Do Women Lie More?

Theem New York Post /em had an article in yesterday’s paper entitled, a href=”http://www.nypost.com/seven/03022008/news/regionalnews/miss_leading_100063.htm””Miss-Leading, the Truth about Gals’ Serial Fibbing”/a (Hat tip: Fred Ray): br /br /br /blockquoteDeceit, thy name is woman. br /br /Most females lie “more cleverly and successfully than men” about everything from infidelity and facelifts to barhopping and shopping binges, according to a new book. br /br /”Women lie as a survival technique, but also to get what they want,” said Susan Shapiro Barash, author of a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312364458?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=0312364458″”Little White Lies, Deep Dark Secrets: The Truth About Why Women Lie”/aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=0312364458″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” / published by St. Martin’s Press this week…..br /br /Barash interviewed 500 women nationwide who answered her Craigslist ads seeking females to confide what they fib about. Among her findings: br /br /* 75 percent lie about how much money they spend. For instance, they sneak purchases inside their homes after shopping or hide the price tags. br /br /* 50 percent harbor “mixed feelings about mothering.” One told Barash, “I look at these children and I crave sleep and free time. They wear me out and make me jealous of working women who have no children, no husbands.” br /br /* More than 60 percent cheated on their husbands. A 32-year-old mother conducted her trysts while telling her trusting husband she was working late. Even in asking for a divorce, she withheld the truth: “I didn’t say I had fallen for another man. He was better off with my lies.” /blockquotebr /br /My sense is, this study is a bit biased to start with–come on, Craigslist? Could it be that the women answering an ad asking for lying women are a bit shady to begin with? I think a random sample of women out in the world might have been a better way of conducting the research. And the lies the author mentions such as cheating are certainly more than white lies, but mixed feelings about mothering or other conflicting feelings do not seem like lies, but rather, like,well…mixed feelings that people often have about their life’s decisions. If that’s “lying” I imagine we are all guilty.