Telling the truth is not only good for your soul it's also good for your mind and body, according to an amazing study by an American university.
It's not April Fool's Day – but it seems we are in the middle of the silly season. New research just out from the US University of Notre Dame has found that telling fibs – and whopping great lies – is bad for your health.
The 'Science of Honesty' study, which was funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, was presented at the American Psychological Association's 120th annual convention.
The answer lies in the truth
The study found that when those in the research group reduced the number of untruths they told during a 10 week period, their physical and mental health improved.
Report author and Notre Dame psychology professor Anita Kelly said: 'We found that the participants could purposefully and dramatically reduce their everyday lies and that in turn was associated with significantly improved health'.
The study involved half the participants being told not to tell major and minor lies for the 10 week study period. The other half received no specific instructions. Both groups had weekly assessments of their physical and mental health and came to the laboratory weekly to complete health and relationship measures.
They also had to take a polygraph (lie detector) test assessing the number of major and white lies they had told during that week. The average American tells about 11 lies a week the study found.
The truth doesn't hurt
Those participants in the non-lying group showed significantly better health than those in the control group. It says that those who told fewer than three white lies in a week had about four fewer mental-health complaints, such as feeling tense or sad, than in other weeks – and possibly more surprisingly, three fewer physical complaints, such as sore throats and headaches.
But when control group members told three fewer white lies, they experienced two fewer mental-health complaints and about one less physical complaint. For big lies, the pattern was similar.
When participants across both groups lied less in a given week, they reported their physical health and mental health to be significantly better that week. Those taking part in the study stopped lying by no longer making rubbish excuses for being late or not doing some work task, and by telling the truth about what they'd done that day rather than exaggerate.
But they also learnt strategies such as avoiding lying by answering a difficult question (such as about bottom size and clothing size) by replying with a question: a tactic sure to annoy the hell out of the questioner who'd probably rather be lied to.
-
Quick tips
- America's most famous truth-teller is first president George Washington who, legend has it, would not lie about chopping down a cherry tree
- A famous recent financial fibber was Bernie Madoff who admitted his investment firm was 'just one big lie'
- At the height of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon proclaimed 'I am not a crook'
Another US President, Abraham Lincoln, once said: 'No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar'