“Evidence suggests that our ability to lie to ourselves is, in fact, supremely useful."

It is quite possible that we have never lied more. This has been a year of unpleasant new media coinages: “fake news,” “post-truth,” “alternative facts.” In our private lives, technological advancement makes lying incrementally easier: Fibbing to a partner that you’re “working late” slips out more easily screen-to-screen than face-to-face (although, even in person, 60 percent of us can’t go 10 minutes without lying). Social media has accelerated the speed at which lies of all stripes are disseminated and then quickly debunked, and this cycle has most likely increased our own propensity to lie. According to the prominent American behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the more we are aware that dishonesty surrounds us, the more likely we are to spin falsehoods of our own.

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