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Men lie more often than women for their own benefit, study show
People lie for different reasons and a study found that one gender is likely to indulge in deception more than the other, that too, for selfish reasons.
Spotting a liar isn’t always easy, for they would have mastered the art of twisting the truth to their benefit unless you are aware of “obvious” signs a body language expert explains. When it comes to gender differences in lying, men and women don’t think similarly.
Study finds men lie more than women
Researchers ran a number of tests on the male and female participants to understand which gender is more prone to lying while breaking down the psychological and evolutionary reasons behind it.
The paper by Kennedy and Kray, published in�Current Opinion in Psychology reports that different analyses reached a similar conclusion – men are more dishonest than women, “especially in competitive settings where lies advance self-interest.”
Men lied when it benefited them more compared to women (64% of men vs. 56% of women lied), and when it benefited others at the expense of the person being lied to (64% of men vs. 56% of women lied).
“This pattern extends even to domains of self-deception, where men are more narcissistic than women, especially along the exploitation and entitlement subfactor, meaning they feel special and entitled to privileges,” the study notes.
Why do they lie?
Aside from the fact that they “feel special” men’s tendency to lie could also have roots in evolution and psychology.
The researchers explain that men could have used deception in the “natural selection” process, to lure sexual mates. A researcher involved in the study suggests:
“Men historically benefit from misleading women to secure short-term sexual access whereas women benefit from longer-term commitments.”
“These studies support the notion that men historically faced stronger incentives and fewer costs for deceptive behavior,” it states further.
Furthermore, the study found that women tend to internalize moral traits in their identities more than men do and the former also show “greater guilt-proneness,” meaning, they find lying to be emotionally distressing because it “falls short of their moral standards.”
