Men are twice as likely as women to consider themselves good liars — and they prefer to lie to your face
- Researchers surveyed 82 men and 82 women about their lying habits
- They found that 40 per cent of lies are told by a small number of prolific fibsters
- Expert deceivers weave lies into authentic-seeming stories sprinkled with truths
- In contrast, unconfident liars try to keep their falsehoods as vague as possible
Men are twice as likely as women to consider themselves good at lying and getting away with it — and they prefer to lie directly to your face, a study has found.
Researchers surveyed 194 people about their lying habits — how often they told untruths, about what and to whom.
They found that people who excel at lying are good talkers who tell more lies than others — usually directed at family, friends, romantic partners and colleagues.
The team also report that expert liars appear to prefer to lie face-to-face, rather than via text messages, with social media the least likely place where they would tell a lie.
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Men are twice as likely as women to consider themselves good at lying and getting away with it — and they prefer to lie directly to your face, a study has found
‘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,’ said lead researcher and University of Portsmouth psychologist Brianna Verigin.
‘Previous research has shown that most people tell one-two lies per day, but that’s not accurate — most people don’t lie every day 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.’
‘They’re also better than most at hiding lies within apparently simple, clear stories which are harder for others to doubt.’
Dr Verigin and colleagues had surveyed 82 men and 82 women — with an average age of 39 — about how good they were at deceiving others.
The participants were also asked how many lies they had told in the past 24 hours, along with the type of lie, to whom it was delivered and whether such had been done in person or via another medium, such as by text message or on social media.
‘Time after time, studies have shown we are not as good at detecting lies as we think we are,’ Dr Verigin said.
‘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.’
Dr Verigin and colleagues surveyed 82 men and 82 women — with an average age of 39 — about how good they were at deceiving others (stock image)
The team found that liars usually adopt a strategy of telling plausible falsehoods that stick close to the truth and endeavouring to not give away too much information.
However, the findings suggest that expert liars have an ability to weave their fibs into a believable story — embellished with aspects of the truth — which make the lies harder to spot.
In contrast, individuals who thought that they were not accomplished at lying tended to resort — when they did lie — to being vague.
The full findings of the study were published in the journal PLOS One.
WHAT ARE THE NINE WAYS TO SPOT A LIAR?
The big pause: Lying is quite a complex process for the body and brain to deal with. First your brain produces the truth which it then has to suppress before inventing the lie and the performance of that lie.
This often leads to a longer pause than normal before answering, plus a verbal stalling technique like ‘Why do you ask that?’ rather than a direct and open response.
The eye dart: Humans have more eye expressions than any other animal and our eyes can give away if we’re trying to hide something.
When we look up to our left to think we’re often accessing recalled memory, but when our eyes roll up to our right we can be thinking more creatively. Also, the guilt of a lie often makes people use an eye contact cut-off gesture, such as looking down or away.
The lost breath: Bending the truth causes an instant stress response in most people, meaning the fight or flight mechanisms are activated.
The mouth dries, the body sweats more, the pulse rate quickens and the rhythm of the breathing changes to shorter, shallower breaths that can often be both seen and heard.
Overcompensating: A liar will often over-perform, both speaking and gesticulating too much in a bid to be more convincing. These over the top body language rituals can involve too much eye contact (often without blinking!) and over-emphatic gesticulation.
The more someone gesticulates, the more likely it is they might be fibbing (stock image)
The poker face: Although some people prefer to employ the poker face, many assume less is more and almost shut down in terms of movement and eye contact when they’re being economical with the truth.
The face hide: When someone tells a lie they often suffer a strong desire to hide their face from their audience. This can lead to a partial cut-off gesture like the well-know nose touch or mouth-cover.
Self-comfort touches: The stress and discomfort of lying often produces gestures that are aimed at comforting the liar, such as rocking, hair-stroking or twiddling or playing with wedding rings. We all tend to use self-comfort gestures but this will increase dramatically when someone is fibbing.
Micro-gestures: These are very small gestures or facial expressions that can flash across the face so quickly they are difficult to see. Experts will often use filmed footage that is then slowed down to pick up on the true body language response emerging in the middle of the performed lie.
The best time to spot these in real life is to look for the facial expression that occurs after the liar has finished speaking. The mouth might skew or the eyes roll in an instant give-away.
Heckling hands: The hardest body parts to act with are the hands or feet and liars often struggle to keep them on-message while they lie.
When the gestures and the words are at odds it’s called incongruent gesticulation and it’s often the hands or feet that are telling the truth.
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