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Lying to look honest? This is explained by a study 0:53
(CNN) - Believe it or not, people lie to maintain a good and honest reputation, even if they find it hard to do so, or it means they lose money.
At least, this is what a team of scientists suggests, which has evidence to prove it.
To join the game, imagine this scenario: you drive frequently for work and can receive financial compensation of up to 643 km per month. You also know that the people you work with usually drive 400 to 500 km each month.
This month, you drive exactly 643 km. How much do you think you would put in your expense report? The 600 km, you say?
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A team of scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Chicago and the University of California, Los Angeles, asked this exact question to 100 adults in the United States in a study published Thursday in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. The researchers found that 12% of respondents did not report the distance they drove, giving an average response of 617 km.
The team also asked 100 adults in the United States separately if they would report if they had driven 480 km, and they all told the truth. (Well, almost all of them, since their average response was 301).
So the people in the first group lied about their mileage, even though they would lose the money they were owed. Investigators believe that this would seem honest, with the assumption that others would suspect a high-cost claim.
"Many people care a lot about their reputation and how they will be judged by others, and the concern to appear honest can overcome our desire to be truly honest," explains Shoham Choshen-Hillel, senior professor at the School of Management and Business Center. for the Study of rationality at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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"Our results suggest that when people get extremely favorable results, they anticipate other people's suspicious reactions and prefer to lie and appear honest rather than tell the truth and look like selfish liars."
Investigators tested multiple scenarios, including lawyers who claim billable hours and students who report earnings on money bets, and in each case similar results were observed: people lied to look like a better person.
Why do they do this? Choshen-Hillel believes that it is because people judge others negatively when they report extreme results.
"People are so worried that they seem dishonest that they would behave dishonestly to keep their reputation clean," he told CNN.
There are two main types of lies, Choshen-Hillel explains: selfish and prosocial.
The first, as you can predict, is to obtain selfish profits, such as cheating an insurer with a false claim or reporting less income to pay less taxes. The second is to lie to help others or not to offend others, for example, to tell a friend that he looks good, even though he seems to have dressed in the dark.
But now Choshen-Hillel and his team are suggesting that this third type of lie exists: lying to keep up appearances or maintain a good reputation. They believe that this mentality as a whole affects multiple behaviors in everyday life.
"The findings seem intuitive and credible," says Tali Sharot, a professor of cognitive neuroscience in the Department of Experimental Psychology at University College London, who was not involved in the research. “One of the main motivations to lie is to increase our value in the eyes of others. As people see honesty [as] a desirable characteristic, it seems very likely that people lie to look honest in the eyes of others just as they will. lying to appear successful, loving, hardworking, etc. ”
The Jerusalem team recognizes, however, that there will be scenarios in which this is not the case, for example, when there is much to lose, such as an extreme financial loss for lying in this way. But, according to Chosen-Hillel, "I think most people will recognize a moment in their lives when they were motivated to tell a lie to appear honest."