This is good honest people. So why do we do it? And are we all just kidding ourselves?

So is lying or being dishonest irrational? Sometimes, sometimes not.

Behavioral economist Dan Arielli at Duke University studies irrational behavior.

In recent years he has found himself drawn to mendacity, preverication, fabrication, you know,

lying.

Now Arieli has teamed up with documentarian Yiel Melamid to create a film called Dishonesty.

Through a series of interviews the movie presents real world cases of cheating, corruption,

and little white lies alongside Ariale's scientific findings.

In the process, it becomes clear that the differences between serious fraud and a minor fib may

be less significant than we want to believe.

Originally we were going to call the movie a slippery slope because so many people basically started

doing something, rationalized, took another step, another step.

Our knack for explaining and reinterpreting our actions allows us to feel like we are still basically

honest, no matter how far we stray from our values.

But just because we can rationalize our dishonesty does not mean we're acting rationally.

Fudging the facts might, for example, get you through one tricky situation,

but the repercussions may make your life harder later on.

That's not a rational path.

So the next time you're offered what seems like an easy way out by lying, consider that you could just be lying to yourself.

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American 60 Second Science,

I'm Daisy U-HUS.