Lies
In 2002 Robert S. Feldman of the University of Massachusetts secretly videotaped students who were asked to talk with a stranger. He later had the students analyze their tapes and tally the number of lies they had told. 60% admitted to lying at least once during 10 minutes of conversation, and the group averaged 2.9 untruths in that time period. The transgressions ranged from intentional exaggeration to flat-out fibs. Men and women lied with equal frequency; women were more likely to lie to make the stranger feel good, whereas men lied most often to make themselves look better.
In another study a decade earlier by David Knox, 92% of college students confessed that they had lied to a current or previous sexual partner. Men are prone to lie exaggerate about the number of their sexual conquests. Recent research shows that women tend to underrepresent their degree of sexual experience. When asked to fill out questionnaires on personal sexual behavior and attitudes, women wired to a dummy polygraph machine reported having had twice as many lovers as those who were not, showing that the women who were not wired were less honest.
The Homo sapiens who are best able to lie have an edge over their counterparts in a relentless struggle for the reproductive success that drives the engine of evolution. And lying to ourselves–a talent built into our brains–helps us accept our fraudulent behavior.
The mirror orchid displays beautiful blue blossoms that are dead ringers for female wasps. The flower also manufactures a chemical cocktail that simulates the pheromones released by females to attract mates. The orchid’s fakery is built into its physical design, because over the course of history plants that had this capability were more readily able to pass on their genes than those that did not.
When approached by an erstwhile predator, the harmless hog-nosed snake flattens its head, spreads out a cobralike hood and, hissing menacingly, pretends to strike with maniacal aggression, all the while keeping its mouth discreetly closed.
Research shows that liars are often better able to get jobs and attract members of the opposite sex into relationships. Several years later Feldman demonstrated that the adolescents who are most popular in their schools are also better at fooling their peers.
“Why do we lie, and why are we so good at it? Because it works,” by David Livingstone Smith