Students tell the truth: they lie

When College junior John Ng lies to his parents about his grades, at least he knows he is not alone. Ng also said he has friends who lie so often that "eventually you can't tell if they're lying or not." A recent study done by University of Virginia researchers validates Ng's experiences. College students throughout the country lie in half of the conversations they have with their mothers, the study says. Surveyed students did not talk with their fathers often enough for the researchers to obtain that data. The study also reported that students lied in 28 percent of the conversations they had with close friends and in 48 percent of the discussions they had with acquaintances. When talking with strangers, the study participants lied 77 percent of the time. University of Virginia researchers speculated that lying to strangers is easier than lying to one's parents. But University students said lying to their parents about small issues was not difficult at all. College freshman Nancy Holt said she has not had to lie to her parents yet, but could see herself doing it when "little things" arose. "If they asked me what time I got in, I would probably say it was earlier than it was," she said. University Psychology Professor David Bersoff, who is doing research on morality, noted that "it's very easy to tell a story and know it's unlikely that you'll get caught." "[Parents] are far away and they can't check up on you," Bersoff added. Holt made a distinction between lying about less important issues and not telling the truth regarding more significant topics, such as money or grades. "I find it disturbing when it gets to bigger things," she said. "When it's little, it's not right but it's not like you're harming anyone." The lies described in the University of Virginia study varied tremendously in nature. Some told their parents a required book cost more than it did so they would send them more money. Others claimed to be studying when they were really going out. But Bersoff said the study's results were "alarming" -- no matter what types of lies were being told. He added, however, that college students' lying patterns were probably not much different from adults'. "It's easy to think college students are particularly bad, but from my research I don't think that's true," Bersoff said. And some students said they were not sure how accurate the study was because the results did not portray their behavior. "I think I'm a lot more honest than most people," Wharton freshman Tara Pellegrino said. The Associated Press contributed to this story.