Review: 'Dishonesty: The Truth About Lies'

As anyone who has ever tried online dating will tell you, we all lie about something in our lives.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. Telling someone they don't look fat in those pants or reassuring a friend that their new Kale casserole tastes amazing can be a kindness. But most of think we're generally truthful people and that we won't lie casually just to make our lives slightly better. But scientists who study these things know the truth.

That's the premise behind the new CNBC special DISHONESTY: THE TRUTH ABOUT LIES. Most of us know on a conscious level that lying is not just morally a bad idea. Being dishonest can have serious personal and professional consequences when your secret is revealed. And inevitably, we're almost always found out.

The hour-long special interweaves the stories of some more public liars with revelations from private citizens who found their lives spiraling out of control as their lies caught up with them. NBA referee Tim Donaghy used inside information to bet on games and found himself being threatened by the mob. Garrett Bauer and Matthew Kluge were imprisoned after their 17-year insider trading scheme collapsed. And then there's the story of Erika Nelson, a mother of six whose marriage almost dissolved after she began having an online affair.

Watching these stories of deception and betrayal, viewers might be tempted to think that they would never commit such a horrible breach of trust. But as the special shows, most of us are a lot more comfortable with the prospect of lying than we'd like to admit  - especially if we don't think we'll get caught. Duke professor Dan Ariely conducts several social experiments for the special and the results aren't as much surprising as they are a reminder of our tenuous hold on the truth.

In one experiment, he asks participants to give the answers to some math problems and the time limit is such that no one could answer all of the questions correctly. When the tests are finished, the participants are asked how many questions they answered and then they are paid a dollar for each one they finished. The test results are then shredded in front of them, without any of the social scientists double-checking the results. But what the participants don't know is that the shredder is configured in a way that it only appears the papers are being destroyed. The scientists are then able to go back and see just how truthful the participants were when they took the money. It turns out that while a very small percentage of people offered up a huge lie, about 70% of the participants suggested they had answered one or two more answers than their paper revealed to be the case. In other words, if we think we can get away with it, most of us will lie at least a bit.

DISHONESTY: THE TRUTH ABOUT LIES isn't the greatest title for the special (although it's a variation of the book title that inspired the special). But this is a truly fascinating hour of television and I think you'll the find the stories both entertaining and enlightening.

Unless I'm lying to you right now.

DISHONESTY: THE TRUTH ABOUT LIES premieres on CNBC on Thursday, May 28th at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.