Whilst we’ve all probably been guilty of exaggeration or telling the odd white lie at one point or another over social media, whether it’s to make ourselves look better or feel better, a new study has found that women (in Australia at least) are more deceitful than men when it comes to what they say online. The Deceit Algorithm, truth, lies and brand trust in social media research carried out by the Sydney-based advertising agency The Works found that 64% of women compared to just 36% of men were found to have made embellished or deceitful statements when writing Twitter and Instagram posts.
The Deceit Algorithm found that 64% of women compared to just 36% of men were found to have made embellished or deceitful statements when writing Twitter and Instagram posts
The Works analytics team together with Dr. Suresh Sood, brand data scientist at UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney, created an algorithm that analysed thousands of words used in Twitter and Instagram posts from across the country. The algorithm uses 4,553 indicators and classifies them into categories allowing a score to be given to any social media post. This score indicates the presence of deceit and by aggregating these scores trend patterns are detected. The study looked at two types of lies in social posts. White lies (embellishment) and true lies (deceit). While there was no discernible deceit practiced by Aussies using Twitter, women in Perth led the pack when it came to embellishing their posts, followed by Brisbane men, Adelaide women and Brisbane women.
Douglas Nicol, creative partner at The Works and leader of the Datafication project, explained the words we use when posting to social media are indicators of our general truthfulness or otherwise. He said: “If we use the pronouns ‘I’ or ‘me’ we are less likely to be by lying as we subconsciously distance ourselves from what we know to be a lie, but certain words and when they are used in combination with others, are a good indication of deceit.”
According to the research, the words we use when posting to social media are indicators of our general truthfulness or otherwise
Nicol said it was critical for marketers and brands to understand the factors that will get them believed as building trust delivers more customers, purchase frequency and bigger spend. He continued: “Marketers get hot and sweaty about building positive sentiment for their brand on social media, they want you to like and trust their brand but there is a real fear that they will get it wrong. By understanding why people are deceitful it can help when it comes to developing strategies to effectively communicate and respond to consumers that are engaging with brands through social media.”
On the reasons why people are often deceitful online, Nicol added: “There are many reasons why we lie on social media. White lies are used to manage our own personal brand, to make a good story a great one, or stroke our own egos. However when it comes to truly lying the reasons are more sinister. People make false statements to gain privileges from brands they otherwise wouldn’t get, such as complaining about airlines, hotels or restaurants in order to be compensated, or to gain social power as well as trying to elevate their own importance.”
International research has found that on average, Australians are lied to up to 200 times a day with deceitful behaviour beginning as young as six-months-old
International research has found that on average, Australians are lied to up to 200 times a day with deceitful behaviour beginning as young as six-months-old when babies cry or laugh in order to get what they want. This is the fifth year of The Works’ big data analytics project, called Datafication, into how Australians use social media and what it means for marketers. Previous years have examined Twitter, Instagram and social video. It’s unclear how these figures relate to us here in the UK, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they synced up. For more information on the study and to look at research conducted in previous years, visit the Datafication web portal setup by The Works.
