Lying & Deception
--no, no, what I mean is...
the art of mendacity...
Lying.  Tell a lie? Nah, you'd never do that--would you? Recent research on lying is showing that up to 60% of people lie, males doing so more than females by two to three times. People lie an average of 25 times a day, mostly to dodge trouble, make themselves look good, or to avoid discomfort to others.

By about age 2.5-3 about 70% of children are capable of lying, and some can do it well. At age four, they will peek when told not to do so. Young children will lie about actions, but not about how they feel. By age 10 they are more sophisticated because they can pretend. As they get older, cheating becomes more common. In a self-test experiment in which they were asked to take a test but not look at the answers on the back of the page, 40% routinely cheated (60% if there was a reward for performance). 100% of those who cheated lied about doing so. In experiments at the University of Massachusetts, students were encouraged to introduced themselves to others. Over 60% lied about themselves (3 times every 10 minutes!), made up fictitious information to make themselves look better, yet there was no benefit to the lie.

Regarding detection of lying: FBI agents and judges actually no better than others at detecting a lie. Robert Feldman at the University of Massachusetts reports that most people aren't aware of how often they mask the truth. His research shows that people "shade the truth" 1-6 times per hour in interactions. Gender differences show that women more often lie to protect others, while men lie to promote themselves (The truth about lying, 2001).

Self-deception. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me-- so what if I fool myself?


Machiavellianism. Sure, you remember The Prince guy...has a nice deal for you on Ford Edsels and swamp land in Florida--or maybe the next presidential election.

Assessing malingering and deception Cheating Publications