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Honesty prolongs a person's life
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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To stay healthy, you need to eat vegetables and fruits, exercise regularly, and also… lie as little as possible. A new study has found that honesty has not only mental but also tangible physical health benefits. Those who lie less were healthier than those who were used to lying. Psychologists from the University of Orlando selected 110 participants who were divided into two groups. Half of them were told to tell mostly the truth and avoid lying. The other half were given no instructions regarding lying.
After 10 weeks, the participants were gathered again and surveyed. It turned out that the participants who tried not to lie complained less about headaches, tension, anxiety, and sore throats, compared to those who lied regularly. So, everything fell into place. If people did not lie, their well-being became much better. And this is a convincing way to improve your own health. Previous studies have shown that on average, people lie 11 times a week, including both “white” lies and outright piles of lies.
However, the new study was fundamentally different from the others, as it aimed to study how lying affects people's health and what consequences await the liar. In addition to improving physical health, participants who did not lie reported that their personal relationships improved, and social interactions went more smoothly. To make the study as accurate as possible, participants were tested with a lie detector. Thus, lying can be a great stressor for people, contributing to the development of anxiety and even depression.
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