Why Men Lie: He doesn’t want to complicate things.
Dan, 38, was in the process of ending his three-year relationship with Jennifer when he went to a party and hit it off with Lindsay. They began to date casually while Dan finished things up with Jennifer. (Not that Lindsay needed to know this because clearly, it was over.)

Jennifer and Dan developed a platonic friendship and one night he opted to take her to a hockey game instead of Lindsay. When he got home, Lindsay asked who he had gone with, and Dan simply said he was there with a few friends. He wasn’t hooking up with his ex and felt that mentioning Jennifer would open up a huge can of worms that he’d rather leave closed.

“Basically, it’s a pain in the ass to tell the whole truth. So sometimes we just leave details out because it gets too complicated,” says Dan. “If the missing info isn’t going to hurt anyone, what’s the harm in not mentioning it?”

Why Men Lie: He’s trying to put his best foot forward.
Marshall, 24, was working as an assistant at a small production office when the company went bankrupt and he was forced to go on unemployment. He started searching for something new, but he wasn’t having much luck.