It was on this day in 1789 that President George Washington was sworn in for the first time as president of the United States. His reputation for honesty long preceded him.
It was in 1990 that author and former political press secretary M. Hirsch Goldberg published The Book of Lies: Schemes, Scams, Fakes, and Frauds That Have Changed the Course of History and Affect Our Daily Lives, launching Nation Honesty Day. “The day was strategically placed on April 30th to balance out April Fool’s Day,” says Liz Bagot, referring to that one day a year when subterfuge and dishonesty often play a role. It’s a place many are familiar with.
Bagot says her organization took a survey and learned that 1 in 3 Americans claim they have never told a lie. Some of them weren’t being honest. America’s top 5 most told lies, she found, include:
#1: White lie (a harmless lie): 27%#2: Lie by omission (only revealing parts of the truth): 18%#3: Lies to yourself (eg 'I like my job'): 16%#4: Appearance lie (eg 'that dress looks good'): 15%#5: I've never told a lie: 6%
Men lie twice as much as women, Bagot tells KTRH News. 11% of male Americans say they lie multiple times a day, while only 4% of females admit to the same thing.Nearly half of Americans claim they lie less than once a year.
Interestingly, 23% of Americans who think white lies are not okay have told one. Among all Americans, almost 1 in 3 have told one—making it America's most-told type of lie.