The question about paternal identity was included in a broader survey about lying, commissioned by Topp Morning Casino and released on Monday.
The company surveyed 1,000 British moms, finding that “7.8% admitted to lying over the biological lineage of their children.”
“We were shocked,” a rep for Topp Morning Casino said on their website of the poll results.
“This means there are potentially 2.1 million couples in the UK where the father isn’t the biological one.”
An identical study of American moms has not been conducted, but frequent polls about paternal identity have taken place over the years, with varying results.
Australian documentary series “Who’s Your Daddy?,” released in 2014, referenced reports that up to 30% of paternities are misattributed.
Sociologist Michael Gilding, who appeared on the program, said shocking statistics began circulating in the UK media during the 1970s, but were never backed up by adequate research.
Gilding told the program that the real percentage is likely to be far lower — both in Australia and the United States.
After analyzing data, Gilding estimates that the number is less than 10%.
Meanwhile, a 2005 study by the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health estimated that 4 percent of American fathers were raising a child that they did not know was not biologically their own.
While the Topp Morning Casino survey revealed a relatively high percentage of British women may have lied about their baby’s paternal identity, it also uncovered that men lie more than women.
The survey found more than half of men (50.2%) admit to lying on a daily basis, while just only 36% of women admit to being untruthful every day.
