Results People engage in deception in relationships because they fear their dark side, or negative aspects about life that may anger or offend their partners and lead to termination of the relationship. In essence, people lie differently in different situations. The specific hypotheses are: the attachment style correlates with self-esteem levels, and together they predict the likelihood of using deceit; secondly, regardless of attachment style, people who are in romantic relationships are more likely to deceive their partner in order to avoid conflict, particularly in regards to small issues. The Self Esteem and Attachment Scales used in this study were reliable; they are basically the standard measures. The Lying Scale was not reliable.