Have you ever been tempted to lie to a company? Consumers who fib are more satisfied than truth-tellers when a dispute with a firm works out to their advantage—and more unhappy when it doesn't. A study involving nearly 600 people put many of them in situations where they were prompted to lie to a "service provider," in order to gain a prize, or invited to do so. They leapt at the chance. In one scenario, students had the option of lying about computer habits to someone on the phone, in order to receive a USB flash-drive key ring; three-fourths chose to do so. In these lab scenarios, confirmed by interviews about real-world behavior, liars showed more polarized reactions than people who pleaded their case without embellishment. Lying demands substantial cognitive effort, the researchers explained, and that makes it harder for liars to notice cues about how a negotiation is going. So the resolution comes as more of a (pleasant or unpleasant) surprise."The Labor of Lies: How Lying for Material Rewards Polarizes Consumers Outcome Satisfaction," Christina I. Anthony and Elizabeth Cowley, Journal of Consumer Research (forthcoming)
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