No doubt, honesty pays. But lying brings more satisfaction, researchers have claimed. A new study by the University of Sydney, to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research, has found that consumers feel more satisfied if they lie and get what they want than if they tell the truth.
In fact, the researchers have found that people who lie during a service encounter have more extreme reactions to the outcome than their honest peers. The study raises interesting questions about the way marketers and businesses respond to dishonest customers and train their staff, particularly given the volume of lies people tell every day. Previous research shows that people tell on average one to two lies a day, which equates to about 42,000 lies before the age of 60.
“Lying is hard work. When people lie, they’re so pre-occupied with telling the lie and not revealing the truth that they aren’t able to monitor cues from the listener, which are important for updating expectations about the likely outcome of the conversation.
“So when you lie to get a refund or to file an insurance claim and get away with it, you’ll have a much more polarised reaction than if you had told the truth. People who lie are more satisfied than truth tellers if they get a favourable outcome,” Dr Christina Anthony, who led the study, said in a varsity release. For their study, the researchers conducted a series of lab experiments in which participants either told the truth or lied during a conversation with a service provider in order to get a material reward.