You're Probably Wrong About How Dishonest People Are

Last updated: July 2026

Good news and useful news, in that order. Most people are more honest than you assume. And the specific warning signs that actually matter are learnable, even if trust alone won't catch them.

Short version: A 2026 study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found people consistently overestimate how dishonest others are, by nearly 14 percentage points, and that correcting this belief actually made people more trusting, not more naive. This builds directly on our last piece, Kind People Don't Choose Toxic Partners, which found trusting people aren't drawn to manipulation, they simply miss specific warning signs. Put together: the world isn't as dishonest as it feels, and the real fix isn't trusting less, it's learning the specific signs worth watching for.

Are people really as dishonest as we assume?

According to a 2026 study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, no. Across three separate experiments, researchers found participants overestimated how much others cheat and lie by nearly 14 percentage points, with almost two-thirds of people assuming dishonesty was more common than it actually was.

14 percentage points The average gap between how dishonest people assumed others were, and how dishonest people actually turned out to be.

Does correcting this belief actually change behaviour?

Yes. When researchers corrected participants' inflated assumptions about dishonesty, many people became measurably more trusting afterward. A separate part of the study looked specifically at managers, finding that inflated assumptions about employee dishonesty directly shaped workplace rules, more surveillance, stricter policies, even when staff hadn't actually earned that level of suspicion.

How does this connect to why kind people end up with manipulative partners?

Our last piece looked at real research showing highly empathetic, trusting people don't actively seek out manipulative partners. Their genuine trust likely just means specific warning signs go unnoticed. Read together with this study, a fuller picture emerges: most people, most of the time, are genuinely honest, which is exactly why a trusting nature usually serves people well. The risk isn't trust itself. It's the narrow, specific blind spot around the small minority who aren't honest, and who rely on that general trustworthiness to go unnoticed.

You don't need to trust less. You need to know exactly what to watch for in the small number of cases where trust genuinely isn't warranted.

What to actually watch for, without becoming cynical

• Be wary of excessive confidence, not excessive kindness. Research consistently finds overconfidence has no correlation with accuracy, and can be a red flag in itself, worth checking rather than being reassured by.
• Watch language, not just behaviour. Overly emphatic reassurance, "I swear," "trust me," repeated insistence, appears more often in dishonest accounts than in genuinely honest ones.
• Notice excessive flattery specifically about your judgement. Being told you're "too smart to be fooled" is a well-documented tactic used to specifically lower guard, not raise it.
• Check actions against words over time, not just the words themselves. This is the same principle as the Discernment Method: a claim is not evidence, consistent behaviour is.
• Keep trusting people generally. The data says you're statistically right to. Just apply sharper scrutiny to the small, specific set of situations where something doesn't add up.

Frequently asked questions

Do most people overestimate how dishonest others are?+

Yes. A 2026 study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found participants overestimated how much others cheat and lie by nearly 14 percentage points on average.

Does being trusting make you more vulnerable to manipulative people?+

Research suggests trusting individuals are not drawn to manipulative partners, but may be less likely to notice specific early warning signs. Since most people are genuinely honest, the practical solution is learning specific red flags rather than reducing overall trust.

What are genuine warning signs of dishonesty to watch for?+

Useful signs include overconfidence unsupported by accuracy, excessive emphatic reassurance, flattery specifically aimed at lowering guard, and inconsistency between someone's words and their actions over time.

Love, Vikki x