Top 5 lies told by men and women revealed

Men lie. Women lie less. Those are the results of a recent survey carried out by BMW Financial Services, which showed on average men fib three times a day compared to women who stretch the truth twice a day. That's 1,092 deceits versus 728 fudges in a year.

On what occasions do we hide what we're thinking? Survey says there are a couple of universal lies that people tell all the time regardless of gender. That includes "I didn't have that much to drink" when it's obvious we've had a few too many cocktails and "Nothing's wrong, I'm fine" when clearly they aren't.

One of the top five cock-and-bull stories that women tell is the classic "It wasn't that expensive". Research shows that 39% of women compared to 26% of men feel the need to distort the facts about spending.

Compared to men, women are also likelier to feign being busy or having a headache to avoid talking to someone on the phone, with half of the women surveyed over a third of men admitting to doing so. Men, on the other end of the line, resort to lying about having no phone signal or saying "I'm on my way".

So how do we tell fact from fiction? Apart from the usual signs of hesitation, stumbling speeches, suspicious pauses before answering a question, as well as shifting uncomfortably in our seat, Professor Wiseman from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK offered a few more tips.

For example, things can be fishy when suddenly there's not much mention of the speakers themselves in a conversation. The explanation is that when someone is making up a story, they tend to refer to themselves less, hence using fewer words like "me", "mine" and "I".

Remember how they say one used to shift uncomfortably in one's seat when one is not telling the truth? Here's another theory—liars tend to go very still. The reason: Lying requires concentration and hence less body movements.

Professor Karen Pine, who majors in developmental psychology at the same university, says humans inherited the skills to be deceitful from our primitive ancestors, who had learned that honesty might not be the best policy after all in their quest for survival.

"We think lying is bad, but actually the ability to deceive others has helped humans survive as a species," she said, adding that extroverts tend to falsify more often than people who are introverted.

The top five lies told by men:
1. I didn't have that much to drink.
2. Nothing's wrong, I'm fine.
3. I had no phone signal.
4. It wasn't that expensive.
5. I'm on my way.

The top five lies told by women:
1. Nothing's wrong, I'm fine.
2. I don't know where it is. I haven't touched it.
3. It wasn't that expensive.
4. I didn't have that much to drink.
5. I've got a headache.

Source: The Daily Mail