Liars Feel Need to Wash Up Afterward

Study: They like to cleanse either their hands or mouth
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 30, 2010 6:18 PM CDT
Liars Feel Need to Wash Up Afterward
People feel the need to wash their hands after they've typed a lie, a UMichigan study found.   (Shutterstock)

Liars like to literally clean up after their deceit, a new study suggests. What's more, if they typed their fib in an email, they want hand sanitizer; if they spoke the lie, they prefer mouthwash, reports AOL News. So say University of Michigan researchers who put student volunteers in an imaginary scenario in which they had the choice to lie or not, followed up by a marketing survey of hygiene products.

"This study shows how 'concrete' the metaphorical links are between abstract and concrete domains of life," says one of the researchers. "Not only do people want to clean after a dirty deed, they want to clean the specific body part involved." More details from AOL's Katie Drummond here.
(More lying stories.)

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