Men
think they're better liars
University of Portsmouth
 |
| Amazon |
People who excel at lying are good talkers and tell more lies than others, usually to family, friends, romantic partners and colleagues, according to the research led by Dr Brianna Verigin, at the University of Portsmouth.
Expert liars also prefer to lie face-to-face, rather than via
text messages, and social media was the least likely place where they'd tell a
lie.
Dr Verigin, who splits her time between the Universities of
Portsmouth and Maastricht, in the Netherlands, said: "We found a
significant link between expertise at lying and gender. Men were more than
twice as likely to consider themselves expert liars who got away with it.
"Previous research has shown that most people tell one-two lies per day, but that's not accurate, most people don't lie everyday but a small number of prolific liars are responsible for the majority of lies reported.
"What stood out in our study was that nearly half (40 per
cent) of all lies are told by a very small number of deceivers. And these
people will lie with impunity to those closest to them.
"Prolific liars rely on a great deal on being good with
words, weaving their lies into truths, so it becomes hard for others to
distinguish the difference, and they're also better than most at hiding lies
within apparently simple, clear stories which are harder for others to
doubt."
EDITOR'S NOTE: By the end of 2019, Donald Trump had told 15,413 recorded lies since becoming president. In those 1,055 days, that comes to a rate of 15 per day. These stats do not, of course, include lies that were told in private or off the record.
EDITOR'S NOTE: By the end of 2019, Donald Trump had told 15,413 recorded lies since becoming president. In those 1,055 days, that comes to a rate of 15 per day. These stats do not, of course, include lies that were told in private or off the record.
They were asked a series of questions including how good they were at deceiving others, how many lies they'd told in the past 24 hours, the type of lies they'd told, who to, and whether they'd done so face-to-face or via other means.
She said: "Time after time, studies have shown we are not
as good at detecting lies as we think we are. At best, most of us have a 50:50
chance of getting it right when someone is pulling the wool over our eyes.
"We wanted to focus on those who are good at lying and try
to understand how they do it and to whom."
The study found one of the key strategies of liars is to tell
plausible lies that stay close to the truth, and to not give away much
information. And the better someone thinks they are at lying, the more lies
they'll tell.
The most commonly used strategy among all those who admitted to
lying, whether experts or poor liars, was to leave out certain information. But
expert liars added to that an ability to weave a believable story embellished
with truth, making the lies harder to spot.
In contrast, those who thought they weren't good at lying
resorted, when they did lie, to being vague.
Overall, of the 194 people, the most common types of deception,
in descending order, were 'white lies', exaggerations, hiding information,
burying lies in a torrent of truth and making up things.
Most people chose to lie face-to-face, then via text message, a
phone call, email, and last, via social media.
Most expert liars lie most often to family, friends or
colleagues. Employers and authority figures were least likely to be lied to.
The study showed no link between level of education and lying
ability. Dr Verigin said more research needs to be done, particularly on better
understanding good liars' expertise at embedding lies within truthful
information, and at using facts that were impossible to check.