“Liar, liar, pants on fire!” yell people when they catch someone being dishonest. But actions speak louder than words, and that’s what some people turn to to teach them a lesson.

Reddit user WiscOhioNative9 told the ‘Malicious Compliance‘ community about how his little sister wouldn’t let their cousin get away with her lies. The girls were sharing semi-permanent dye when the cousin said her hair wasn’t bleached. The little sis knew she was lying but carried on nevertheless. Unsurprisingly, the new color didn’t look great.

Bored Panda has reached out to the author of the Reddit post. They were kind enough to answer a few of our questions. You will find their thoughts in the text below.

It’s important to pay attention to what’s been done with the hair in the past before dyeing it a new color

Image credits: Alternative_Star67 (not the actual photo)

This teenager lied about previously treating her hair, which led to an act of malicious compliance and a disastrous dye job

Image credits: Polinach (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Liz Henry (not the actual photo)

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Image credits: WiscOhioNative9

There are hundreds of reasons people choose to lie, though some of them might not seem understandable to others

Lying is never a good idea as it rarely ever leads to anything positive. But then, why do people lie? Some do it to save themselves or others from the consequences of their actions. A few might seek to spare someone’s feelings or avoid certain negative emotions (such as embarrassment) themselves. They might have hundreds of arguments for that as a lot depends on each particular situation.

Yet certain individuals lie for reasons that seem not worth doing so. “Some people get so accustomed to lying that they do so even when there is no clear purpose, and when their lies are easily disproven, leaving everyone scratching their heads over the point of their deceptions,” the clinical psychologist David J. Ley wrote in Psychology Today. He indicated that the reasoning behind such instances might not be clear to others, but it makes sense in the heads of the storytellers. In addition to that, they might feel that telling the truth would mean losing control over the situation or cause disappointment to others.

Whatever their reasons are, there might be more Pinocchios among us than you think. For instance, people in the US arguably tell four lies a day. And even though nearly a quarter of Americans believe they have an excellent poker face, more than half (53%) of them say they are able to point out when someone’s lying.

Image credits: Alex Green (not the actual photo)

People of a certain age tend to lie more than others, and adolescents seem to do it the most

According to Cross River Therapy, parents are the group of people that’s most lied to, followed by friends and siblings respectively. They also indicate that children tell their first dishonest tales at around two or three years old. By the time they reach four, most of them have already developed an understanding of what lying means.

However, toddlers or young children are far from the ones that lie the most. As a matter of fact, together with the elderly, they are on the lower end of the scale. Research shows that adolescents are most prone to deceiving others, and 16-year-old Anna in the OP’s story is no exception.

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The OP admitted he didn’t really understand the reasoning behind their cousin’s decision. “I’m not totally sure why she lied. I don’t think it was because of an insecurity based on the fact that the next day she dyed it back to her natural brunette. I think it was just something she chose to lie about on a whim but this time it had consequences,” he told Bored Panda.

This time Anna’s dishonesty was met with malicious compliance from her cousin who, despite also being in her teenage years, wasn’t going to let it slide. The OP was content about the way his little sis handled the situation. “I was pretty proud of my sister. She stood up for herself in a hilarious way, and that’s great,” he said.

Image credits: Kindel Media (not the actual photo)

Some community members seemed to be surprised about certain aspects of the story

The comment section was buzzing with people’s opinions, the OP replied to some of them

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