Study-proven men lie much more often than women

Lies: Tendency to dishonesty depends on sex and age

"Honesty lasts the longest!" This saying probably best expresses how important honesty is to most people. But some people find it more difficult than others to always tell the truth. One study has shown that men are more likely to lie than women.

Not everyone is so honest about it

Honesty plays a central role in social and economic life. Without them, promises are not kept or contracts are not fulfilled. Scientific research has shown that not all people in different circumstances take honesty seriously. Years ago, scientists from the Universities of Regensburg and Hamburg reported on an experiment that found that women in groups are more honest, while lying in groups in men makes lies worse. A new study showed that the tendency towards dishonesty in the so-called "strong sex" is more pronounced anyway.

A new study has shown that men lie more often than women. In addition, younger people are more dishonest than older ones. (Image: Pascal Huot / fotolia.com)

Provide personal benefits

From cheating on the tax declaration to the big corruption scandals - again and again people lie to procure personal benefits.

Experimental studies investigate which factors make people liars.

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology have now conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of lying and summarized the findings from 565 studies.

According to a statement from the institute, the results show, among other things, that the tendency towards dishonesty depends on age and gender.

The study was recently published in the journal "Psychological Bulletin".

Personal factors and environmental factors play a role

The basic conflict of any lie is the choice one has. Either one is honest and renounces on advantages or one lies, for example to get more money, power or fame.

Why people lie depends on personal factors and environmental factors. In order to investigate these empirically, in many published studies this basic conflict was simulated in simple experiments, such as the coin toss game.

Here, subjects throw a coin without anyone watching them. For example, they pass the result to the experimenter via computer. With head they get money, with number they go out empty.

If this experiment is done more often and with many subjects, the head-to-number ratio would have to be fifty to fifty in total.

But almost all studies show that participants often call head as a number. That is, at least some subjects lie to earn more money.

Data from 565 studies analyzed

Over the past decade, researchers have conducted numerous studies with this or similar basic design to investigate the various factors that lead to dishonesty.

Do nuns lie more often than prison inmates? Is it better to lie online or on the phone? If you lie rather, if you expect more money?

For the current meta-analysis, the scientists from Germany and Israel have taken into account the data from 565 studies with a total of 44,050 subjects.

"Although there are numerous studies that investigate who, when and why lies, the results are not unique, sometimes even contradictory," said Philipp Gerlach, Associate Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

"Using the large amount of data from all studies, we can now make clearer statements about some factors," said the first author of the study.

Younger people are more likely to lie

In the experiments studied, a total of 42 percent of all men and 38 percent of all women lied.

The assumption that men lie more often than women, could be confirmed - even if the difference is small.

It was also found that younger people lied more often than older ones. The likelihood of someone lying has dropped by 0.28 percentage points each year.

While she is at a 20-year-olds at about 47 percent, she is at a 60-year-olds only 36 percent.

Other, repeatedly discussed factors could not confirm the study. For example, the scientists found no evidence that economics students often lie.

Structural differences in experimental setup influenced subjects

According to the data, published and unpublished studies in psychology and economics were used for the meta-analysis.

These studies examined the extent of dishonesty with a few but very different experimental arrangements. In some, dishonesty involved a random outcome, such as the coin toss game.

In others, dishonesty referred to the extent of one's own skills, such as whether a mathematical puzzle was properly solved.

The researchers were able to show that such structural differences in the experimental setup influence the behavior of the subjects and thus lead to different conclusions about the extent of dishonesty.

"If you want to know to what extent people are inclined to behave dishonestly, you have to take into account the experimental situations and temptations people face," says Ralph Hertwig, director of the research area "Adaptive Rationality" at the Max Planck Institute for educational research.

"This indicates that dishonesty is not just a person's trait, but systematically interacting with the environment," says the expert. (Ad)