Last week I asked men and women to describe their last big lie. Interestingly, women submitted loads more lies than men (124 vs 93 last time I looked), which is odd, because the other sex-split polls I have run show that far more men than women come to the blog. Perhaps women lie more. Or are more honest when it comes to talking about lying.
I was mainly interested in the target of the lies, with my hypothesis being that men lie to their partners more than women. This was kinda suggested by the results, although it was far from clear-cut. About 6% of the female lies involved telling porky pies to their partners, compared to about 15% of men’s lies.
Do you think there is anything to it? It might stem from evolutionary theory, wherein females tend to invest a great deal in a single partners whereas males tend to put it around a bit.
September 30, 2009 at 10:08 am |
I wonder if there is an asymmetric self-selection of people choosing to participate? That is, are women who tell lies to their partners less likely to admit it in this sort of venue than men are?
Actually, the fact that a disproportionate number of women responded suggests the reverse to me: that maybe there is some particular reason why men avoid admitting to lies, even anonymously. And perhaps that is due to a particularly guilt-inducing type of lie – perhaps (but not necessarily) to partners.
I confess that I have neither the psychological training nor the basic social insight to be confident either way.
September 30, 2009 at 1:15 pm |
As has probably already been pointed out – what if a significant proportion of respondents were lying about their lies? Is there a way to control for this?
September 30, 2009 at 4:21 pm |
The differences could come from many things! They could stem from how well the different genders remember the lies they tell, how much the lies impacted them (did they feel guilty?), etc.. If men really lie more often to their partners, they could be so used to lying that recall of specific lies gets fuzzy.
Must… Have… More… Info!
September 30, 2009 at 7:48 pm |
Some probably dont even know that they are lying .. some are that out of theirself that they probably dont even recognize tbeing a lie or haven’t yet decided who they are.
I dont think those sounds way back could have been seen upon as a lie yet, so evolution ? Nah ….
I dont believe really in these differences. It’s a bit more age dependent I guess. And circumstances etc… it all plays a role.
By the time partners stop lying to eachother … oh man … In a way they lie quite often without words … a long time … for several reasons, at times not the worst, but at other times …
The truth .. Someone else’s truth is not always yours.
Some just love to lie, it’s their life. Or better said .. it’s the life they dont have. The happy liars. So many types of liars.
Evolution? Hm.. how do you lie in sounds without words? Lie in body language? Make soothing sounds when you dont mean it after having done something with the neighbour in the next cave? Hm ….
I myself dont see evolution as something that started all of this.
Male are simply narcistic pigs … LOL … Oh well .. I can say a lot about female as well. I’m unisex so therefor perfect … ehehe …
No, it is not funny indeed. If you happen to be in such a state, seeing/feeling it like that. We all will see stuff at times like that.
October 1, 2009 at 7:33 am |
Maybe its because women tend to be more demanding and judgemental of their partner so the male then feels they need to lie to keep the image, persona, or conditions of worth up ???
October 1, 2009 at 3:01 pm |
I’m with the person who said we need way more information before we can understand the trend in the answers. With the limited info we have, any speculation says more about the maker’s own personality than the the actual situation.
October 3, 2009 at 3:37 pm |
I fit perfectly into the female mold, largely due to the fact that I don’t have a partner at present so it would be a lie to say I lied to mine.