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Honesty and transparency are the gold standard of healthy relationships for good reason, as trust depends on them. Without a basic expectation of truthfulness, a relationship will quickly become unstable. Partners will start to second-guess each other’s intentions and commitment.

Absolutes rarely govern human relationships; with every reasonable rule comes an equally reasonable exception. This means that, in practice, even the healthiest couples will sometimes bend the truth. And interestingly, research suggests that some forms of dishonesty and certain kinds of lies may actually serve an important relational purpose.

This is because, while brutal honesty sounds virtuous in theory, in many scenarios, relentless truth-telling is more likely to damage closeness than strengthen it. As such, a loving relationship will demand awareness that, sometimes, not every truth needs to be delivered in its rawest form.

Here are two “necessary lies” that many healthy relationships depend on, according to psychological research.

One of the most common forms of dishonesty in romantic relationships is the prosocial lie—a lie that, in the grand scheme of things, is ultimately positive; it promotes social acceptance and cohesion.

In a 2026 study published in The Journal of Social Psychology, researchers explored how people in romantic relationships feel about hearing prosocial lies from their partner. The authors of the study found that, although honesty remains important overall, many individuals actually preferred comforting or reassuring dishonesty over the harsh truth in certain situations. This was especially true for participants who felt that their........

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