for you. What's true here? Do you even know? Me either. Lies.

Hey there liars, Trace here for DNews. My mom always warned me about lying by telling

fables and stories and anecdotes… but as I get older I began to learn that little lies

can be good too. So what's the truth? Is lying bad or good?

A new study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B[a] looked at the effects of deception

in social networks, and according to their research, white lies, specifically, smooth

the flow of interactions and facilitate a larger, more integrated social group! Basically,

they're saying white lies are GOOD! A study published in the Journal of Basic and Applied

Psychology found we lie 2.92 times every 10 minutes! That's a lot of fibbing. Kids learn

to deceive by 2 or 3 years old and start to manipulate their parents. 4 years olds lie

once every two hours, and by six it's every 90 minutes! We lie all the time!

A white lie, is a harmless or trivial falsification, usually told to avoid hurting someone's feelings

-- the researchers call this a prosocial lie; and they're the good kind. Lies told that

are destructive or deceptive, those are antisocial lies -- and they do the exact opposite - weakening

the bonds between individuals and breaking down the social structure.

They write in their paper, "The balance between prosocial and antisocial lies may set constraints

on the structure of social networks, and hence the shape of society as a whole." Lies can

make or break us y'all. Using mathematical models, the researchers revealed what most

of us already know: when an individual participates in antisocial lying they slowly isolate themselves

from their social group -- while pro-social liers form stronger bonds and become more

integrated.

This also extends to online social networks as well. A study at California State University,

Dominguez Hills // Huh. I like that name… I wonder why… // Looked at lies told on

facebook and found that they are just as varied as lies spoken aloud. How many times have

you clicked "like" without ACTUALLY liking it. Maybe you just want to support them, even

if you dislike the post! Rationalize away, that's white lie, sistah. Or what if you post

a pretty picture of your cruise, but you're seasick and you omit that from the post -- white

lie, brah. Whether these are pro-social white lies, or antisocial white lies depends on

who they're targeting. And the intent of the post…

The Journal of Consumer Research found that even though they're beneficial to the whole,

white lies FEEL like lies to our brain. We KNOW we're being dishonest, so we try to fix

it, or make up for our dishonesty to escape cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance

is when your brain thinks one thing and you act differently. Like if a bad server at a

restaurant asks how your meal was -- usually, we lie. We save the waiters feelings and keep

things on an even keel! According to research into cognitive dissonance, unless the service

was REALLY bad, we will often tip more because we want to make up for our white lie! It's

silly, but it happens on a subconscious level. It's part of our evolution trying to keep

our social networks balanced.

Are you going to think about your lies as pro or anti social lies now? What's the worst

lie you've ever told? Tell your lies down below in the comments. I'm not going to lie

to you, I'm really excited about this upcoming SpaceOut with NASA JPL. We're going to hangout

and talk about what MSL Curiosity has been doing on Mars for one Martian Year (about

two Earth years). We've got one of the rover's actual drivers, project scientists, and Bobak

Ferdowsi -- the mohawk guy who helped get it to Mars in the first place! You should

RSVP with the link in the description to join us -- we're going live at 4pm Pacific on July

30! COME! You wouldn't want to miss it. Thanks for watching DNews -- and please subscribe

for more.