The Truth about Lies: Signs, Beliefs and Attitudes

Abstract

A diligent search revealed that to this date, there are scarcely any studies that have been conducted in the Philippines concerning deceptive behavior or lying. 110 undergraduate students from a private college in Metro Manila volunteered to take part in this study. A 19-item researcher-made instrument using a 6-point Likert scale was administered on the respondents. The instrument measured the respondents’ level of agreement with respect to items about (1) ease of telling whether a person is lying with respect to social relationship; (2) signs of lying as established by previous research; (3) reasons for lying; (4) effects of being lied to on one’s trust and (5) knowing the truth. The following are the statistically significant findings: (1) The female respondents believe with greater intensity that it is easier to tell whether a person is lying when the individual is an acquaintance or family member; (2) those without romantic involvement believe with more certainty that it is easier to tell whether a person is lying when the individual is a stranger; (3) the female respondents believe more strongly that a person is lying "when the person is being vague or gives few details", "if before answering my question the person repeats the question", "if the person speaks in sentence fragments", "when the person is unable to give clear details", "when the person fixes his/her hair while answering my question" and "when the person touches his/her lips while answering my question"; (4) female respondents believe to a higher degree that "a person lies to protect his self-image"; (5) the respondents with romantic involvement believe with greater intensity that "a person lies to protect his self-image" and "a person lies to get what he wants"; (6) both the female respondents and respondents with romantic involvement disagree more strongly to the statement "people who lie to me don't affect my trust because I lie too."