Undergraduates’ day-to-day lying behaviors: Implications, targets, and psychological characteristics

We analyzed undergraduates’ (N = 232) day-to-day lying behavior in order to explore the frequency of occurrence, kinds of lying behavior, and gender differences, and to analyze the relationship between lying behaviors and individual undergraduates’ psychological characteristics. We developed a questionnaire and analyzed the results using descriptive statistics, t tests, and Pearson product-moment correlation analysis. Results showed that the undergraduates’ day-to-day behavior could be divided into the following 5 types of lying: excuse, absenteeism, cheating, negative, and spending. More than 80% of the undergraduates said they had told a lie in a day-to-day situation within the 1-year period covered in this study. There was no significant gender difference in any aspect of the undergraduates’ day-to-day lying behavior, although there was a significant correlation between day-to-day lying behavior and negative psychological characteristics.