  Whether there are gender differences in lying has been largely debated in the
past decade. Previous studies found mixed results. To shed light on this topic,
here I report a meta-analysis of 8,728 distinct observations, collected in 65
Sender-Receiver game treatments, by 14 research groups. Following previous work
and theoretical considerations, I distinguish three types of lies: black lies,
that benefit the liar at a cost for another person; altruistic white lies, that
benefit another person at a cost for the liar; Pareto white lies, that benefit
both the liar and another person. The results show that gender differences in
lying significantly depend on the consequences of lying. Specifically: (i)
males are significantly more likely than females to tell black lies (N=4,161);
(ii) males are significantly more likely than females to tell altruistic white
(N=2,940); (iii) results are inconclusive in the case of Pareto white lies
(N=1,627).
