Do men lie more than women?
My Deutschkurs (German course) is a source of much fun and learning. Twice a week, we learn about various aspects of Germany, and then the teacher asks us how it is in our country, and we get to learn about various countries while picking up some German. Over the last 8 months or so, I've picked up interesting tidbits about China, Iran, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, Italy, Poland and Spain, and thought about India in ways I may have not in quite a while, or ever.
Anyway, the topic of the last two classes was rather unexpected : lies. Yes, lies. The different sorts of lies that people tell, and the German words for them, and so on. We heard an interview with a "lie researcher", who shared his findings - the truth about lies, so to say. The most provocative statement was the following :
Men lie more than women.
That took people by surprise - some, because they thought it was the other way, and others, like me, because they simply hadn't thought there was any sex-specific difference. What do you think?
He then went on to say that the two sexes indulged in different sorts of lying to different extents - apparently, men tend to lie a lot more about things which pertain to "status symbols", e.g their physiques, cars ... (this was based on a study of people in Germany and Austria), and of course paying insincere cimpliments, while women tend to tell more "self-lies", e.g fantasizing about a future rather out of tune with reality, covering up their men's infidelity, and so on.
The one area where they lie equally, apparently, is in the workplace, where hardly anyone owns up to mistakes, preferring to pass the buck on. This was explained as a result of women in the workplace having gradually adopted men's behaviour.
We also discussed "social lies", many of which are again of the status symbol type, or the insincere compliment type. Since many, possibly most people indulge in these, they are thereby deemed somewhat acceptable, as are lies delivered under extreme pressure.
I thought about how these things are influenced by the society in which one lives - for example, women may be forced to lie more in societies where they have little freedom of expression, and are expected to keep everyone happy. Interestingly, in the next class, this turned out to be part of the researcher's explanation - that women lie less now because of greater freedom and financial independence.
All in all, a surprising and thought provoking topic, which could make for many future conversations, don't you think?
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Watched Bhool Bhulaiyya, the title song of which is firmly lodged in my head - yours, too? Every now and then something goes ta ta thaiyya in my head, though - bet not in yours :-)
The movie itself is watchable, but I would recommend two other recent Hindi movies over it :
Om Shanti Om is good fun - of course, if you go in for a Farah Khan film expecting anything other than "fultoo timepass", well, you'd be the one to blame. Given that, the movie is good fun, especially if you've seen plenty of hindi movies from the 70s onwards. The best thing is that they make fun of almost everyone, themselves included. Watch it for some laughs, and a celebration of Hindi movies, warts and all.
Johnny Gaddar is almost surprisingly good - not so surprising, actually, if you liked Ek Hasina Thi and knew that it's the same director. Sriram Raghavan looks like a name to keep an eye out for. The film was very well made, a thriller which never slackened - and plenty of good performances. Nitin Neil Mukesh was pretty good for a debutant, and might choose interesting roles, if this one is anything to go by.
And I finally watched The Simpsons Movie, and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you happen to like the Simpsons but haven't seen the movie, you must check this out :
Spider Pig
and the "real song" version :
Spider Pig - the full song
Funny in a ridiculous sort of way - my kind of way :-)
Anyway, the topic of the last two classes was rather unexpected : lies. Yes, lies. The different sorts of lies that people tell, and the German words for them, and so on. We heard an interview with a "lie researcher", who shared his findings - the truth about lies, so to say. The most provocative statement was the following :
Men lie more than women.
That took people by surprise - some, because they thought it was the other way, and others, like me, because they simply hadn't thought there was any sex-specific difference. What do you think?
He then went on to say that the two sexes indulged in different sorts of lying to different extents - apparently, men tend to lie a lot more about things which pertain to "status symbols", e.g their physiques, cars ... (this was based on a study of people in Germany and Austria), and of course paying insincere cimpliments, while women tend to tell more "self-lies", e.g fantasizing about a future rather out of tune with reality, covering up their men's infidelity, and so on.
The one area where they lie equally, apparently, is in the workplace, where hardly anyone owns up to mistakes, preferring to pass the buck on. This was explained as a result of women in the workplace having gradually adopted men's behaviour.
We also discussed "social lies", many of which are again of the status symbol type, or the insincere compliment type. Since many, possibly most people indulge in these, they are thereby deemed somewhat acceptable, as are lies delivered under extreme pressure.
I thought about how these things are influenced by the society in which one lives - for example, women may be forced to lie more in societies where they have little freedom of expression, and are expected to keep everyone happy. Interestingly, in the next class, this turned out to be part of the researcher's explanation - that women lie less now because of greater freedom and financial independence.
All in all, a surprising and thought provoking topic, which could make for many future conversations, don't you think?
***************************************************************
Watched Bhool Bhulaiyya, the title song of which is firmly lodged in my head - yours, too? Every now and then something goes ta ta thaiyya in my head, though - bet not in yours :-)
The movie itself is watchable, but I would recommend two other recent Hindi movies over it :
Om Shanti Om is good fun - of course, if you go in for a Farah Khan film expecting anything other than "fultoo timepass", well, you'd be the one to blame. Given that, the movie is good fun, especially if you've seen plenty of hindi movies from the 70s onwards. The best thing is that they make fun of almost everyone, themselves included. Watch it for some laughs, and a celebration of Hindi movies, warts and all.
Johnny Gaddar is almost surprisingly good - not so surprising, actually, if you liked Ek Hasina Thi and knew that it's the same director. Sriram Raghavan looks like a name to keep an eye out for. The film was very well made, a thriller which never slackened - and plenty of good performances. Nitin Neil Mukesh was pretty good for a debutant, and might choose interesting roles, if this one is anything to go by.
And I finally watched The Simpsons Movie, and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you happen to like the Simpsons but haven't seen the movie, you must check this out :
Spider Pig
and the "real song" version :
Spider Pig - the full song
Funny in a ridiculous sort of way - my kind of way :-)