University of Portsmouth study reveals men think they are better at lying than women

The research project at the University of Portsmouth revealed that men are twice as likely as women to consider themselves good at lying and getting away with it.

The project was led by Dr Brianna Verigin who quizzed 194 people, half men and half women, with an average age of 39.

Dr Verigin said: ‘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.’

The research revealed that people who excel at lying are usually good communicators with the majority of lies usually told to family, friends and partners. The research also revealed people will often lie to their work colleagues.

Dr Verigin said: ‘Previous research has shown that most people tell one to two lies per day but that’s not accurate. Most people don’t lie every day but a small number of prolific liars are responsible for the majority of lies. Liars lie with impunity to those closest to them. Prolific liars rely a great deal on being good with words, weaving their lies into truths, so it becomes hard for others to distinguish the difference. They’re also better than most at hiding lies within apparently simple, clear stories which are harder for others to doubt.’

People’s responses revealed that liars prefer to be dishonest face-to-face rather than via text messages with social media the least likely place where they’d tell a lie. The study also revealed that most people are not as good at detecting lies as they think and that there was no correlation between levels of education and ability to lie.