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The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences logoLink to The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
. 2024 Feb 16;79(5):gbae022. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbae022

Younger and Older Adults’ Health Lies to Close Others

Jessica C Frias 1, Alison M O’Connor 2,✉
Editor: Rodlescia S Sneed3
PMCID: PMC11465404  PMID: 38366842

Abstract

Objectives

Lying is a common social behavior; however, there is limited research on lying about health and if this differs into later life. This study sought to explore age differences in the frequency of and motivations behind telling health-related lies and if lying differs within romantic and parent/child relationships.

Methods

Younger (N = 158) and older adults (N = 149) reported how often they told general health-related lies, how often they lied about health to their romantic partner and parent or adult child, and why they told health lies.

Results

Compared with older adults, younger adults lied more frequently to conceal sickness and pain as well as to feign sickness. Younger adults also told more health lies to their parent than their romantic partner, but older adults lied to their adult child and partner at similar rates. Younger adults reported lying more about their health because they felt ashamed or embarrassed and they worried about what others would think of them compared with older adults.

Discussion

These results suggest that health-related honesty may increase in later life and that younger and older adults differ in why they tell health lies. Implications for psychological theory on lying about one’s health and health interventions are discussed.

Keywords: Age, Communication, Deception, Dishonesty, Shame

Honest communication with others (e.g., healthcare providers, spouses, parents/children) surrounding one’s health concerns is an important step in receiving social and health supports. Yet, past research has found that adults tell health-related lies (Harris & Darby, 2009; O’Connor & Evans, 2022; Pachankis et al., 2015; Rush et al., 2016). Health lies are told when someone knowingly provides false information about their health or health behaviors to intentionally deceive or mislead others. Health lies may be told due to feelings of shame (Harris & Darby, 2009), particularly if the health concern may be linked with stigmatized or poor health behaviors. As such, individuals may be reluctant to disclose their health status and concerns to others.

Harmful consequences may appear because of telling health lies. Lying about one’s health concerns and feeling ashamed can not only isolate individuals and prevent them from receiving social supports, but the lies may also prevent access to treatment to alleviate such concerns (Pachankis et al., 2015). Indeed, Pachankis et al. (2015) found that higher country-level stigma toward sexual minorities was associated with higher rates of sexual health concealment (i.e., HIV status), suggesting that cultural factors may also shape health-related lying. Moreover, as health concerns increase with advancing age and one of the six principles to guide long-lived societies is to promote physical health (Jowell et al., 2020), it is critical to conduct this research with older adults to understand how to promote the health of our aging population. The present study sought to (1) provide a more comprehensive understanding of how often younger and older adults lie about their health (in general), (2) explore if rates of health lying differ in important close social relationships (i.e., with romantic partners and parents/children), and (3) examine why such health lies are told.

Age and Health

As individuals age, there are risk factors acquired throughout their lifetime that can increase the prevalence of more serious health issues in later life (Cui et al., 2022). There are also social determinants of health (e.g., poverty, stress) active across the lifespan that can shape one’s health experience in later life (Ehrlich, 2020). Given the complexity and prevalence of health concerns in later life (Piazza et al., 2007), lying about health behaviors or concerns may be particularly problematic and may prevent older adults from receiving important health resources. While younger adults tend to report fewer health concerns and chronic health conditions, many engage in risky health behaviors such as binge drinking and/or drug experimentation (Jahangard et al., 2019); therefore, it is important to understand the extent to which health behaviors may be concealed from others in both early and late adulthood. Moreover, from a preventative standpoint, it is important to learn how to encourage honesty at an earlier age so that one’s health can be effectively monitored as one ages.

Age and Lying

Lying is a common social behavior (Debey et al., 2015; DePaulo et al., 1996; Serota et al., 2010). On average, adults have been found to lie at least once per day, and majority of lies are told to benefit or help the self (DePaulo et al., 1996). A large body of research has studied the complexity of lying, demonstrating the use of lying about one’s behaviors or feelings in family environments (e.g., Jensen et al., 2004), academic or workplace settings (e.g., Grover, 2005), friendships (e.g., Dykstra et al., 2020), and romantic relationships (e.g., Cole, 2001). While it is possible that lies about health may be told in any of these contexts, very little research has explored adults’ health-related lying specifically.

Despite the common nature of lying, research has found an aging honesty effect where older adults tend to lie less often than younger adults (Debey et al., 2015; O’Connor & Evans, 2022; O’Connor et al., 2022). An increase in honesty in later life may be, in part, explained by shifts in social motivations. Socioemotional selectivity theory posits that as adults age into later life (and their future time left to live narrows), emotionally meaningful goals (e.g., balancing emotions) and investments in meaningful relationships are prioritized (Carstensen et al., 2003; Charles & Carstensen, 2010). Given that lying can instill feelings of guilt and create distance or conflict within relationships (DePaulo et al., 1996), older adults may be less motivated and less willing to lie to others as this may disrupt the pursuit of emotionally meaningful goals that are particularly salient in later life.

Despite converging evidence for the aging honesty effect, minimal research has explored age differences in health-related lying specifically. In one study, O’Connor and Evans (2022) found that with advancing age, adults were more honest about coronavirus disease 2019 health behaviors, but as this research was conducted within a unique global pandemic, continued research is needed to understand age differences in telling health lies in a more generalizable context. Rush and colleagues (2016) conducted a case study on eight older adults following their release from the hospital, finding that older adults sometimes concealed information about their health and recovery, often to maintain a sense of ableism and independence. As such, health-related lying may indeed be active in older adults’ lives, but further research is needed with larger samples to explore age differences in general health-related lying.

While there is a paucity of research exploring age differences in health-related lying, considerable research with younger adults has explored a related concept—malingering—which is the intentional production of false or exaggerated physical symptoms for external gain (e.g., to receive worker’s compensation or disability payments; McDermott & Feldman, 2007; Mittenberg et al., 2002). Thus, there is evidence to suggest that adults are willing to tell high stakes lies about health conditions and symptoms, warranting further research exploring the frequency of lying about health experiences across age groups.

Health Lies in Close Relationships

When exploring health lies, it is also important to examine the relationships in which such lies may be told. Prior research has explored health lies told to one’s doctor (Harris & Darby, 2009), but no research has provided an account of how often adults lie to various close social members in their lives. Romantic and parent–child relationships hold significant importance in one’s life and are essential sources of support; therefore, we assessed how often younger and older adults reported lying to each of these social contacts, and we assessed lying about their daily health behaviors that would be applicable to a wide range of participants (e.g., alcohol use, exercise).

In prior research on daily lying (not specific to a health context), adults have been found to lie to parents and to their romantic partners (DePaulo & Kashy, 1998). Younger adults may lie to their parents to attain their own independence and avoid punishment or judgment from risky health behaviors (e.g., binge drinking; Jensen et al., 2004) and aging parents may lie to their adult children to maintain their own independence and perhaps to not worry their children with their changing health needs. Within romantic relationships, individuals become emotionally connected with one another and possess expectations of reciprocal disclosure. Yet, individuals may lie to their romantic partner to maintain their own self-interest and, again, perhaps to not worry their partner. Indeed, Rush and colleagues (2016) found that older adults sometimes lied about their health to their spouse to appear healthier and to not worry them. The present study will build upon this research by exploring if health lies are told more often to one’s parent/child or romantic partner, as well as if there are age differences in the rates of lying to these close social contacts.

Motivations for Telling Health Lies

It is important to consider why health lies are told as this knowledge can assist in developing strategies to promote honest communication. While past research has demonstrated the role of shame and fear of stigma in telling health lies (Harris & Darby, 2009; Pachankis et al., 2015), there may be other motivators that encourage health lies and this may differ across age groups. From socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen et al., 2003; Charles & Carstensen, 2010), older adults tend to prioritize emotionally meaningful goals as their future time horizon narrows, while younger adults tend to view their time as extensive, motivating them to acquire resources for the future. Thus, younger and older adults often have different social goals and may therefore have different motivations to lie, and understanding such motivations can help us to better understand barriers that prevent disclosures across age groups.

The Present Study

In the present study, we explored age differences in the frequency of and motivation behind telling health lies. We also examined if rates of health lying differ in certain close relationships and between younger and older adults. An online questionnaire was administered to younger and older adults to assess how often individuals lied about their health concerns and why they told such lies.

First, we predicted that younger adults would tell more health lies than older adults, consistent with past research showing an age-related decline in telling lies in general (Debey et al., 2015) and in a health context (O’Connor et al., 2022; but see Rush et al., 2016). When examining health lies to close others (parents/adult children and romantic partners), we predicted that both younger and older adults would lie more to their parent or adult child than their romantic partner. Romantic relationships are often more emotionally intimate relationships with expectations of reciprocal communication, potentially resulting in lower rates of lying. Within parent–adult child relationships, there may be a greater sense of independence that enables more lying in this context (DePaulo & Kashy, 1998). Lastly, given the differences in younger and older adults’ social motivations, we predicted that younger adults would be more likely to tell health lies for self-serving reasons (i.e., to make things easier for themselves or because they worry what others think), whereas older adults would be more likely to tell health lies for other-oriented reasons (i.e., to not burden others). We also expected that feelings of shame would be commonly endorsed as a motivator for both younger and older adults given the emphasis of shame in prior research (Harris & Darby, 2009; Rush et al., 2016).

Method

Participants

A total of 310 participants were recruited; however, data from three participants was excluded because they did not meet the age criteria. Thus, the final sample included 307 participants with 158 younger adults (Mage = 25.46, standard deviation [SD] = 3.34, range = 18–35 years; 49% female) and 149 older adults (Mage = 70.22, SD = 5.14, range = 60–93 years; 50% female). Participants were recruited and tested through Prolific (https://www.prolific.co/) and were all American citizens. A power analysis determined a total sample size of 283 to be sufficient to detect medium effects in a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA; power = .80, α = .05; based on O’Connor et al., 2022).

The younger adult participants were approximately 52% Caucasian, 10% Black or African American, 11% Latin-American, 7% East Asian, 4% Southeast Asian, 4% South Asian, less than 1% were Indigenous, and 11% were mixed ethnicity. In terms of highest level of education achieved, 13% of younger adults completed a postgraduate or professional degree, 49% completed college or university, 11% were current undergraduate students, 22% completed high school, and less than 1% completed less than high school. Seventy-eight percent of younger adults rated their health as good, very good, or excellent, and 20% reported that they had a chronic health condition.

The older adult participants were approximately 94% Caucasian, 3% Black or African American, 1% Latin-American, and 1% or less of participants were East Asian or mixed ethnicity. Of note, given the different ethnicity distributions across younger and older adults, ethnicity was included as a covariate in the analyses. Among older adults, 28% completed a postgraduate or professional degree as their highest education, 40% completed college or university, 1% were current undergraduate students, and 26% completed high school. Seventy-four percent of older adults rated their health as good, very good, or excellent, and 59% reported that they had a chronic health condition.

Materials and Procedure

A questionnaire was administered on the Prolific online testing platform. All participants provided informed consent prior to participating in the study. Participants first read a paragraph about the topic of lying and health to neutralize these topics (see Supplementary Materials), followed by a questionnaire assessing how often and why they tell various health lies. Participants provided demographic information and were debriefed about the common nature of lying. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Board of Mount Allison University. This study took approximately 15 min to complete, and participants were compensated with £1.65 for their participation.

Health lies questionnaire

General health lies

Participants first reported how often they have lied within the past year across five general health lie questions (i.e., not specific to a certain recipient). Health scenarios included (1) lying about or denying one’s sickness, (2) feigning sickness when one is not sick, (3) lying about physical pain, (4) lying about recovery challenges following a medical procedure, and (5) lying about one’s adherence to doctor-recommended behaviors. Participants indicated how often they tend to tell each health lie by selecting 0 (never), 1 (rarely), 2 (sometimes), 3 (often), or 4 (always). If participants had never experienced the health scenario (e.g., a medical procedure), they selected “not applicable.” These topics were chosen to cover ubiquitous health scenarios that most adults would have experience with. Internal consistency across these health lies topics was acceptable (α = 0.72).

Health lies in romantic and parent–child relationships

Participants then reported how often they lied about their basic lifestyle/health behaviors to two specific people in their lives: their romantic partner and either their parent (for younger adult participants) or their adult child (for older adult participants). For each recipient, participants reported how often they have lied (to their romantic partner; parent/adult child) about (1) their exercise habits, (2) diet/eating habits, (3) alcohol consumption, (4) recreational drug consumption, and (5) cigarette use. Participants responded to each item by selecting 0 (never), 1 (rarely), 2 (sometimes), 3 (often), or 4 (always). If participants had never experienced the health scenario or did not have a given recipient in their lives, they selected “not applicable.” These topics were chosen to cover ubiquitous health/lifestyle scenarios that most adults would have experience communicating about. The frequency of lying across these five variables was averaged for each recipient to compute an overall score for lying to parents/children (α = 0.71) and lying to romantic partners (α = 0.76).

Motivations for telling health lies

Participants were given a list of six reasons for telling health lies and indicated how strongly each statement describes them. Reasons for lying included (1) because I feel ashamed or embarrassed, (2) because it makes things easier for myself, (3) to not burden or worry others, (4) because I worry what others will think of me, (5) because talking about it just makes me uncomfortable, and (6) because I don’t want to show weakness to others. Participants responded on a 7-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Results

Frequency of Telling Health Lies

General health lies

Telling health lies was quite a common behavior among younger and older adults. Figure 1 shows the percentage of participants who lied about the five different health issues at least once in the past year, showing that over 60% of younger adults had lied about each topic and over 50% of older adults had lied about four of the five topics. In particular, denying sickness and denying pain were extremely common with 89% and 82% of younger and older adults telling such lies in the past year, respectively.

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

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The percentage of younger and older adults who lied about various health topics in the past year. This figure depicts the percentage of participants who affirmed the lie (collapsing across participants reporting that they rarely, sometimes, often, or always lie about this).

To test age differences in general health-related lying, we conducted a MANOVA on the five health lie topics with age group (younger vs older adults) as a between-subjects variable and ethnicity included as a covariate. There was a main effect of age group, F(5, 253) = 6.01, p < .001, ηp2 = 0.106. As can be seen in Table 1, younger adults lied significantly more often than older adults to both deny being sick and to pretend being sick (feigning sickness) and to deny pain. Younger and older adults did not significantly differ in their rate of lying about recovery from medical procedures and adherence to doctor-recommended behaviors.

Table 1.

Comparing the Frequency of General Health Lies Across Younger and Older Adults

Health lie topic Mean scores (SD) F
Younger adults Older adults
Denying sickness 1.76 (0.91) 1.43 (0.88) 6.73*
Feigning sickness 0.99 (0.88) 0.49 (0.66) 24.76**
Pain 1.59 (0.95) 1.36 (0.98) 5.54*
Recovery 0.94 (0.97) 0.81 (0.91) 0.281
Doctor-recommended behaviors 1.36 (1.14) 1.14 (0.97) 1.73
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Notes: Mean scores depict the average frequency of telling the health lie on a scale from 0 to 4. SD = standard deviation.

*p < .05. **p < .001.

Health lies to close others

Next, we examined if there were age differences in how often younger and older adults told health lies to their parent/child and romantic partner (between subjects), as well as if lies were told more often within one of these relationships (within subjects). As such, a mixed-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted on lie frequency scores with age group (younger vs older adults) entered as the between-subjects variable, lie recipient (parent/child vs romantic partner) entered as within-subjects variables, and ethnicity was included as a covariate. Results indicated a significant main effect of age group, F(1, 195) = 4.49, p = .035, ηp2 = 0.022, such that, overall, younger adults told more health lies (M = 0.640, standard error [SE] = 0.059) than older adults (M = 0.441, SE = 0.068). There was also a main effect of lie recipient, F(1, 195) = 17.41, p < .001, ηp2 = 0.082, where, overall, health lies were told more often in parent/child relationships (M = 0.687, SE = 0.054) than in romantic relationships (M = 0.395, SE = 0.040). However, these main effects were subsumed by an age group by lie recipient interaction, F(1, 195) = 24.24, p < .001, ηp2 = 0.111. Follow-up tests (controlling for ethnicity) were conducted within each age group, demonstrating that younger adults told significantly more health lies to their parent (M = 0.92, SE = 0.078) than to their romantic partner (M = 0.40, SE = 0.056), F(1, 110) = 20.77, p < .001, ηp2 = 0.159. Among older adults, there was no significant difference in rates of lying to one’s adult child and romantic partner (p = .165, ηp2 = 0.023).

Motivations for telling health lies

Participants showed fairly high agreement ratings with all of the reasons provided for telling health lies, suggesting that while participants tell health lies because of shame and to not burden others, several other novel factors may also motivate health lies (e.g., because it makes things easier for the self, because of impression management, and because disclosing health concerns is uncomfortable; see Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Figure 2.

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Average agreement ratings with motivations for telling health lies. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.

To assess age differences in why adults tell health lies, a series of between-subjects ANOVAs were conducted with age group (younger vs older adults) as the independent variable, ethnicity as a covariate, and the various lie motivations entered as dependent variables, respectively. Significance levels were adjusted to control for multiple comparisons (.05/6 = .008). Compared with older adults, younger adults showed significantly higher agreement with lying about their health because they were ashamed or embarrassed, F(1, 296) = 13.97, p < .001, ηp2 = 0.045, and because they worried what others would think of them, F(1, 296) = 12.76, p < .001, ηp2 = 0.041. Younger and older adults did not significantly differ in their agreement with the remaining lie motivations (ps > .116; see Figure 2).

Discussion

Lying about health issues may risk the health of individuals by preventing access to necessary treatments or social supports. In the present study, it was shown that both younger and older adults told lies about their health, but some health lies were more common among younger adults. Younger adults told more lies to their parent than to their romantic partner, but older adults lied at similar rates to their adult child and romantic partner. Younger adults were more motivated to tell health lies because they were ashamed or embarrassed and worried about what others would think of them compared with older adults. The findings from this study highlight the use of and motivation behind health-related lying and how this differs with age.

Age Differences in Lie Frequency

Although lying is a common behavior, previous research has found an age-related decrease in lying into later adulthood. (Debey et al., 2015; O’Connor & Evans, 2022; O’Connor et al., 2022). The present results suggest that this age-related difference in lying may persist in certain health contexts, even though health concerns tend to increase in frequency and complexity with age. Indeed, across our various health lie topics, we either found that younger adults told more health lies than older adults or there was no significant age effect. For example, when exploring general health-related lying, younger adults lied significantly more often to deny being sick and in pain, and to pretend to be sick compared to older adults, yet both age groups told similar lies about recovery processes and following doctor instructions.

Given that younger adults are motivated by expansive knowledge-related goals (Carstensen et al., 2003) and tend to have school and work obligations, these common lies about sickness may be used as strategies to manage these demands (e.g., feigning sickness to excuse an absence from work or school or denying sickness or pain to attend work to earn money and/or advance oneself). The circumstances of later life (e.g., retirement) may not necessitate sickness-related lies in the same way and given older adults’ greater prevalence of health concerns (Cui et al., 2022), they may take sickness more seriously and be less motivated to lie about it. The fact that younger and older adults were similar in rates of lying about recovery processes and following doctor-recommended behaviors suggests that some health-related lying, perhaps in more serious contexts, stays consistent with age. Interestingly, research has also suggested that lying (and sophisticated lying) is a cognitively taxing act requiring proficient use of executive functioning skills (e.g., Walczyk et al., 2003). Given that executive functions tend to decrease with age (e.g., Craik & Bialystok, 2006), it is possible that older adults tell fewer lies because of this cognitive burden or self-perception that they would not be able to maintain their lies. Future research can explore how the array of situational, social, and cognitive differences among younger and older adults may help to explain age differences in lying about health and other topics. As we compared samples of younger and older adults, future research that tests age continuously can help us to understand health-related lying that occurs in middle adulthood.

It is also important to note that while we found that majority of participants did tell health lies, to some degree, in the past year, the frequency scores for how often these lies were told were somewhat low. This suggests that health lies are not necessarily consistently or always told, but that almost all participants told health lies at least a little bit. Given the common experience of health lying, it will be important for future research to access how health lies relate to health outcomes and access to treatment and supports.

Lie Frequency Across Relationships

We also examined the rates at which younger and older adults lied about health topics to their parent or adult child and romantic partner. It was found that younger adults lied more to their parent than to their romantic partner, while the rates of lying to one’s adult child and romantic partner did not differ among older adults. These results align with previous research indicating that lying to close others may increase if their behavior defies set expectations (DePaulo & Kashy, 1998). Younger adults may lie to their parents about their health behaviors to avoid punishment if they believe their parents would not approve or condone their actions (Jensen et al., 2004). Within romantic relationships, individuals may be less likely to lie as these relationships are more intimate and involve the exchange of equivalent resources such as affection and commitment. Older adults were found to lie less in both relationships compared with younger adults, but the rate of lying did not significantly differ across these two relationships. In later life, both romantic and parent–child relationships typically reflect long-term relationships, and older adults may be more comfortable and recognize the importance of honestly sharing information with both social contacts. Interestingly, these results suggest that younger adults may tell more health lies to parents than parents tell to their children. As older adults may need to increasingly manage health needs and receive assistance from children with advancing age, they may take health topics more seriously and be more honest about their health to their adult children to receive such supports. However, in our sample of older adults on Prolific, we likely tested older adults who are largely self-sufficient, and so these results may change depending on the level of care being provided by adult children. It will be important to test these research questions in a sample of higher-risk older adults or with older adults who actively rely on adult children as caretakers to explore if health-related lies differ when children specifically take on caretaking roles.

Age-Related Differences in Lie Motivations

Lastly, we explored age-related differences in reasons why health lies are told. We found that younger adults showed greater agreement with lying about health because they felt ashamed or embarrassed and they worried about what others would think of them compared with older adults. However, among both age groups, individuals showed relatively high agreement for all the reasons presented for health-related lying, including not wanting to be a burden on others and because lying makes things easier for themselves. These results suggest that adults tell health lies for both self- and other-oriented reasons. However, younger adults may feel more shame about their health and bodies, aligning with research on high rates of body dissatisfaction among youth and young adults (Barnett et al., 2020). Older adults, on the other hand, have likely had extensive experience discussing their health needs and experiences across their life course, and this lived experience may help older adults feel less ashamed to discuss health topics. Research has also found that self-confidence improves with age (Cross & Markus, 1991) and this may be associated with this decrease in shame. Young adults are also more susceptible to peer influence and are often concerned with how others view them (Tomé et al., 2012). This aligns with our results showing that younger adults were more likely to lie about their health because they worried what others would think of them.

These results can help to inform potential honesty promotion interventions for younger adults specifically, suggesting that techniques to overcome feelings of shame, embarrassment, and impression management may be particularly beneficial. For example, future research exploring how to modify questioning or communication styles to reduce feelings of shame about sensitive health topics may help to promote honesty in health-related conversations. It may also be important to study and share techniques to effectively respond to someone else’s health disclosure in a way that does not reinforce shame. Alternatively, perhaps an approach that focuses on reducing shame about health concerns and bodies more holistically (e.g., teaching self-acceptance and self-compassion) may be helpful in reducing levels of health-related shame that may be encouraging lying.

Limitations

Although the present study found evidence that younger adults told more health lies than older adults, it is possible that there are additional health contexts or topics that older adults lie more about that were not tested in this study. For example, we assessed lying to parents/children and partners about global health/lifestyle behaviors that would be applicable to most people (e.g., food/diet, exercise, alcohol consumption). Future research can explore a wider variety of health topics to deepen our understanding. Given the potential for health-related lying to be a complex multifaceted construct, future research may benefit from exploring if the motivation for telling health lies differs based on the type of health lie told and who the lie is being told to. There may also be meaningful differences between lying to minimize health concerns versus lying to exaggerate health concerns, and it would be interesting to explore verbal lies about health (e.g., “No, I am not sick”), omission lies about health (e.g., intentionally not telling someone that you are sick), and physical concealment strategies (e.g., actively trying not to cough) to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of how adults may deceive others about their health.

The present study tested a community sample. Future research that tests clinical or high-risk samples containing participants who are facing more serious health complications will be important to gain a more holistic view on health lies. The present results inform the lying behaviors of community-dwelling younger and older adults, showing that within a fairly healthy community sample, health lies are more prevalent in early adulthood.

It is also important to recognize that we compared younger and older adults through a cross-sectional design. Thus, it is possible that our age-related differences across younger and older adults represent differences in cohorts rather than aging. Future longitudinal research can explore how health-related lying changes within individuals over time to help answer this question.

Conclusion

The current study demonstrated that both younger and older adults commonly told health-related lies. While the experience of lying about health, at least a little bit, was extremely common, health lies were typically not told all the time. Moreover, we found that younger adults generally told more health lies than older adults, providing further evidence for the aging honesty effect within novel health contexts. This is promising as older adults’ greater honesty may help them to cope with and manage more complex health needs that come with age. Within the context of specific close relationships, younger adults told more lies to their parent than their romantic partner, while older adults lied at similar rates to both contacts. Lastly, we found evidence that younger and older adults may lie about health for different reasons, with younger adults being more likely to lie because they are ashamed and worried about what others would think of them. Given the common experience of health-related lies, it may be important to uncover techniques to foster honest health communication to advance the health of our adult population.

Supplementary Material

gbae022_suppl_Supplementary_Data
gbae022_suppl_supplementary_data.docx (13KB, docx)

Contributor Information

Jessica C Frias, Department of Psychology, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.

Alison M O’Connor, Department of Psychology, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.

Rodlescia S Sneed, (Psychological Sciences Section).

Funding

This research was supported by a faculty start-up grant from Mount Allison University awarded to the second author.

Conflict of Interest

None.

Data Availability

The materials and data associated with this study will be made available upon request to the corresponding author. This study was not preregistered.

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Associated Data

This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

Supplementary Materials

gbae022_suppl_Supplementary_Data
gbae022_suppl_supplementary_data.docx (13KB, docx)

Data Availability Statement

The materials and data associated with this study will be made available upon request to the corresponding author. This study was not preregistered.

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