Billy Joel certainly got it right when he sang, “Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue.” But in depicting the deceptions of love, even he may not have fathomed just how pervasive dishonesty is in our society.

In fact, Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely argues in his new book, “The Honest Truth About Dishonesty,” that “we lie to everyone, especially ourselves.” It’s the lies we tell ourselves that enable investment bankers to knowingly unload junk funds to their clients, government workers to steal office supplies, and doctors to prescribe drugs they get paid to speak about.