You lied today.
Most likely, it wasn’t a big one. Maybe it was something you said to avoid a conversation, or maybe it was a fake compliment because you didn’t want to hurt somebody. Small, instantaneous, and without much thought.
It was almost reflexive.
Research on deceptive behavior consistently finds that people are more likely to lie when they have less time to react. When you have to reply to something quickly, your brain chooses the path of least friction, which is, more often than not, a lie. Ultimately, suggesting that lying is a social survival mechanism that kicks in when there is no time to reason, mostly to serve your immediate interests.
But what about the times when someone plans a lie before acting on it?
Studies have found that, more often than not, justification is the deciding factor. The range of reasons is wide: to avoid conflict, to protect someone’s feelings, to fill a silence, to appear more competent, to smooth over an awkward moment, and so on. Most people do not think of themselves as liars, but as people who, in a particular moment, made a judgment call.
In a 2012 paper, “Honesty Requires Time (and Lack of Justification),” researchers tested exactly this. Subjects were asked to roll a die three times and report only what they rolled on the first try: the higher the number, the higher their payment. The setup blocked observers from seeing the rolls, which gave participants the opportunity to lie. Most reported the highest number they rolled across all three tries, even when it wasn’t their first roll. It was, in their minds, a justified lie because they had rolled that number.
In the same experiment, some subjects had 20 seconds to report their answer while others had unlimited time. Both groups lied, but those under time pressure were significantly more likely to do so. In a follow-up experiment, subjects rolled the die only once, removing the justification entirely. Those under time pressure still lied. Those with no pressure told the truth.
Remove the justification, and the impulse weakens. Keep it, and almost any amount of time is enough to commit to the lie.
That judgment call, however, can have a quieter cost. Dr. Alex Lickerman, writing in “Psychology Today”, points out that every lie you tell to protect your image or avoid an uncomfortable moment is also a reason to stay exactly as you are. The gap between who you are and who you want to be doesn’t close itself.
This is more or less the story behind an average lie. What was your justification for your last one?
Sources:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22972904/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/happiness-in-world/201003/why-we-lie
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-science-tells-us-about-why-we-lie/
