"People who are usually honest have days in which they lie more than is typical for them and prolific liars have days in which they tell few lies," said the researchers. "Generally, prolific liars exhibited much more day-to-day variation than the rest of the sample."
They added that this variance was especially true for the top 1% of liars who averaged 17 lies per day. "The only respondents who did not vary much day-to-day were the 1% who almost never lied," they noted.
The Wisconsin study found that about 75% of respondents did not lie much — about zero to two lies per day. It also revealed that the most lies were inconsequential, little white lies like saying you like a gift that you really don't.
"Most communication is honest and most lies are told by a few prolific liars," says University of Wisconsin Professor Tony Docan-Morgan, who co-authored the publication, "Unpacking variation in lie prevalence: Prolific liars, bad lie days, or both?”
So, based on various bodies of research, it would indeed appear that there are more episodes of "Things That Actually Happened," than there are "Things That Never Happened" in the world.
#25 Wait Til They Hear About What Happened Before The Time Of Social Media And Cellphones!
#26 Seriously? What Part Of This Isn’t Believable? Has This Person Never Met A Second Grader?
#39 Entirely Plausible And Everyone In The Comments Said They Did Something Similar
