Everyone lies. Everyday. It's like a second nature, or a defense mechanism we use to get through everyday social interactions. Here are 12 surprising facts about how we lie.

1. You will lie if you are pressed for time

Most people lie because they have to make a quick decision, and don't have time to think about the consequences. According to a psychological study published, people would often lie or cheat for their own self-interest.

2. 60% of people lie at least once in a 10-minute conversation.

Yes. At least once! It makes you wonder just how much of the truth you were told in a day.

3. Men tell an average of 6 lies / day to their spouses, colleagues, or bosses.

Sometimes, it's about not wanting to share how we're feeling or thinking, because if you don't have the right thing to say, you either shut up or lie about it.

4. 40% of people lie about following their ‘doctor’s orders’.

The reason you're not getting better from the flu is because you didn't follow the doctor's orders. 40 percent of people lie about following the health regime set by their doctor.

5. Lie detectors don’t detect lies.

A lie detector is used to measure levels of anxiety, which goes higher when we lie. Inexperienced liars will find this hard to beat, and even a false positive might be a result from a truthful person who feels under pressure when being put in the spot.

No one has found a lie detector that works.

6. Only 12% of adults admit to telling lies ‘often’.

Some people are truthful about lying. But not everyone is. Some do it jokingly, but we know they really mean it.

7. You can't tell somebody is lying from their eyes

A popular way of telling how someone is lying is by looking at their eyes. But this is not the case. Psychologists offered strong evidence of this when they examined footage of people who lied and didn't lie. There was no measurable difference between people who were lying or telling the truth.

8. Liars can fool themselves sometimes

They say, 'tell yourself a lie long enough and it becomes the truth'. A study published in 2011 showed that people who cheated their way into better scores on tests still overvalued their own abilities, even though they knew they had cheated.

9. 31% of people lie on their resumes.

31% seems like a very low percentage, but let's just say it's that. Some lies can be really small, like adding another month or two to an employment period, or as big as getting a degree. Lying on your resume is not something you want to do. The truth always has a way of coming out.

10. Women tell an average of 3 lies / day to their spouses, colleagues, or bosses.

If men tell an average of 6 lies a day, women tell an average of 3, according to a study by 20th Century Fox. The reasons for the lies: the same as men.

11. Lying evolved to facilitate cooperation

Lying was an evolutionary way of survival. A great way of securing other people's cooperation. The authors of a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B that says, "Tactical deception, the misrepresentation of the state of the world to another individual, may allow cheaters to exploit conditional cooperation by tactically misrepresenting their past actions and/or current intentions."

12. Compulsive lying makes you smarter

Something interesting happens in the brains of people who lie all the time. They seem to have a lot more connective "white matter" in their prefrontal cortex, having 22-26% more of it. The reason for it:

The increase in white matter means that people who lie repeatedly and compulsively are better at making connections between thoughts that aren't connected in reality — like, say, "me" and "fighter pilot."

 Consequently, while some of us struggle to come up with reasons why we were late for work, or can't go out with someone we don't really like, Yang's liars impulsively serve up a heaping helping of excuses and stories, and fast.

"By having more connections," Yang says, "you can jump from one idea to another and you can come up with more random stories and ideas."