Most of us are honest, says University of Wisconsin-La Crosse professor Tony Docan-Morgan, co-author of the study “Unpacking variation in lie prevalence: Prolific liars, bad lie days, or both?” published in Communication Monographs.
The paper examined 116,366 lies told by 632 participants over 91 consecutive days. Participants self-reported their lies daily via an online survey, and about 75% did not lie often — just 0 to 2 times per day.
A small group — 6% of respondents — had similarly low average levels of lying but had days when they lied much more frequently.
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Unlike most previous lie studies, this research examined lies over time rather than in a one-day behavioral survey.
The study’s authors found that day-to-day variance varies considerably from person to person. People who are usually honest have days in which they lie more than is typical for them, and prolific liars have days in which they tell few lies.
Generally, prolific liars exhibited much more day-to-day variation than the rest. And this variance was especially true for the top 1% of liars, who averaged 17 lies per day. The only respondents who did not vary much day-to-day were the 1% who almost never lied.
Why do people lie? According to the aforementioned study, there are several reasons:
- 21 % to avoid others
- 20 % as humor (a joke or a prank)
- 14 % to protect oneself
- 13 % to impress or appear more favorable
- 11 % to protect another person
- 9 % for personal benefit or gain
- 5 % for the benefit of another person
- 2 % to hurt another person
- 5 % unspecified reasons or, explicitly, for no reason at all
Additionally, 79% of the study’s lies were told face-to-face, and 21% were mediated.
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Who do people lie to?
- 51% of the time, it’s friends
- 21% - family
- 11% - school/business colleagues
- 8.9% - strangers
- 8.5% - casual acquaintances
88.6% of reported lies in the study were described as “little white lies,” and 11.4 % were characterized as “big lies.” An example of a “little white lie” would be saying you like a gift you really don't, and an example of a “big lie” would be insincerely declaring “I love you” to someone.
When we think about which of them are worse, our initial instinct is to condemn big lies and brush off the little ones. But that’s not necessarily the correct approach.
Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, is the author of the book The Honest Truth about Dishonesty.
“One of the frightening conclusions we have is that what separates honest people from not-honest people is not necessarily character, it’s opportunity,” he said.
