Lying About Books

Being a reader appears to be a huge banner for being a quality person, because half of men and a third of women will lie to their friends and lovers about reading in order to appear smarter or more attractive than they really are. The study's data doesn't say whether this is more or less than anything else that people lie about: fandom for a sports team when you're not really into football, or knowing something about cars when you don't really, or putting in a CD that you bought just because the other person indicated they liked it. People jump through all sorts of hoops to increase their appeal, but the reputation of bookish people being lame doesn't seem to hold up: people want to look more well-read than they already are. Now, if only more would actually do the reading...