(STUDY FINDS) -- PORTSMOUTH, England — Honesty is the best policy. Well, at least it’s supposed to be, but that doesn’t mean everyone is always completely transparent with the people in their life. In an effort to better understand the phenomenon of lying, researchers from the University of Portsmouth performed a study on the topic. They came to a number of interesting conclusions, and paramount among them was the finding that men are twice as likely as women to believe they are skilled at deception and the art of getting away with lies.
Additionally, according to head researcher Dr. Brianna Verigin, most skilled liars are very good talkers, and tend to tell more lies than other people. Essentially, once someone figures out they are good at lying, they usually end up doing it a whole lot more. In the majority of cases, these lies are told to close family members, friends, and colleagues, while employers and authority figures were identified as the groups least likely to be told a lie.
“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,” Dr. Verigin explains in a release. “Previous research has shown that most people tell one-two lies per day, but that’s not accurate, most people don’t lie everyday; but a small number of prolific liars are responsible for the majority of lies reported.”
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