Think you’re honest? Apparently we lie over 10 times per week.
Confession: I used to be a chronic liar. I would exaggerate everything. From blaming my brother for doing something that I obviously did as a child, to what I got up to on the weekend. I think I just wanted to embellish my not-so-exciting life.
The tipping point came when I was 16-years-old. My friends and I were at a house party, we’d had a few drinks like the naughty under-agers we were and while sitting on the beach, started sharing stories of what we’d done over the winter break.
I told my friends that I’d spent the night with my friend and her new friends (true). We’d driven round listening to Imogen Heap’s ‘Hide and Seek’ on repeat for hours on end (also true). I then told them, in my Passion Pop-induced-daze, that me and her new guy friend had fooled around; the ultimate teenage brag. Also (LIES).
Then, when I arrived at school on Monday, teenage me had unknowingly and unwillingly become the school “slut”.
That’s right, before Easy A was released to a global audience, it was my life.
My friends were kind enough to inform me that I was now known as the girl who’d had a one-night-stand with a guy she didn’t know, on a beach. At high school, this felt like a life destroying reputation – the only thing worse would have been admitting it never happened at all…
According to an article in the Telegraph, the average person tells 10 lies per week. Not even kidding. It’s easy to see how these lies slip off our tongues.
“I swear I didn’t have some of your chocolate!”
“You definitely can not see that pink g-string through your white skirt!”
“I can’t sorry, I’ve already made plans.”
These lies happen with such ease that we don’t even realise it’s happened.
Before you continue, here are some other liar confessions:
MM staff tell us their biggest lies.
Dr Paul Seager, a senior psychology lecturer who specialises in deceptive psychology, told the Telegraph it’s healthy to tell lies.
“To keep society running smoothly, we need to tell white lies. If your partner comes home with their latest piece of artwork and says, ‘What do you think of this?’, it shows they want support. Whether you like it or not, you’re going to say it’s nice.”
So we now have permission to lie, right? Yeah, no. Lying can go beyond a few here or there into pathological territory.
Try this: “I have to stop lying so much and trust people.”
“Some people live in a fantasy world and don’t tell the truth – people who for various disturbed functions in their psychological make up feel the need to live a false existence,” says psychiatrist, Dr. Cosmo Hallstrom.
“Psychopaths, for example, have no remorse or conscience. They focus on the short-term gain, they have no guilt and they live for the moment impulsively and without thinking of the consequences.”
Well, that took a dark turn very quickly.
What’s the biggest lie you’ve ever gotten away with? Let us know in the comments.
Top Comments
I had an exchange student live with my family who was the most horrible person in the world. She blatantly refused to say please or thank you because she "would never mean it so what's the point", only showered once a week, ate absolutely everything in the house when we were on a tight budget, and was horrible to my dog. So one day my sister and I had this Sara Lee chocolate cake and cut open the middle and filled it with dog poo. We then put it back in the fridge and if she asked if she could eat the cake then we would tell her not to, but if she went ahead and devoured it without asking who it was for then that was her problem. She ate nearly all of the cake. I didn't get away with it though because I told her that I filled a chocolate cake with dog poo as a joke for a friend, just so that she was aware she had eaten dog poo. I know this sounds really harsh, but if you met her then you would understand.
I'm a foster care kid. And I had the God awful carers for 6 weeks they were horrible exuses for human beings. So anyway one day they hit me because I didn't de crinkle my sheets (bitch be lucky I made the bed at all at 14) so I shoveled the dog Poo from the garden and placed in in the sheets at the foot of her bed!!! REVENGE! I've never told a soul till now... Hahahahaha