We All Lie, Scientists Say, but Politicians Even More So

This is the season of lies.

Students learn to administer polygraph exams at the Latin American Polygraph Institute in Bogota, Colombia, on June 12, 2007. Scientists say we all lie, and this year, politicians are bending the truth big time, with real consequences. By studying how and why we deceive, the experts say they can help us better understand the 2016 election season. AP Photo/Fernando Vergara

WASHINGTON—This is the season of lies.

We watch with fascination as candidates for the world’s most powerful job trade falsehoods and allegations of dishonesty.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump routinely calls rival Ted Cruz “Lyin' Ted.” Cruz retorts: “Falsely accusing someone of lying is itself a lie and something Donald does daily.”

News organizations such as The Associated Press and PolitiFact dedicate enormous resources to separating candidates’ truthful wheat from their dishonest chaff.

But if we’ve come to expect and even joke about office-seekers who seem truth averse (“How do you know a politician is lying? His lips are moving”), many of us have given little thought to our own fibs and to how they compare with politicians’ deceits. What if PolitiFact looked at what we say to our spouses, friends and bosses?

San Francisco State psychologist and company CEO David Matsumoto (R) and colleague looking at the non-verbal behavior of another employee on video as part of their analysis for deception and emotional clues, in Berkeley, Calif., on 2013. Hyisung C. Hwang/Humintell via AP