January is the month we tell most lies: survey

People tend to tell more lies in January than at any other time of the year, a new survey has revealed.

They may lie about New Year resolutions, exaggerating how well they are doing on diets and how many Christmas presents they got – all of which adds up to an average 217 porkies.

Fanciful boasting about their festive drink intake also makes into the list, the Daily Express reported.

This month also sees many of us using the winter mornings as a dubious excuse to feign illness and take a day off work and almost half of us also make up excuses to avoid socialising, according to the poll conducted to mark the release of season three of the television series 'Lie To Me' on DVD.

It is estimated that we tell seven lies a day in January, compared with an average of four per day the rest of the year.

But nearly half of the 2,000 adults polled said they were regularly caught out lying in January.

Money is one of the top things people lie about, with many concealing Christmas spending and how much they racked up on credit and debit cards.

A quarter tells whoppers over how much they spent in the sales. A fifth lied about where their New Year's Eve celebrations were held, pretending they were at swanky parties when they were in fact at home watching TV.

Other reasons given for lying include protecting someone's feelings or not wanting to let people down.

"Most people think they're good at detecting lies, but the truth is that they tend to look in the wrong places for those vital 'cues'," said Body language expert James Borg.

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