Battle of the Sexes

Do men and women lie differently?

So who's more honest, men or women? It looks like both sexes tend to be equally culpable, though our survey suggests that each is devilish in different ways.

Men's dishonesty surfaces more around impersonal objects. They take office supplies (71% of men vs. 61% women), fudge tax returns (24% vs. 15%) and illegally download music (43% vs. 35%) more often than women.

"Men are more risk-taking," says psychologist Michael Lewis of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey. They initiate dishonest acts, while women tend to wait for an opportunity to present itself, and then take advantage. "Women are also doing more lying in the realm of relationships," says Lewis. Although these behaviors are not exclusive to either sex, they are dominant tendencies.

At work, women may not steal supplies as often as men, but they are more likely to lie to the boss about a sick day (64% women vs. 58% men). And in their personal lives, women use dishonesty to avoid conflict, like by fibbing about the cost of a recent purchase (34% women vs. 25% men), or to spare another person's feelings, as in "Those pants don't make your hips look big at all!" (74% vs. 65%).

From Reader's Digest - January 2004

 

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