A third of pub goers admit to ‘exaggerating’ tales they tell in the local with many bending the truth about how fun a night out actually was - and how often they get chatted up. <br /><br />A poll of 2,000 adults, who go to the pub, found 53 per cent who have gone over the top have done so to get a laugh from their mates. <br /><br />Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) have overstated how much things have set them back, and 16 per cent haven’t been totally honest about the number of former lovers they’ve had. <br /><br />While 12 per cent have claimed their spicy food tolerance is more robust than it actually is. <br /><br />In fact, men are more likely than women to exaggerate their tales in almost every category - and twice as likely to exaggerate their salary - except when it came to overstating how fancy their holiday hotel was. <br /><br />Londoners, meanwhile, were much more likely to overstate their sporting prowess - 27 per cent vs 14 per cent nationally - or say they’d snogged a celebrity, with one in twelve Londoners claiming this. <br /><br />Among all respondents, 27 per cent have been called out for exaggerating their tales, but 39 per cent of these are adamant what they were saying was totally true. <br /><br />The research was commissioned by Foster’s, which has created the ‘Cock and Bull Detector’ with the help of a professional polygraph examiner, so pub goers can prove the incredible stories they tell are true. <br /><br />TV personality Tom Skinner, who teamed up with the beer brand and visited the Bull Inn to test the machine for himself, said: “I’m often called out for telling stories that people think are cock and bull when in fact they’re 100 per cent true. <br /><br />“I was thrilled that Foster’s have created the Cock and Bull Detector to show that I was telling the truth once and for all.” <br /><br />One of the stories Tom told,which passed the Cock and Bull Detector, was: “I went to Soho with my good mate Rylan. He only stitched me up and sent over a load of beers and got the punters singing happy birthday - I was properly embarrassed. <br /><br />“Funny though, I got my own back. We went out of the boozer and all these people were shouting at us, ‘I know you, you’re that geezer from the TV’. <br /><br />“He gives the hair flick ready for the selfies, and they pushed past him to get to me - didn’t recognise him for toffee.” <br /><br />The research also found 56 per cent, of those polled, have sat through what they believed to be a tall tale in the pub. <br /><br />A fifth of these raised an eyebrow after hearing about someone’s level of seniority at work, while 15 per cent questioned the legitimacy when a pub goer discussed their fitness levels. <br /><br />As a result, 34 per cent wish they could witness a friend doing a lie detector test. <br /><br />Inconsistencies to the story (51 per cent) is the most obvious tell-tale sign someone might be bending the truth, while another giveaway is when drinker says ‘umm’ a lot (26 per cent). <br /><br />But, thanks to this scepticism, 31 per cent have refrained from telling a story because they were worried people would think it is ‘too good to be true’.
