Science says so, so does history. Both suggest that humans are in fact, natural born liars.
Researchers believe that deception is deeply ingrained in our evolutionary roots and might have actually helped our ancestors survive and protect their lineage. Have humans been the “masters of deceit” throughout history?
No wonder studies show that the average person lies one or two times per day, ranging from small white lies to deliberate major misrepresentations. Is there no one out there telling the complete truth? Not likely.
History is replete with notable figures known for their deception include: Herodotus (c 484-425 BC), ancient Greek historian known as the “Father of History” was also labelled as “Father of Lies”, for inventing unreliable stories, for entertainment throughout his many travels. Pope Alexander VI (1431-1503), allegedly bought the papacy through bribery; regarded as one of the most corrupt popes in history. P T Barnum (1810-1891), a master showman who planted fake stories like the 161-year-old nurse of George Washington. Such great liars are in good company in our modern era, recurring patterns of deception in entertainment, business, and politics.
Politics draws constant, shameless deception mainly to maintain power and self-preservation, yet we know it, even tolerate it. Why do we sit comfortably accepting dishonesty, unethical conduct or immoral behaviour? Should we not object, refuse, or denounce all lies and liars, shout it from the rooftops, scream, cry, and roar?
The Ten Commandments forbid bearing false witness in all Abrahamic faiths — Hinduism, Buddhism, and others view lying as an abomination. Philosophers emphasise the importance of truthfulness. The nature of truth is a deep logic debated for thousands of years. Socrates believed dishonesty infects the soul with evil: Plato-suggested false words “like a virus corroding the liar’s own integrity”; Aristotle “a liar loses the ability to be believed even when they speak the truth”.
Modern philosophers agreed. Kant deemed lying is always under any circumstances morally wrong. Nietzsche “Trust is fragile,’ the pain of being lied to is not the lie itself, but the resulting inability to believe the person again. Yet we do.
Despite the core lessons emphasising honesty, the human race has never been prevented from lying. Lying is one of the most common wrong acts that we carry out regularly, because it is unavoidable. Research suggests that around 60 per cent of the people lie during conversations, from self-protection to convenience.
If ordinary people lie for social occasions, how do politicians lie? For one thing, they face no serious repercussions most or all the time. This is concerning when politicians hold leadership roles, like presidents.
“Unabashed mendacity” has become a modern idiom, often employed by journalists and historians nowadays. The phrase, derived in the early 17th century, was famously utilised by the British in 1877 describing Russian deception during the Russo-Turkish War. Ironically, it is the British who accused Russian diplomatists of “unblushing mendacity”, when they themselves lie with confidence, without guilt.
The British colonists may have started a system of mendacity, ruling Americans for roughly 176 years. Presidents may have well adapted a style of deception from their masters. Not all US presidents were bad. In fact, only five to 10 out of 45 presidents are cited as the worst in history, according to Siena College Poll and the C-SPAN Presidential Historians Survey. They consistently rank these three at the very bottom: Andrew Jackson (43rd president), James Buchanan (44th president), and Donald Trump (45th president).
Trump is regularly and uniformly cited as the worst president, based on recorded data and analysis. While he does have strong support, it keeps evaporating on a daily basis. He is considered unprecedented in the volume of falsehoods, which has significantly altered history.
A panel of 150 experts also ranked Trump as the worst president, citing his “disregard for factual accuracy”. Others have used a stronger description, the modern, favourite phrase of mendacity.
The New York Times quotes “the most mendacious president in US history”; British author Peter Oborne “How Trump Thinks”, calls “Trump’s incendiary mendacity”; David Owen “Hubris-The Road to Donald Trump”, Lord Owen coins the term “hubristic mendacity”, a style of populism that disregards truth; and Michiko Kakutani, former New York Times book critic, writes “Death of Truth”, examines the erosion of facts that helped pave the way for Trump’s political rise.
We look with fascination at the greatest country in the world: politicians and presidents, the most powerful jobs in the world, trading falsehoods and allegations of dishonesty — and we smile.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 23 April, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
Yes, we all stretch the truth, a little or a lot. We learned to deceive as toddlers. We learn, we fabricate, we rationalize. Is there a limit to the sky?
During his first term, according to The Washington Times, Trump has made 30,573 false or misleading claims. They were counting: six per day in his first year, reaching 39 per day by the final year. Their fact checkers must be exhausted. They discovered 26 suspect claims in his recent March address to congress.
If only his “litany of lies” were lily white lies, we may not mind — not too much — but when he claimed that the first month of his presidency “as the most successful in the nation’s history”, suggesting George Washington was second. That is indeed the last straw.
Yes, other presidents have been unblushingly mendacious as they say, like Bill Clinton, Ricard Nixon, even Ronald Reagan, but a rallying cry from the rooftops, “enough is enough”, is just about enough of blatant lies.
“I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
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