A study, published in the Journal of Basic and Applied Psychology, found that 60 percent of people had lied at least once during the 10-minute conversation, saying an average of 2.92 inaccurate things. In less vague terms, people lie an average of 3 times every ten minutes.
I know this not because I am some kind of human lie detector, but because I dislike most people and nothing surprises me about how low the human condition can dip. Plus I naturally distrust EVERYONE. In my opinion, if you are talking to me, chances are you are lying to me.
Lots of people lie. Most people lie. Everyone lies. Being human means having to lie. Everyday. Every minute. To support not only the perceptions of others, but also our perceptions of ourselves.
Many animals engage in deception, or deliberately misleading another, but only humans are hard wired to deceive both themselves and others, researchers say. In essence, we are so engrossed in managing other people’s perceptions, that eventually it becomes nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction.
I like to tell people I am brutally honest, but that isn’t the same thing as saying I don’t lie. It is impossible to go through life without telling lies. I am including lies through omission as well (those are the lies that occur when we don’t tell the WHOLE truth). I actually tried living a life completely free of deception and discovered that people really didn’t want me around much and so, I learned to only speak the whole truth when asked for it. At all other times I am as honest as i can be and still have friends and family.
That seems like a reasonable compromise.
Do people really lie that often? Three times every 10 minutes? Hey, if I do that I am not consciously aware of it… or, maybe I’m lying…to MYSELF. Ugh!