Trying to seem honest, many people resort to lies - even if it can bring them certain losses. An article about this was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General..

Scientists led by Shoham Choshen-Hillel from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem conducted a series of experiments with lawyers and students of Israeli colleges, as well as with subjects from the United States and Great Britain in an online format. In one of the experiments, 115 lawyers were asked to present a scenario in which they inform a potential client that doing business will take from 60 to 90 paid hours of work. At the same time, the lawyer himself will work in the office, and his client will not know how much time has really been spent.

Half of the participants were told that they worked 60 hours in the case, the other half 90 hours. After that, the subjects were asked what score they will issue to the client. In the first group, the average number of paid hours that the lawyers wanted to add to the bill amounted to 62.5 hours, while 17% of respondents indicated overrated data.

In the second group, the average number of hours entered by the subjects was 88, while 18% of people from this group were ready to indicate less time in the bill. Explaining their decision to underestimate the amount of time spent, some lawyers said they were worried that the client might suspect them of fraud.

In another experiment, 149 Israeli university students played craps and toss (tossing a coin) on a computer, and then informed researchers of their results.. For each roll of dice or coins with the desired result, the subjects received 15 cents.. At the same time, the computer game program was set up in such a way that half of the participants in the experiment got results rigged for the better, and the second half got random results.

Here in the first group 24% of students, despite the smaller amount of money received, underestimated their results. In the second group, only 4% reported fewer desired results than actually received.

The third experiment was conducted with participants from the United States: 201 subjects were asked to simulate the situation in which they work for the company and often go on business trips in their own cars. The maximum fuel consumption that the company compensates is calculated at 400 miles per month. Participants in the experiment were first informed that most of the firm's employees report 280-320 mileage per month.

Then half of the participants in the third experiment were told that they traveled 300 miles in a month, and 400 miles in the second half; after that, the subjects were asked to voice the distance that they will tell the employer.

If the first group almost completely reported the " The average distance reported by the participants of the second group was 384 miles. Similar results were obtained in the fourth experiment, which was attended by 544 people from the UK.

Researchers say their results are applicable not only in model situations, but also in the real world.. However, the work done has certain limitations: if the financial benefits of the situation are high enough, this could be a serious incentive for people not to underestimate the real numbers to please others.