Why your boss might be a liar

There might be a strong correlation between a person’s likelihood to lie and the physical space they are in, a new study by leading business schools has found.

Based on research by Columbia, MIT, Northwestern, Harvard and Berkeley, people with bigger offices or desks may be more likely to be dishonest.

But it doesn’t stop there. Body postures, such as standing with legs apart and putting hands on the hips - a typical stance for a confident boss - can also apparently cause people to feel more powerful and lead to dishonest behaviour.

"In everyday working and living environments, our body postures are incidentally expanded and contracted by our surroundings — by the seats in our cars, the furniture in and around workspaces, even the hallways in our offices — and these environments directly influence the propensity of dishonest behaviour in our everyday lives," Andy Yap, one of the research authors from Columbia Business School, told Reuters.

He added it is important office managers focus on the ergonomics of their workspaces in order to avoid creating a negative culture.

“The results suggest that these physical spaces have tangible and real-world impact on our behaviours," Yap said.