A deeper look

Each of our brains functions differently. They have different mechanics on what they do or don’t do when it comes down to lying. 

“Most people are fairly good liars. But what we see is that people who can think quickly on their feet, maintain kind of control over their facial expressions and so forth,” Hart said. “People who seem confident tend to be more believable as well.” 

Everyone wants to feel good about themselves, which is what creates the urge to tell a lie. Harts says that “the most fundamental reason people lie is that the truth is problematic.”

According to Hart, another big reason is people want to avoid embarrassment and receive backlash.  

“We tend to paint an overly rosy picture of ourselves. Then when we think of people, we usually think of the big bad lies people tell. Those actually tend to be pretty rare in person,” Hart said. 

Telling lies only has one goal, and that goal is to get the most enticing outcome. Hart said the tiny little white lies that help us reach these favorable outcomes are the most common and successful. 

An immense amount of white lies get told. It makes it difficult for humans to tell what is actually true about each other, which is why white lies are the root of many problems in life.