Is lying bad for your health?

Bad news for hoaxers -- A new scientific study reports that lying less results in better health. (Links: apa.org, eurekalert.org)

The study hasn't been peer-reviewed/published yet, but preliminary results were reported at the 120th Convention of the American Psychological Association. The study tracked 110 people, half of whom were instructed to tell fewer lies for 10 weeks, and the other half received no special instructions about lying. At the end of 10 weeks, the non-liers reported significantly better health.

What I wonder is how the researchers could know that the no-lying group wasn't lying about lying less. The researchers said they gve the participants regular polygraph tests, but those tests aren't exactly reliable.

Also, ten weeks is a fairly short span of time. The apparent effect might disappear over one or two years.

Science

Posted on Thu Aug 09, 2012


Comments

What I wonder is, whether things would be different for habitual liers as opposed to people that normally not lie to this extend but were forced to for this study. I can see how the latter can create stress resulting in less better health.
Posted by LaMa  on  Fri Aug 10, 2012  at  05:15 AM
Oops, my bad: they were told to make fewer lies, not more....
Posted by LaMa  on  Fri Aug 10, 2012  at  05:16 AM
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