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Fake lie-detector reveals women's sex lies
14:16 14 July 03

Women are more likely than men to lie about their sex lives, reveals a new study. Women's coyness about their sexual behaviour was unveiled by a US study involving a fake lie detector test.

In surveys since the 1960s, men typically report having more sexual partners and than do women - a statistically impossible feat. For example, British men boast an average of 13 partners over a lifetime compared with an average of nine partners for women.

Scientists previously explained this anomaly by suggesting men were exaggerating their tally, while women were understating their total. But now Terri Fisher at Ohio State University and Michele Alexander at the University of Maine suggest that men are in fact more truthful in such surveys.

Women change their answers depending on whether or not they believe they will be caught out not telling the truth, the researchers found. The number of sexual partners a woman reported nearly doubled when women thought they were hooked up to a lie detector machine....