The court members and ministers needed to believe that children were too pure to be accessories to murder in the name of God, because it would expose themselves, the adults, as either frauds or fools because of their religious beliefs. Also they wanted to believe that Abigail and the others were telling the truth, for if they were not, much blood would be on their hands. In the play the consequences of underestimating the degree to which people will lie is that innocent lives are lost. From the accusations of witchcraft Mr. Hale signed seventy-two death warrants of those who would not confess.
Not only did Salemites underestimate the degree to which the witnesses would lie, but they also did not think that accused people would be honest. The court and ministers figured people would confess to witchcraft once they were accused, because they thought people would rather live with a blackened name than not live at all. Only two of the accused people in the play confessed to the sin of witchcraft. Elizabeth Proctor lived only because she was pregnant. Other than these exceptions everyone who was accused was sentenced to hang. The people who were hung were all behaving as martyrs, dying for their faith. At the end of the play when Mr. Proctor is about to hang, Mr. Hale pleads with Elizabeth Proctor to reason with her husband, but she refuses saying, ".He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!" She is telling Mr. Hale that Proctor is telling the truth, that he is facing the world, and that he is not going to lie any longer. Her quote also states that people would rather die and face God as a wholesome person than live a liar and be forever damned in Hell. The consequences of the society of Salem underestimating people's willingness to be honest are, again, the unnecessary deaths of innocent people.
In contemporary America people overlook the individual's desire for self-reliance.
