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Who Lies More, Men Or Women?

BOSTON (CBS) - Here's one for the gender wars.

Joe from Fall River Declared His Curiosity to WBZ-TV:

"Who lies more, men or women?"

A fountain of youth might be more realistic than a fountain of truth.

As one man told us -  "I have a lot of guy friends and girl friends, and they all lie."

After all, the truth could get us in trouble sometimes.

But which gender is a bigger bender, of the facts?

Michael and Anita Walker both say "men."

They've been together for 42 years.

So what does Michael lie about?

"About where I've been. Maybe I stopped for a coffee or a beer after work... or two," he said.

"For 42 years I've known that," said Anita.

WBZ-TV's David Wade reports

The most recent study on this subject came out of Britain.

It found that men lie about 1,000 times a year and women about 700 times.

The biggest lie for men was, "I haven't had too much to drink."

And the most common lie for women was, "Nothing is bothering me. Everything is fine."

The survey said that men also use the "Nothing's wrong, I'm fine" line.

And "I had no signal on my cell phone," and "No, your butt doesn't look big in that."

Other popular lies for women are:

"I don't know where it is, I didn't touch it," "I've got a headache," and "It wasn't that expensive."

According to Anita Walker, "I just spend it and when he says 'How much?' I say 'You'll know when the bills come in.'"

"I think both genders think that the other lies more," says Dr. Charles Foster of the Chestnut Hill Institute.

He's skeptical of the British survey.

"Maybe they got the best data in the world. Maybe no one lied in response to their questionnaire. Maybe men do lie more than women. But it's still only going to be a little bit," says Foster.

Dr. Foster says we all do it.

His book "Truth Without Fear" is about making sure the truth doesn't hurt.

"You really need to tell the truth to each other, but when you are, remember who you're talking to and what they need and how they feel," he advises.

And we were just wondering, what's the best way to answer "Do these pants make me look fat?"

"If you say those aren't the most flattering pants for you, that's what women say all the time to each other. So why isn't it OK to say that?" says Foster.

Ah, good luck with that.

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