Everyday lies in close and casual relationships

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Interpersonal Relationships

Background:

• Honesty and authenticity are valued in close relationships.
• Lying can violate relational norms and cause discomfort.
• Altruistic lies may serve relational functions, while self-serving lies may not.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between relationship closeness and lying behavior.
• To explore the motivations behind lies told in different types of relationships.
• To examine the discovery rate of lies based on relationship closeness.

Main Methods:

• Two diary studies were conducted with 77 undergraduates and 70 community members.
• Participants recorded social interactions and instances of lying over one week.
• Data collected included lie frequency, lie type (altruistic vs. self-serving), discomfort levels, and lie discovery.

Main Results:

• Participants told fewer lies per social interaction to closer relationship partners.
• Individuals reported greater discomfort when lying to closer partners.
• Lies told to best friends and friends were more often altruistic compared to those told to acquaintances and strangers.
• Lies told to closer partners were discovered more frequently.

Conclusions:

• Relationship closeness significantly influences lying frequency, motivation, and discovery.
• The violation of relational norms associated with lying contributes to discomfort in close relationships.
• Altruistic deception may function to maintain close bonds, whereas self-serving deception is more prevalent in distant relationships.