30 Popular Lies That People Keep Hearing Over And Over Again

We got in touch with Dr. John A. Johnson, professor emeritus of psychology at Penn State University, to learn more about morality, and he told Bored Panda that before we can talk about lying, we need to be clear about the definition.

"From my perspective, lying is more than just saying something that is not true. First, the liar must be aware that what they are saying is not true," Dr. Johnson highlighted. "If I say something untrue but genuinely believe it is true, that is not a lie; that is just a mistake."

"Second, and most critically, lying is an intentional attempt to gain something valuable by trying to convince someone that the lie is true. If a used-car salesperson withholds from a customer information about a car's engine showing defects in the past and assures the customer that the car runs like a charm and should run fine for years to come, then it is obvious what the salesperson is intending to gain: a commission from selling the car," Dr. Johnson illustrated.

"Other lies can be more subtle, like promising things that the liar has no intention of delivering or withholding information that might be damaging to the liar's reputation. These kinds of lies, which are stock-in-trade for politicians, are attempts to secure power by misleading the public."

But, according to Dr. Johnson, there are many possible things to be gained beyond the obvious ones, such as money and power.

"So-called white lies are meant to spare a person's feelings. What the teller of the white lie gains from [it] is feeling good about themselves because they avoided hurting someone's feelings or creating an uncomfortable social situation," he explained.

Now, we can get to what many of you probably believe to be the main question: why do people lie, even when it doesn't seem to be necessary? Dr. Johnson said that, paradoxically, in many cases, it's probably because people think it's necessary.

"It doesn't occur to them that there are other ways of gaining what they consider valuable without lying. Or, in other cases, lying seems easier than telling the truth. Or, it is simply a habit," he said.

We also got in touch with RobDa59, the Redditor who initiated the discussion and can be found on Instagram under the same nickname.

"I found myself going through emails for a weekly radio show I co-host when I was clearing spam/fake emails [and] wondering what the most common lies people hear or say," he told us about the origins of the post.

RobDa59 said, "I do believe some 'lies' to be acceptable in the sense that some truths do not always need to be said; as well some 'lies' can make someone's day better, and with how hard life can be sometimes that small lie to cheer someone up is needed."

Dr. Johnson also acknowledges there's a possibility that a lie can lead to a positive outcome. (For the sake of simplicity, let's all agree to moral universalism—at least this time.)

"Some lies are harmless and may even be beneficial. That is actually a difficult thing for me to say because, as I mentioned, I am uncomfortable with even small lies," the psychologist said. "But, the thing is, absolutes rarely describe life accurately, and that includes lying. Life is not so simple and black-and-white such that every intentional untruth is always wrong.

"Lies can have both positive and negative consequences for both liars and their audiences, and it can be difficult to sum up the total positives and negatives for any lie. (Of course, many lies have obviously negative consequences, which is why our culture generally judges lying to be immoral.)"

But, Dr. Johnson added, sometimes even the truth itself is "fuzzy" and "hard to determine." Remember the used-car salesperson who says a car with engine defects in the past will run fine in the future? "This is certainly a sneaky, misleading thing to say to the customer. But maybe the mechanics corrected the defects sufficiently for the car to run fine for years. Who knows? Lying is a gray area."

Luckily, most communication is honest and most lies are told by a few prolific liars, said University of Wisconsin-La Crosse professor Dr. Tony Docan-Morgan, who co-authored the publication, "Unpacking variation in lie prevalence: Prolific liars, bad lie days, or both?”

The study analyzed 116,366 lies told by 632 participants over 91 consecutive days. Participants self-reported daily, and the data revealed that about 75% of them did not lie much—about zero to two lies per day. And most lies were inconsequential—little white lies, like saying you like a gift you really don't. Only a small group—6 % of respondents—had days in which they lied much more frequently, even though they had lower levels of lying on average.

51% of the time, people lied to their friends; 21% to family; 11% to school/business colleagues; 8.9% to strangers; and 8.5% to casual acquaintances.

"As I indicated, for some people, lying is a habit that they developed because of a long history of successful lying, getting what they wanted more often than not from lying," Dr. Johnson said. "A habitual liar has become very comfortable with their lying because it has been so successful."

"Donald Trump, who some claim has told more lies than any US President, may fall into this category. Everybody but everybody lies because that is part of human nature. I've certainly told my share of lies in my life. But I couldn't become a habitual liar because I have never felt comfortable with lying," he added.

For example, Dr. Johnson recalled the time he strongly objected to claiming a son was a year younger than his actual age just to pay less money for a children's ticket. But people are different. "Many are perfectly comfortable with misrepresenting their age or the age of their children to get a discount on a ticket. We differ in our comfort levels with lying."

However, the psychologist reminded us there is also a class of people with personality disorders who enjoy lying to manipulate or even hurt others.

"There are three clusters of personality disorders: (A) Eccentric, (B) Dramatic, and (C) Fearful. For people with cluster B disorders (antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic), lying is a way of life," Dr. Johnson said. "People with cluster B disorders feel absolutely no remorse about lying and actually get a kick out of manipulating others, hurting them, or getting them into trouble with lies.

"Personality disorders are serious illnesses that exist on a continuum, from the full-blown clinical disorder to milder, sub-clinical cases. So, some people with a mild version of a cluster B disorder might enjoying lying once in a while because they think it's fun."

Lying has become such a big part of the world that RobDa59 isn't even sure how he would imagine everyday life if everybody suddenly stopped doing it.

"I do believe politics would be a lot different; but in an individual's daily life, it could lead to a lot of awkward situations!" he said.