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Is it because of the
social expectations put on women that they are much more convincing
liars than men? Is a half truth a whole lie - that's not a trick
question.
We know one thing for
sure it seems much more instinctive in women to lie rather than
reveal the truth because of reasons that protect her and her social
expectations. We think it's fair to say that women evade the truth
rather than actually lying.
This was sent into us
which didn't surprise us but might you -
Women lie about
sex
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C'mon girls,
time to 'fess up (Pic:BBC)
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Surveys
suggesting that men are more sexually active than women may be
wrong because women are more likely to lie when answering questions
about their own sexual activity, a clever new U.S. study has
found.
Men typically report engaging in sex at a younger age, having sex
more often and with more partners than women do, but the study
shows that these reported gender differences might show up because
women think they should give answers expected of them, according to
Dr Terri Fisher, a psychology professor at Ohio
State University, a co-author of the study in the Journal of Sex Research with Dr Michele
Alexander, assistant professor of psychology at the University of
Maine.
"Women are sensitive to social expectations for their sexual
behaviour and may be less than totally honest when asked about
their behaviour in some survey conditions," said Fisher. "Women
appear to feel pressure to adhere to sex role expectations that
indicate women should be more relationship-oriented and should
avoid being seen as promiscuous."
"Before the study, we thought men would generally over-report their
sexual behaviour and women would under-report it under certain
testing conditions. However, we found that women were more likely
than men to have different answers depending on conditions when
they were surveyed."
The researchers asked 201 unmarried, heterosexual college students
to complete questionnaires about their sexual attitudes, experience
and behaviour, and the age at which they first had sexual
intercourse - but in a twist, the participants completed the
questionnaire under three different conditions including one in
which they believed they were connected to a lie detector.
In that group, participants had electrodes placed on their hand,
forearms and neck and were told they were being attached to a
polygraph (lie detector) machine, which in fact was an old model
that didn't actually work. They were also told the polygraph was
sensitive enough to detect dishonesty even in written responses,
then left alone in a room to answer their questionnaires.
A second group filled out the sex surveys alone in a room and were
told their answers would be completely anonymous, while the third
group was led to believe the researcher might view their responses
and the researcher sat right outside the testing room with the door
open.
Women's answers were closer to men's in some areas of sexual
behaviour when they thought lies could be detected. Men's answers
didn't change as much as did women's under different testing
conditions.
The women who thought their answers might be read, for example,
reported an average of only 2.6 sexual partners, but those who
thought they were monitored by the lie detector reported an average
of 4.4 sexual partners. Women who were not attached to the lie
detector, but who had privacy during testing, gave answers in the
middle - an average of 3.4 sexual partners.
Men's answers didn't vary as much: those who thought they were
attached to a polygraph reported an average of 4.0 sexual partners,
compared with 3.7 partners for those who thought their answers
might be seen.
In a media statement, Fisher said it was not entirely surprising
that women changed their answers more than men: "We live in a
culture that really does expect a different pattern of sexual
behaviour from women than it does from men."
The results showed that gender differences still existed and that
they needed to be taken into account in a variety of ways, she
said.
Many respected sex surveys, for example, were based on face-to-face
interviews with participants, which might lead women to rate a
socially desirable response as being more important than a
completely honest one.
As well, medical professionals needed to be aware of how women
respond to questions about their sexuality, she said: "Based on
these findings, a doctor may need to ask female patients about
their sexual behaviour in different ways than they would for male
patients."
Bob Beale
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