Lying in everyday life.

In 2 diary studies of lying, 77 college students reported telling 2 lies a day, and 70 community members told 1. Participants told more self-centered lies than other-oriented lies, except in dyads involving only women, in which other-oriented lies were as common as self-centered ones. Participants told relatively more self-centered lies to men and relatively more other-oriented lies to women. Consistent with the view of lying as an everyday social interaction process, participants said that they did not regard their lies as serious and did not plan them much or worry about being caught. Still, social interactions in which lies were told were less pleasant and less intimate than those in which no lies were told.

Child custody mediation and litigation: further evidence on the differing views of mothers and fathers.

An earlier study was replicated in which parents were randomly assigned to negotiate child custody disputes either in mediation or through the adversary system. In both the initial study (Emery & Wyer, 1987a) and the present replication, mediation greatly reduced the frequency of custody hearings, allowed settlements to be reached in half the time, and substantially improved the satisfaction reported by fathers. Considerably fewer differences were found for mothers who used the alternative forms of dispute resolution, however. Some differences found in both studies favored the women who litigated. No consistent differences in the psychological adjustment of mothers or fathers who mediated or litigated emerged across the two studies. Although careful consideration of findings argues against the conclusion that mediation is "good" for fathers and "bad" for mothers, findings point to the conflicting perspectives of men and women who contest child custody.