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People who make an effort to lie less say they have better relationships and
report fewer health complaints, according to new research.
"Our findings support the notion that lying less can cause better health
through improving relationships," says researcher Anita Kelly, PhD, a
professor of psychology
at the University of Notre Dame. "Improvements in the relationships
accounted for a significant improvement in health."
Although other research has focused on how to detect a lie or how often people
lie, Kelly wanted to look at whether she could convince people to lie less,
then look at the effects of less lying.
She presented her research at the annual meeting of the American Psychological
Association in Orlando.
Our Lying Selves
On average, Americans lie about 11 times a week, says Kelly, citing surveys by
others.
Some of those are whoppers. Other are white lies, often meant to spare
feelings or save face.
Kelly and her co-researcher, Lijuan Wang, PhD, assistant professor of
psychology at the University of Notre Dame, assigned 110 people, aged 18 to
71, to one of two groups.
Both groups came to the lab each week to take a polygraph test.
One group was encouraged to stop telling major and minor lies for the 10-week
study. The researchers suggested strategies for lying less, such as
declining to answer questions.
The comparison group got no special instructions about lying. They were simply
told that they would have to tell the researchers how many lies they had
told that week when they were given the lie detector test.
Each group answered questions about their close relationships and about their
mental and physical health each week.
For instance, they reported if they had trouble falling asleep or had headaches
.
Lying and Health: Study Results
Over the 10-week study, both groups lied less. However, the group told they
couldn't lie told fewer lies than the comparison group.
By week 10, the no-lie group was telling, on average, less than one white lie,
down from more than three in week two. The comparison group was still
telling more than three, down from nearly six in week two.
Both groups reduced their major lies, but the no-lie group reduced those lies
much more.
The link between less lying and improved health was seen in both groups, Kelly
found.
"In a given week, if they told fewer lies, they also reported their
health was better," Kelly says.
"The connection between lying less and improved health, following the
people over 10 weeks, was amplified by being in the no-lie group,'' she
says. "The connection was even stronger."
For instance, in a given week, if a member of the no-lie group reduced white
lies by three, they had more than four fewer mental
health complaints.
In the comparison group, if someone reduced their white lies by three, they
had just two fewer mental health complaints, she says.
"When a given person was lying less, they also reported their
relationships were better," she says.
That, she says, explains the link between lying less and better health.
Why? "What we are suggesting is, not violating others' expectation of
honesty is likely to build trust, which may be key to good health through
improving our relationships."
The study was funded by the John Templeton Foundation.
The findings echo some other research findings by Sally Theran, PhD, assistant
professor of psychology at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass.
"My research on girls and boys ... indicates that the process of being
authentic, or being honest and open in meaningful relationships, is
significantly related to feeling less depressed and having higher
self-esteem," she says.
Honesty is also related to feelings of intimacy in friendships, she has found. "There
may be increased conflict, as a result of being open and honest, but it
leads to better quality of friendships," Theran says.
Telling the truth can feel risky, she says, but when you do so, you can feel
less inner conflict. "When we lie," she says, "it adversely
affects our self-esteem and increases our sense of shame. So, it's not
surprising at all that the authors found that telling the truth was related
to all these positive outcomes."
Total Honesty Vs. Reality
Total honesty is not realistic,Kelly and Theran say.
"The goal is a reduction in lies," Kelly says
Theran distinguishes between major lies and white lies. This hit home recently
when her 6-year-old daughter asked: "Is the tooth fairy really real?"
"In that case, in my opinion," Theran says, "a lie is OK."
"There are different motives for lying -- to protect a child's sense of
magic is one thing, but it's another thing to tell your boss that you've
completed a project when you haven't."
These findings were presented at a medical conference. They should be
considered preliminary, as they have not yet undergone the "peer review"
process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication
in a medical journal.
SOURCES: American Psychological Association annual meeting, Aug. 2-5, 2012,
Orlando. Anita Kelly, PhD, professor of psychology, University of Notre
Dame, South Bend, In. Sally Theran, PhD, assistant professor of psychology,
Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass. © 2012 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
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