Yep, I'd guess that I fill my quota of three lies a day, and I know I did yesterday because I counted them. Men tell three lies a day, according to a British Science Museum survey, and women tell two a day.
My first lie was to my eldest daughter as I started work when she phoned to ask if I'd remembered what day it was, and of course I insisted that I had while I searched through my mind for possible significances of the day. Anniversary! Yes, I knew it was 30 years, I lied again, but I'm counting that and a couple of others in that exchange as a single nest of lies. I was hurt, I told her, that her mother had not remembered our anniversary, and I tossed that lie into the pile because I knew it would get back to her mother.
Mothers are the people most lied to, the museum found, and I have no doubt about that. Women in general are the most lied to, I'd say, and mothers get the tiara because there are more people lying to them. My wife is under a barrage of lies all day - no, I didn't eat all the biscuits; there are no towels in my room; I've tidied my room; I forgot.
My lies are really about keeping the domestic peace and so they're quite acceptable porkies. Porky number two came when my wife phoned in the afternoon to say that she was no longer going to pictures that night on account of our anniversary, and was I going straight home? Yes. Porky number three was when I told her at home that I'd been held up at work.
Now, I strongly suspect that her statement to me that she was no longer going to the pictures on account of our anniversary was a lie, because the much more likely reason is that her picture-going companion cancelled. Not that I'd suggest that, of course.
The museum says that lying is an important part of social interaction and that it has not been determined whether this lying is due to our genes, evolution or upbringing. I say it is due to our intelligence. Can you imagine the fuss if I'd told my wife when I got home last night that I hadn't been held up at work, that I'd been to the pub despite her cancelling her night out at the pictures and that I'd intended to go to the pub when I told her earlier that I was going straight home!
Does lying smooth your social interaction? Do you accept that the truth can be too brutal?
Email a friend