Although High-Powered People Lie More Easily, It’s Not Advisable for Job-Hunting Lawyers
Lawyers and lies aren’t a good mix, according to legal career experts asked to comment on how job hunters should handle unpleasant truths.
Their advice follows a recent study by a Columbia University professor that suggests powerful people are better liars. The study, noted in a Financial Times article, asked test subjects divided into groups of bosses and their employees to steal a $100 bill and then convince researchers that they hadn’t taken it. The bosses had far more success at the task. The professor who led the study, Dana Carney of Columbia Business School, said in the Harvard Business Review that “People with power lied more easily and effectively, which is troubling.”
The Careerist, published by the American Lawyer, noted the article and called legal career experts for comment. Career coach Ellen Ostrow noted that lawyers work in a regulated profession and can get disbarred for lying.
What should a lawyer tell potential employers after he or she has been fired? Ostrow suggests negotiating for a better answer. “If you’ve been fired, negotiate with your employer to say that it wasn’t performance-based,” she says.
Recruiter Jon Lindsey says it can also help to be vague. “If you’re working for a psycho, it’s better to say that the job was not a good fit and be vague,” he explains.
In the Columbia study, the research subjects were told they were a member of the bosses group or the employees group based on survey answers, according to a Columbia Business School blog Ideas at Work. In reality, the assignment was random. The bosses got big comfortable offices, while the subordinates got work spaces that were small and without windows.
The groups had to work together on a task involving bonus assignments, and then they were asked to steal the $100 bill. The bosses who stole the money had lower cortisol levels in their saliva and fewer tell-tale signs of lying, such as accelerated speech and shoulder shrugs.
The results suggest that even very ethical people who assume positions of power will no longer feel as bad about lying, Carney says. “We can’t say empirically that power makes a person lie more, but the evidence does suggest that power would make you lie more easily and therefore more often,” she tells Ideas at Work.
