'Talking face-to-face is best way to spot a liar,' say psychologists
Research has shown that people are reluctant to lie when speaking to someone else - perhaps because they feared they would be more easily caught out, either by their body language or tone of voice.
In contrast, the favoured way of sharing jokes with friends and colleagues - emailing - is also the most popular of telling lies.
Research shows that when people want to be economical with the truth, they are more likely to send an email than they are pick up the phone or speak face to face.
A study of office conversations, phone calls and emails revealed that up to a third were designed to deceive.
When trying to get out of a tricky situation, be it with their boss, a colleague, or a client, workers tended to resort to email first, followed by phone calls.
Face to face conversations were least popular with liars.
Typical deceptions included withholding information, changing the subject and being deliberately ambiguous.
But while email was the most popular method for being economical with the truth, workers hesitated to use it for telling outright lies, perhaps because they did not want a written record of their deception.
Overall, up to a third of office communications were less than truthful, with almost of these half containing outright lies, a British Psychological Society conference in Bristol will heal .
The research, carried out by University of Central Lancashire researchers Dr Sandi Mann (CORR) and Wincy Shek (CORR), also found that find it harder to lie to our friends than our enemies.
Dr Mann, an occupational psychologist, said: "This study suggests that deception occurs frequently in everyday workplace communications.
"Some types of deception occur more frequently than others and managers and employees should be on their guard for these.
"Not only does deception occur less frequently in face to face interactions, but also when people are communicating with those they felt closer to.
"If you want the truth, arrange for a face to face meeting, rather than communicating by email."
While the study did not examine people's motivation for lying to their colleagues, it is thought most were out to impress.
"It could be you are throwing a sickie, or have done something wrong or want to look better than a colleague - a lot of it is about creating a good impression," said Dr Mann.
"It also seems that the more competitive the environment, the more likely people are to tell lies."
