Little White Lies Could Affect Your Health In a Big Way

By SheSpeaksTeam Aug 17, 2012

Ever told a white lie perhaps something a little more serious? Either way, research now suggests that you may be paying for that lie with your health. A CBS News report highlights the findings from a study conducted at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

Researchers involved in the study split up two groups of 110 people made up of college students and adults who lived near the university. Half of the respondents were instructed to stop lying (telling major and small lies) over a period of 10 weeks. The other half were not given any instructions at all.

After the 10-week period, the subjects filled out questionnaires regarding their overall health and were given a lie detector test to reveal how many lies were told during the weeks. What researchers found was that those who were instructed not to lie and actually managed to cut down on their lying by telling three fewer white lies than they normally would suffered less health problems both mental and physical.

The “no-lie” group reported less feelings of stress and sadness as well as sore throats and headaches. Author of the study, Dr. Anita Kelly, explains the results from the study. Dr. Kelly says, “Recent evidence indicates that Americans average about 11 lies per week. We wanted to find out if living more honestly can actually cause better health. We found that the participants could purposefully and dramatically reduce their everyday lies, and that in turn was associated with significantly improved health.”

What do you think of the study that suggests telling fewer lies can benefit your health?

Is this enough to inspire you to cut down on those “little white lies”?