3 Ways Honesty Can Improve Your Health

Honesty is a quality that is highly valued by society. As children, we learn not to lie, but we also learn how to lie. We learn that some lies can have interesting benefits, and that we rarely reveal when we lie, so they become a good alternative.

To be honest is not to commit “emotional suicide”, or to go through life by twisting the truth without a filter. Sometimes it is not meant to tell the truth, but to use it as an act of aggression or vanity, or just to vent one’s anger, justified under the pretext of honesty.

Yet, as a general rule, honesty is not only a great virtue, it can also bring good benefits. Our relationships with other people improve especially when we are honest. We also receive honesty in return, and thus we avoid misunderstandings. But on top of all this, honesty also has a positive effect on our health. Below we present three reasons that support this statement.

1. Being honest improves your self-esteem

A study conducted by psychologist Robert S. Feldman at the University of Massachusetts showed that the frequency people lie about is one lie per ten minute conversation. He also concluded that the main reason why people lie is to seem friendlier or more competent than they really are. In other words, they want to win or be admired by others.

Based on this study, other experts have suggested that such lies fulfill the role of hiding the reality from some people. The reason is that deep down, people see their lives and ways of being as uninteresting and unworthy of the recognition of others.

The interesting thing about all this is that authenticity is one of the most valued and admired traits. This means that the more sincere a person is when they talk about themselves and how they are, the more likely they are to win the sympathy and admiration of others. All this contributes to an increase in self-confidence, which flows back to the cycle: more sincerity, more acceptance, increase in self-confidence.

2. Honesty reduces anxiety

The problem with lying is that it puts you in an endless cycle of lies. If you tell someone you’re a rock star, for example, you’ll have to invent a hundred other lies for that first lie to seem credible. For the liar, the worst thing that can happen is to be exposed.

So not only do they have to have a good imagination, but they probably also have to spend a lot of time trying to keep their story straight so that they are not caught in the lie. This means that they need to have a good memory so that they do not contradict themselves.

This requires strong emotional expenses that will sooner or later manifest as stress and anxiety. They need to keep their attention on guard so that they do not get confused, which only increases the stress.

When you are honest, you never have to carry so much weight. You do not have to keep making explanations, or spend time spice up your story with details that make it believable. This allows you to be more relaxed and act more naturally, which in turn prevents you from wasting enormous amounts of emotional energy so that you can spend it on important things.

3. A study on honesty and health

Dr. Anita E. Kelly, Professor of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame and Director of the Templeton Foundation, conducted a study to investigate the effect of honesty on health.

To achieve this, she acquired a group of 72 volunteers and divided them into two groups. One group was instructed to be completely honest in all their conversations, while the other group was not given any instructions on honesty. The group that had to be completely honest could not lie, not even about seemingly small or trivial topics. The exercise lasted for five weeks.

During the study period, volunteers from both groups had their health checked and took weekly polygraph tests. When the trial was over, they saw a clear difference in health between the people who were honest and those who lied.

The former group presented minor headaches, sore throat, nausea and dizziness, while the latter showed no change in these symptoms.

The results were so encouraging that even the researcher decided to be completely honest the following winter. She remarked that she did not have to sleep as many hours to feel fully rested, and that she did not catch a cold anymore, which always bothered her in cold weather.