New Book Debunks Myths About Lying

By Staff

Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 16:27

Defying conventional wisdom about how and why people lie, a psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts has said in his new book that lying is common, and people willingly accept and often welcome the lies they are told because it takes a lot of work to identify lying and liars.

A book that has been authored by Robert Feldman gives an insights into the world of lying. The book has been named 'The Liar in Your Life'. In the book, Feldman has debunked many myths and has said that we are not only bad at detecting falsehoods, but in fact are strongly and unconsciously willing to believe other people's lies to make our lives easier.

In the book, the author has said that in the new interconnected world, use of e-mail and the Internet tends weaken our existing standards of honesty. He corroborates: "We're always managing what we say. I've found that 'white lies' do have consequences and that the danger of telling them is they lead us toward being more dishonest."

He also said that although it is probably not reasonable to expect people to stop lying, it is possible to monitor our own behavior to curtail the process as much as possible.

One of the most important finding of his research is what he calls the 'liar's advantage' that is made up of several components, some of which are that lying is easy and it is very hard to detect. He said that the belief that an individual who averts his or her gaze, acts nervous and perspires is probably not telling the truth, is false.

And neither is it accurate that someone who looks you straight in the eye will be telling the truth. He said that polygraph testing is also a poor judge of whether someone is telling the truth. "Despite the beliefs of many law enforcement personnel, the scientific research shows that polygraphs are unreliable at detecting lies," said Feldman.

Feldman said that he found that people don't recognize how common it is to tell a socially acceptable 'white lie,' or how easy it is for total strangers to begin twisting the truth even in a casual conversation.