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A therapist cannot always tell if you are lying. Recent <\/strong>psychological studies<\/strong><\/a> suggest that most patient lies are unnoticed by therapists. Furthermore, these same studies indicate that patients often lie to their therapists, especially about therapy-related topics.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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In this post, we'll cover:<\/p>\n
Considering their background and training, one might assume that a therapist can easily catch a lie. However, that is not the case. Telling a lie from the truth is hard for pretty much anyone, even trained professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, Gregory K. Moffatt<\/a>, Ph.D., cites past studies that suggest that US Customs<\/a> officers cannot detect low-stake lies<\/a> unrelated to their profession. These kinds of lies include white lies like âhaving an ace in your pocket.â<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barry Farber<\/a>, Ph.D., a professor at Columbia University<\/a>, has studied the subject ostensibly. In his research, he found that 73% of respondents<\/a> who have reported lying in therapy never had their lie addressed by their therapist. In other words, therapists are not great at detecting lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, we know that lying in therapy is relatively ubiquitous, but just how standard is it? According to Farberâs study, 93% of respondents<\/a> reported lying to their therapists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, 72.6% of the respondents<\/a> reported lying about a therapy-related topic. These results led Farber and his co-authors to conclude that patients lie to their therapists much more than prior studies have suggested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n