by Cathy Manson

How can you tell if someones lying？ The answer is， theyre probably not.

Traditional economics[經濟學] says that people are rational beings who will lie if its to their advantage. A recent university study has shown that， actually， were pretty honest—especially when were at home.

Researchers in Germany phoned people at home and asked them to toss a coin. There was a strong financial incentive to fake the result： if the coin landed tails-up， the participant[參與者] would receive money or a gift voucher[禮券]， while if the coin landed heads-up， they would get nothing. Because they were on the phone， they knew there was no risk of getting caught if they lied.

And yet people told the truth. Over hundreds of tosses a coin will land tails-up roughly 50% of the time. In this study， over half the people asked （55.6%） said that the coin landed heads-up， which meant they would receive nothing.

Previous studies had found that people were more deceitful. In those laboratory studies， 75% of people reported a winning coin and claimed a reward. So the research team thinks its being in our own homes which makes us play fair， although its not yet clear why.

In fact both types of study show people are surprisingly trustworthy. Even in the laboratory， 25% of people turned down a reward by telling the truth. The researchers say this is because honesty is highly valued in human society. We care about our reputation[名譽] and our sense of ourselves as decent people. So lying has a psychological[心理上的] cost and it seems this cost outweighs the financial benefits of lying.

你如何看出某個人有沒有撒謊？答案是——他們也許沒有撒謊呢。

傳統經濟學認為人類是理智的動物——如果對自己有利，他們就會撒謊。而最近一項大學研究顯示，我們其實挺誠實的——特別是在家的時候。

德國的研究人員往人們家里打電話，并叫他們拋硬幣（猜正反面）。這個實驗設下了很豐厚的金錢獎勵，誘惑人們謊報結果：如果硬幣落地后背面朝上，受訪者將得到金錢或禮券獎勵；如果硬幣正面朝上，受訪者則一無所獲。由于受訪者是在使用電話，所以他們知道即使撒謊也沒有被發(fā)現的危險。

然而人們還是說了實話。在幾百次的拋硬幣當中，背面朝上的幾率約為50%。在這項研究里，超過一半的受訪者（55.6%）說硬幣正面朝上，也意味著他們將得不到獎品。

過去的一些研究發(fā)現人們在以前比現在更容易撒謊。在那些實驗室進行的研究中，75%的人說拋贏了，要拿獎品。因此，研究小組認為是家的環(huán)境令我們公平行事，盡管原因未明。

事實上，兩種類型的研究都顯示了人們出乎意料地可靠。即使是在實驗室里，也有25%的人說了實話而不要獎品。研究人員說，這是因為在人類社會里，誠實受到高度重視。我們在乎自己的聲譽，和作為一個正派的人的自尊感。因此，撒謊要付出心理成本，而這種成本似乎比撒謊所帶來的金錢收益要大。

Quiz小測驗

閱讀短文并回答問題。

1. According to traditional economics， when do people lie？

2. Did researchers visit people in their homes？

3. What happened if they said the coin landed tails-up？

4. Were people more honest in laboratory studies or in their own homes？

5. According to the researchers， what is highly valued in society？