Below is the original 33-item Pathological Inventory (Hart, C. L., Curtis, D. A., & Randell, J. A., 2022).

You may also find the shorter 19-item Pathological Lying Inventory (Hart, C. L., Curtis, D. A., & Terrizzi, J. A., 2024) published in the journal, Current Psychology, HERE.

All items scored on a 1-7 scale, where 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree. Score by taking the average of all items. We consider a score of 4 or higher to be an indication of possible pathological lying.

Excessive/pervasive

I lie much more than most people.

I lie a lot.

If people knew how much I lied, they would be surprised.

My lying occurs across various contexts.

I have a consistent habit of lying.

Despite the situation, I often find myself lying.

I lie too much.

I am surprised at how often I lie.

Compulsion/pointless nature

Often, I have no idea why I am lying.

My lies sometimes seem to have no point.

When I lie, there is often no clear motive.

Functioning

My lying causes problems in my social relationships.

My lying causes problems in my romantic life.

My lying causes problems in my friendships.

My lying causes problems with my family.

My lying causes problems in my work or school life.

My lying disrupts my life.

Distress

Life would be much better if I didn’t lie so much.

My lying makes me miserable.

My lying causes me distress.

I would be much happier if I could stop lying.

My lying causes me a great deal of sadness.

My lying makes me feel crazy.

My lying causes me pain.

I can’t stand my lying.

Risk

Lying causes many bad things to happen to me.

My lying causes me to harm others or to put them at risk.

My lying sometimes puts me in danger.

My lying causes me to lose opportunities.

My lying has caused me to lose freedoms.

Persistent

My lying has been an issue for a long time.

I’ve noticed my habit of lying for over six months.

For most of my adult life, I’ve noticed my habit of lying.