Liar, liar, pants on fire

While I was working out yesterday I watched part of the MTV show "Exposed," one of many trashy dating shows on the station.

If you're not familiar with the show, here's how it works: a young person, generally someone quite full of himself or herself, goes on a date with two potential mates. The dater asks the two potential mates a series of questions to gauge how compatible they would be as a couple. Here's the catch: the dater has a friend hidden in a van away from the date, and the friend is watching the whole date transpire while using voice analysis software to determine if anyone's lying. The friend then tells the dater who is lying through an ear piece the dater is wearing.

Presumably, the two potential mates have no idea that their lies are being busted. Yesterday, one guy confessed he lied about how many people he had slept with and another guy was caught lying about still having feelings for his ex. In the past, a woman was caught lying about how she didn't like to go shopping.

Although MTV has a disclaimer that the voice analysis software is non-scientific, it still brings up a good question: how much will we lie to get ahead on a date?

Not all lies are equal. Some little white lies, such as saying you like Chinese food although you really don't, rank pretty low in importance. Other lies, such as saying you're divorced when you're really still married, should not be tolerated.

To get ahead in the dating game, perhaps to some extent, lying is necessary. Is it really important to tell your date that you still have feelings for your ex if you're genuinely trying to move on? Is it really important to tell your date, a baseball fanatic, that you don't like the game? But on the other hand, a relationship shouldn't be started based on a foundation of false truths.

What do you think? Is lying OK on a date? Are some lies OK and based on some sort of sliding scale? What was the worst lie you told on a date? What was the worst lie told to you?