60秒科学:诚实不等于容易受骗（在线收听）

研究表明那些诚实的人比那些心理阴暗的人更容易识别出谎话。KH报道。所以诚实有利于培养更好的对人际关系知觉。如果你不相信这个观点，也许……你可能只是对自己不够诚实。

When you think of someone who’s trusting, you may assume that they’re gullible. But that’s not necessarily true—a fact that your Pollyanna pal might be in a good position to point out. Because people who have faith in their fellow human beings are actually good at spotting lies.

The finding is described in the journal Social Psychological & Personality Science.

Researchers videotaped a cadre of second-year MBA students as they pretended to interview for a job. Half the interviewees were entirely truthful, and half told at least three whoppers, lies they thought would make them more attractive candidates for the fake job.

The scientists then showed these videos to a second set of subjects and asked them to rate the honesty of the interviewees and say which ones they’d hire. The results: subjects who said they think that most people are basically honest, good-natured, and kind were better at spotting the liars than the self-described cynics. Subjects who were more suspicious were, ironically, more likely to hire the liars and less likely to detect their fabrications.

So trust may lend itself to better interpersonal intuition. And if you don’t believe that, well, maybe you’re just not being honest with yourself.