United States - situations that warrant a lie 2016

This statistic shows the results of a survey among adult Americans in 2016 on situations in which lying is okay. During the survey, 18 percent of respondents stated that lying in order to avoid hurting someone's feelings is often okay, while 58 percent said it was sometimes okay, and 24 percent thought it was never okay to lie in order to avoid hurting someone's feelings.

Do you think it is okay to lie in the following situations?

Characteristic	Often okay	Sometimes okay	Never okay
Lying in order to avoid hurting someone’s feelings	18%	58%	24%
Exaggerating the facts to make a story more interesting	8%	44%	48%
A parent lying about the parent’s past misbehavior	7%	46%	46%
Lying about one’s age	11%	40%	49%
Lying about being sick to take the day off	6%	41%	52%
Lying on a resume	4%	13%	82%
Lying to one’s spouse or partner about an affair	4%	10%	86%
Lying to one’s spouse or partner about forgetting an anniversary	5%	28%	67%
Cheating on one’s taxes	4%	9%	87%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%

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Release date

April 2016

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

February 9-10, 2016

Number of respondents

1,006 respondents

Age group

18 years and older

Method of interview

Online survey

Supplementary notes

Thes source poses the question as follows: "For each of the following situations, please indicate whether you think lying is okay:_"

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