without disclosure hasn't lied, but has made a unilateral decision to exclude the woman from information that would affect her choices. It's not necessarily morally wrong, but it's a key indicator of whether real collaboration is possible.

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