People lie, sometimes even when they say nothing. Lying by not mentioning something that is important is a huge thing in relationships, but who is better at fibbing, men or women? What do you think?

A new research into the psychology of lying gave amazing insights into the minds of people who think they are excellent in deceiving others.

Who is better at lying: men or women?

According to a recent research, men are twice as likely to believe their fibs are harder to detect.

In addition, people who are good conversationalists are more prone to lying. Moreover, they prefer to deceive in person rather than in writing, including electronic communications. Good liars are less likely to post a fake on Facebook or another place online. Possibly, because what you set online may catch you anytime, while fibs told in person are easy to deny or spin?

Typically, when researchers analyse lying, the average numbers show that people tell 1-2 lies daily. However, that’s a lie!

The untruthful folk tell dozens of fibs daily, while the vast majority of people are sincere and tell no lies.

This was the conclusion of a resent scientific investigation that interviewed 194 people, half of them were males and the other half females. The average age of participants was around 39 years.

Dr Brianna Verigin from the University of Portsmouth (UK), the lead author of the research, pointed out to a significant link between being good at bending the truth and the person’s gender: “Men were more than twice as likely to consider themselves expert liars who got away with it.”

She explained how the expert liars manage to get away with it, “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.”

Do you consider yourself a good judge of true and false?

In fact, you are probably not as good as you think researchers warn: Most people can only detect fibs 50% of the time.

This is why the academics wanted to know more about the skilled liars who are good at deceit, how they do it, and the type of people they choose as their targets.

What they discovered, prolific liars take care to stay close to the actual facts while not giving out too much detail. It is the ability to weave the fake bits into a truthful story that makes fibs by expert liars more difficult to detect, authors pointed out.

At the same time, people who think they can’t lie well, when they do bend the truth, resort to being vague.

People who consider themselves excellent liars, unsurprisingly, fib more often than the folk who don’t believe they are able to fib without being caught.

Prolific liars take care to stay close to the actual facts while not giving out too much detail.

The most typical kind of lies

What else did the researchers discover about the psychology of lying?

Most people tend to resort to fibs when they don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings: “White lies” were found to be most frequently used. Exaggeration, hiding information are also popular variants of lying. Making things up and hiding fibs in a sea of truthful facts are another frequent tactic.

The easiest way to lie is when facts are impossible to check, such as during a face-to-face communication, rather than in text messages or social media posts.

The hardened liars tend to conceal or spin facts more often when talking to family and friends, as well as work colleagues. When it comes to bosses and other figures in the position of authority, people rarely choose to bend the truth.

People who are educated aren’t more prone to lying or the other way around. In fact, how educated one is seemed to be irrelevant in their ability and willingness to deceit others.

What do you reckon? Are you surprised that guys believe themselves to be more skilful at the art of deceit? Who do you think is better at lying: men or women?

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