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Liars, or those suspected of lying, are all around us. And include us.

That's Life! a British women's magazine, commissioned a survey of 5,000 women, average age 38, on the propensity to lie. About three-quarters said they tell life-changing lies, the news service Ananova reported. Twelve percent do so frequently.

William Morrissette, a visiting assistant professor in forensic psychology at Wheaton College in Norton, has made it his business to detect deception. He's owner of Intuition, a consulting and training firm specializing in human behavior analysis and interrogation.

Lie detection is a survival skill, said Morrissette, especially since we more often live among strangers, including our neighbors. The fallout from this is airport fingerprinting and scanning, cameras on city utility poles and the growth of private detective agencies.

`` We're not Little House on the Prairie anymore,'' Morrissette said. Truth is, he said, everyone lies -- even if it's just the lie we tell ourselves, and learning to uncover lies is a `` survival skill.''

`` We all have a self-image we need to maintain,'' he said. `` When something conflicts, we have a tendency to lie. We probably lie to ourselves as much or more than we do to others.''

Morrissette has coached hundreds of people, from fraud investigators and tax collectors to police departments and social workers, how to create environments that will coax out the truth.

`` In my business,'' said Morrissette, `` it's my fault if you lie.''

To read the rest of this article, see Living Well in today's Sun Chronicle. You'll also find Bob Leddy's women and film column on directors Ida Lupino and Jane Campion; Elizabeth Bristol's Solos column suggesting more taboos for schools; two pages of tax filing information; several recipes including a buffalo-chicken pizza; entertainment and your favorite advice columns; comics and Consumer Reports.