Lying. It’s what we do.

We lie for justifiable reasons: We lie for convenience, to exaggerate, to cover up mistakes or to protect a friend. We lie to evade punishment and we lie to evade nagging.

We deceive our moms and our significant others the most. In her 1996 study on lying, Bella DePaulo found that “College students lie to their mothers in one out of two conversations.” Sounds high, but if you think about it, it’s probably true. No one wants their mom to know of their indiscretions, especially ones tied to the stereotypical college lifestyle.

In a Psychology Today article, Allison Kornet said, “Dating couples lie to each other in about a third of their interactions.” This figure is high, but it factors in the “big nasty” lies with the “little white” lies, too. The irony is striking””those we trust the most are the ones who are most likely to lie to us. And somehow, the people closest to us bear the brunt of our duplicity.

One would think that with the potential anonymity that the Internet provides, we’d be more honest. It would seem that the Internet would be a safe place to say what we really mean, express our true selves and claim ideologies that we hold dear.

But we lie online. A lot.

The Journal of Applied Psychology published an article this year called “The Finer Points of Lying Online: E-Mail Versus Pen and Paper.” The article describes three studies that show we lie more online than anywhere else.

The article notes that we lie online more than in other situations because we can distance ourselves from the consequences of our lies easier. We perceive that what we say online is less permanent than face-to-face or pen-and-ink communication.

CNN recently featured some options to escape deceit detection when online. Among them, they recommended being vague, adjusting privacy settings, and, gasp, telling the truth.

Here’s why their last suggestion is best.

1. Telling the truth can be messy, but if done with tact, it boosts your authority and respect. Few things degrade your reputation like being caught in a lie, even if it’s lying about being too sick to attend your sister’s tuba recital. Tactful truth enhances the way others view you and gives you the power of a trustworthy reputation.

2. Honesty frees you from the fog that accompanies frequent fabrication. Habitual liars begin to believe the lies they tell. Telling lies is one thing, but believing your own lies is another.

3. Honesty frees you from the headache of covering your tracks. It’s a pain to have a protected Twitter feed and it’s a headache to wade through Facebook’s privacy settings. Think of all the photo untagging one could avoid if they lived free of duplicity.

If all this sounds unrealistic, don’t panic. Telling the truth is sometimes as simple as not telling a lie. Sometimes we tend to overcompensate with our alibis. Next time you need a day off from work to go rock climbing in Yosemite, you don’t need to say your car broke down and you can’t make it to your job. Tell the truth with tact and simply ask for a day off. Don’t volunteer unnecessary details.

In Alexander Dumas’ novel, “The Count of Monte Cristo,” a character named Monsieur Morrell preferred to lose his life than his honor and good name.

Shocking, right? These days, people just don’t act the way they did in novels from the 19th century.

A revamped approach to honesty probably won’t put you in the position of Morrell, but it can renew a sense of honor and reputation that is so commonly lost in the culture of relativistic morals that the online experience propagates.