THE TRUTH ABOUT LYING:
FROM LITTLE ONES TO WHOPPERS, RESEARCH
REVEALS JUST ABOUT EVERYBODY'S DOING IT 

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., May 22 -- As researchers of people who
lie, Bella M. DePaulo and Deborah A. Kashy face a troubling question
everyday:  can you trust data provided by liars?  
	"I imagine the 1,535 lies we analyzed was not the actual
number that participants told.  Because of lapses in memory, they
may have neglected to record some lies.  Or there may have been
times when they did not even realize they had told a lie.  It seems
likely, then, that participants actually told more lies than they
recorded.  If so, this only strengthens the premise that lying is an
everyday behavior," DePaulo said.
	It's true.  People lie every day -- as often as one out of
every three interactions.  Although the lies range from little ones
to whoppers, most are about the liars themselves, according to two
studies published this month in the Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology.
	Designed to discover who lies and how much lying exists in
everyday life, the studies reveal that people do not regard lying as
serious, do not plan lies in advance and don't worry about being
caught.  Extraverted, manipulative people who want to make good
impressions are more likely to lie than responsible people who
experience gratifying relationships with others of the same gender.
	The lead researchers in the studies are DePaulo, a
psychology professor at the University of Virginia, and Kashy, an
assistant professor of psychology at Texas A & M University.  They
analyzed diary entries of 77 university students and 70 community
members who recorded their social interactions every day for a week.
	The undergraduates told two lies daily; community members
told one a day.  College students told lies in one of every three
interactions; community members lied in one in five.  Students lied
to 38 percent of the people in their lives whereas community members
lied to 30 percent.
	"Although many lies were about the liar and someone or
something else, more than 80 percent were about the liars,
themselves," said DePaulo, who has been researching deceit since
1975.
	DePaulo and Kashy told participants to record any time that
they intentionally tried to mislead someone during social
interactions between two or more people lasting 10 minutes or
longer.  
	They were also told to record any lie, no matter how short
the exchange, with one exception: "The only lie they were asked not
to record was saying 'fine' in response to the ubiquitous 'how are
you' question," DePaulo said.
	 Participants were asked to complete questionnaires
describing numerous factors such as their feelings before, during
and after lie-telling, the seriousness of their falsehoods and the
degree to which they judged themselves as being successful in
lying.  They were also asked to complete individual personality
measures.  Lies were categorized as either "self-centered" or
"other-oriented."
	The researchers defined self-centered lies as those people
told to benefit themselves; other oriented lies are those told to
spare people from getting their feelings hurt.
	"People most likely to lie are those who care deeply about
what others think of them.  They are smooth and even likable
manipulators," said Kashy, who has been conducting the sophisticated
techniques used in analyzing dairy data since 1986.
	The researchers found that the quality of participants'
relationships with those of the same gender was the most consistent
predictor of lying.  People who described their same-sex
relationships as warm and satisfying told fewer lies than those who
appeared to be less satisfied with their relationships.  They also
told significantly fewer lies to benefit themselves.
	The participants told more self-centered lies to men and
told more other-oriented lies to women.  When two women were
interacting, other-oriented lies were as common as self-centered
lies.
	"The practice of telling 'kind lies' was more evident in
dyads where women were interacting with women than those in which
men were involved as liars, targets or both.  When men were in the
dyads, participants told significantly more self-centered lies than
other-oriented lies," DePaulo said.
	Most lies in the study were self-serving.  Both community
members and students told about twice as many lies that benefitted
themselves rather than others.  People generally told self-centered
lies to protect themselves from embarrassment, disapproval or
conflict. 
	The number of lies about others was not insignificant, the
researchers believe.  Nearly one of every four lies actually
benefitted others.  Participants told the lies, they said, to
protect people from having their feelings hurt.
	 "When people lied about their feelings, they overwhelmingly
pretended to feel more positively, or more agreeably, than they
did," DePaulo noted.  "That underscores our contention that everyday
lies are 'light' ones that people regard as not being serious.  The
lies are not associated with much distress and are generally
successful."
	Socially adroit people told significantly more lies than
those less sophisticated in social interaction.  "Liars seem to be
able participants in social life," Kashy noted.
	When asked if they would repeat the same lie, more than 70
percent said they would.  Most responses indicated that participants
found it easier to lie when they were not face-to-face, and favored
using the telephone.
	Participants said they were successful liars, meaning that
their falsehoods were undetected.  Most, however, indicated that
they experienced a twinge of distress after lying.
	"Lying serves basic social functions such as making an
impression, regulating emotion or gaining social support," said
DePaulo.
###
May 21, 1996
	FOR MORE INFORMATION Bella DePaulo can be reached at (804)
924-0675 or via bmd@virginia.edu.  Deborah Kashy can be reached at
(409) 845-2503 or via e305dk@tamvmi.tamu.edu.  Television reporters
should contact our TV News Office at (804) 924 7550.