Why We Lie: The Science Behind Our Deceptive Ways

• Lying is something that most people are very practiced in. We lie in big and small ways, to strangers, co-workers, friends, and loved ones.
• Researchers found that people lie on average one or two times a day, mostly to hide inadequacies or to protect others' feelings.
• Many lie and deceive to gain unjust rewards.
• Sometimes people lie to inflate their image or to cover up bad behavior.
• Even science contains deceivers, such as physicist Jan Hendrik Schön, who claimed a breakthrough in molecular semiconductor research, which later proved to be fraudulent.

The increase in lying is driven by the development of the ability to see the world from someone else's perspective. We gain an understanding of the beliefs, intentions, and knowledge of others.

The more we lie, the easier it becomes. Among two-year-olds, only 30 percent are untruthful. Among three-year-olds, 50 percent lie. By eight, kids learn to mask their lying by deliberately giving a wrong answer or making their statement seem like a guess.