Author Interviews, Nature, Psychological Science / 27.10.2016
Our Brain Makes Liars Even Better At Lying
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Neil Garrett PhD Student
Affective Brain Lab
Department of Experimental Psychology
University College London
London, UK
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
1. BEHAVIOURAL FINDING: The amount by which participants lied got larger and larger over the course of the block. Dishonesty escalation was observed only when participants lied for their own benefit, not when they did so solely for the benefit of others.
2. BRAIN FINDING: A network of brain regions associated with emotion responded strongly when participants lied initially. But as time went on, it would respond less and less to the same amount of lying. The greater the drop in sensitivity, the more a person increased their lying the next opportunity they got.
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