Do men lie more than women?

[rileen]

My Deutschkurs (German course) is a source of much fun and learning. Twice a week, we learn about various aspects of Germany, and then the teacher asks us how it is in our country, and we get to learn about various countries while picking up some German. Over the last 8 months or so, I've picked up interesting tidbits about China, Iran, South

Comments

[smriti]

Aiiyaiyo! spider-pig has replaced Brain stem! Brain Stem!" in my head now.

[rileen]

My pleasure :-)

Bhool bhulaiya ..

[mekin]

till about a week after the movie ... dear biwi would break into aami je tomaar.. in the ghostly voice ... it almost got scary .. :)

In other events .. related to the movie - she lost her cell phone in the theatre - kinda apt given the movie name :)

Re: Bhool bhulaiya ..

[rileen]

Turned you into a poet, eh? :-)

Hope she wasn't very attached to that handset.

[rileen]

See? They are so acceptable, you don't even think they are lies :-)

[mona1610]

.. and women gossip more than men.. surely you believed that one without batting an eyelid! (just kidding.. most people i know do) :P

but on a serious note, I think lies (as in denial of a fact) are common between both sexes. However, it is entirely possible that lies (as in means to cheat/fool/gamble) may be spoken more by men than women because for the better part of civilized history women didn't have social roles and mostly never had to fend for themselves. Besides, the whole naivety/religious aspect in a woman was more appealing and generally received more approval. Perhaps, this is even more true in societies where scarcity/poverty wasn't a huge problem and a woman didn't always have to seek out unfair advantages over her peer/neighbour. But in lesser privileged/poor societies, where women had to fight for shared resources such as water or rations, they got more streetsmart and learnt the goodness of lies... and the health benefits of gossips. :P

just my two cents.

[rileen]

Hello, the topic was lying, not gender differences of all sorts :-)

We can open a whole Pandora's box here (e.g about "fending for themselves" and its many possible shades), but let's leave it for now.

About gossip, too - one could just as well say sheltered women learned to gossip as a way to deal with their boredom, curiosity, etc. - one can write books about the supposed reasons, but at the end of the day, people gossip.

[mona1610]

hehee.. guess i got a little carried away there.. as you probably realized I was typing while thinking.. I do believe lying (or any other social/personal behaviour) is as much steeped in human history as it is in the psyche.

But, I'm curious about the "possible shades" that you're referring to. If you're not entirely bored of this thread, maybe you could explain that bit. :)

[rileen]

Bored? Nahi baba, I typed just before beginning work, which is why a long discussion wouldn't have been possible.

Well, "fending for oneself" might be required in many different kind of scenarios, including women who didn't have "social roles". For example, in situations where males were like predators, a woman certainly would have to protect herself from unwanted attention as best as possible, and that might include lying.

[shaluvk]

ri, my take on this is that lies unnecessarily complicate matters. safer to talk straight and put up with the consequences than carry a guilty conscience to bed. peoples' opinion of me/ my work isn't as important to me as my own satisafaction. which isn't to say that i haven't lied by omission lately. or not paid insincere compliments. :-))))

i love the new look. shorter hair? *sincere compliment*

[rileen]

Haha - is old photo, currently hair is long where present :-p

But thanks a lot!

And of course I agree entirely - I go by my conscience, too, and very rarely lie.

But the discussion was about the way the world is, not us in particular, nor how we'd like the world to be. And I guess it's important to know that, especially when learning a new language, culture, etc.

2 great sessions, and then the familiar mopping up problem, eh?

[shaluvk]

uuugh typos.

two great sessions indeed. unbelievable bowling, esp. ganguly's- wkt to wkt and moving the ball both ways. wah. oh, i'm truly very very impressed with misbah- have been ever seen i saw him in the T20 WC thingy. i think the pitch is really easing up, flat, very batsman friendly today. i don't see misbah throwing away his wkt. although it would be a mistake to target sami alone this morning.

[rileen]

Yes, Misbah is definitely one of those cases which make you wonder "where was he all these days?" - consistently impressive since the T20 WC started.

We've made a real mess of the plans to build a lead, though - now we need Laxman and Dhoni to bat well just to not concede one!