in 1998 that "there is not a sexual relationship — that is accurate" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. While the statement was technically true at the time — the Starr Commission found his relationship had ended months before the interview — it also misled people and did not tell the whole truth.

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Rogers' co-author, Francesca Gino, pointed to examples from the 2016 presidential election in an article in the Harvard Business Review. In the Sept. 26 presidential debate, for instance, Donald Trump answered a question about a federal lawsuit from 1973 charging his family's firm at the time with housing discrimination. "When I was very young, I went into my father's company," Trump said in the debate. "We, along with many, many other companies throughout the country --Trumps and their company, not many companies.

Another example came from Hillary Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, whose assertion during the vice presidential debate that "Richard Nixon released tax returns when he was under audit" made it seem like he did so while he was running for re-election. Gino notes that, in fact, he released them under audit a year after his re-election.

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Business leaders do it, too. The researchers asked experienced negotiators who were part of an executive education course at Harvard Business School whether they engage in paltering, and 52 percent admitted to doing so. The study also found that participants believed that actively making truthful statements, even if meant to mislead, was more ethical than outright lies or passively omitting relevant information.

That could cause people to palter