Lies or Self Preservation?

I was listening to Neal Boortz this morning and heard him talking about new research that shows men lie twice as much as women. I thought his point was good. Boortz felt that men were probably "lying" to their wives in response to questions such as "Do I look fat?" And indeed, when I looked through the main reasons men lied, most had to do with placating women:

1.Nothing's wrong, I'm fine

2. This will be my last pint

3. No, your bum doesn't look big in that

4. I had no signal

5. My battery died

6. Sorry, I missed your call

7. I didn't have that much to drink

8. I'm on my way

9. It wasn't that expensive

10. I'm stuck in traffic

I think that often men lie because they will get a very severe response from women if they tell the truth. For example, if a woman says, "What's wrong?" and rather than reply, "I'm fine," the man says, "You are driving me crazy and I need some time away from you," there is a good chance the woman will make him pay dearly for the remark. I don't know about you, rather than lies, I think many of these quips are more like self-preservation.