What is exactly a lie? Is it anything we say which we know is untrue? Or is it something more than that? For example, suppose a friend wants to borrow some money from you, you say “I wish I could help you but I’m short of money myself” . In fact, you are not short of money but your friend is in the habit of not paying his debts and you don’t want to hurt his feelings by reminding him of this. Is this really a lie? A scientific study of lying shows women are better liars than men, particularly when telling a white lie, such as when a woman at a party tells another woman that she likes her dress when she really thinks it looks terrible. However, this is only one side of the story. Other researches show that men are more likely to tell more serious lies, such as making a promise which they have no intention of fulfilling. This is the kind of lies politicians and businessmen are supposed to be particularly skilled at: the lies from which the liar hopes to profit or gain in some way. Research has also been done into the way people’s behavior changes in a number of small, apparently unimportant ways when they lie. It has been found that if they are sitting down at the same time, they tend to move about in their chairs more than usual. To the trained observer they are saying “I wish I were somewhere else now”.