Hello, I'm Dessa, and this is deeply human, why you do the things you do.

So let me ask you a question.

Have you been on any of these online dating sites?

Yes.

And have you been on one of those that you have to enter your age and weight?

Yes.

And how honest work?

I would say, I would say, you're right, mostly.

I probably, I probably shaved off three pounds on that day.

Yeah, and you probably said, you know, I used to be three

pounds less, like just a few months ago. That's exactly it. It just so happened that now when I'm

filling it up, is after the holidays. You're in my head, Dan. You're in my head. That's Dan Ariely,

a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University in North Carolina, calling me out in a lie.

High-stakes lies have all sorts of consequences.

Perjurers are imprisoned, slanderers are sued.

In the 1800s, liars and gossips in Scotland could be punished by being forced to wear

a scolds bridle, a metal cage worn over the head with a painful bit to stop the tongue

from moving.

But little lies, they sometimes feel almost obligatory.

Like, if your co-worker Andy asks, do you like my haircut?

And you say, yes, it adds a new shortness to the ends of it.

And lying to children can be a joyful community activity.

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