Lies that bite you in the bum

Here’s another interesting survey from goo Ranking, this time looking at what lies we tell that come back to haunt us.

Demographics

Over the 22nd and 23rd of February 2010 1,123 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.6% of the sample were female, 9.6% in their teens, 22.2% in their twenties, 32.1% in their thirties, 24.9% in their forties, 7.5% in their fifties, and 3.8% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

My biggest lie was announcing to friends back in Scotland shortly after moving to Japan that I now had a million in the bank, but without pointing out it was in the rather less impressive yen, not pounds. I also lived in a royal mansion when I first came to Japan.

For number 13, I would have thought claiming not to be married would have been a bigger problem!

My wife doesn’t need to lie about 2,　4, 5, 15, 16 and 20. At least I hope she’s not lying about them…

Ranking result

Q: What big lies have you come to later regret spreading? (Sample size=1,123)

Rank		Score
1	My family has lots of money and live in a posh house	100
2	I can speak English	92.8
3	I won the lottery	92.5
4	I’m friends with someone famous	90.4
5	My break into the entertainment world has been decided	81.3
6	I’ve been in hospital with a serious injury	78.5
7	I have a holiday home	68.2
8	A relative has been ill, unlucky, died, etc	68.0
9	My parents’ home is a posh inn in a famous hot springs town	65.7
10	I bought a posh imported car	62.6
11	I’m good in the kitchen	61.0
12	I’ve been picked, scouted by a sports team	51.4
13	I’m married	48.4
14	My boss, teacher was in hospital with a serious illness	45.6
15	I was top of my class at school	44.9
16	I used to be a model	42.8
17	I used to be a good fighter	40.4
18	I used to be a bad boy/girl	40.2
19	Saying that today is a school/work holiday when it isn’t	39.0
20	All the boys/girls used to chase me	36.7