Scientists have revealed the evolution of liars and the development they have undergone, from innocent lies to huge figs. Neuroscientists have analyzed the brain activity of those who started out inventing harmless lies, pointing out that they have later turned into untrustworthy people. The new study was published in Nature Neuroscience journal.
- Sooner or later, innocent lies will turn into massive figs.
- Neurocientists have conducted a study that showed what happens with our brains when lying.
Researchers have demonstrated that if you tell lies for your benefit, then they can lead to the development of certain processes inside your brain. Tali Sharot, the co-author of the study and a professor at the University College London, has argued that it has been proved steadily the years that naïve lies can later grow in massive, elaborate falsehoods.
Sharot claimed that innocent acts of dishonesty could continuously develop your lying skills and you can transform into a tax evader, financial fraudster or infidel partner. The evolution of liars is connected to the biological process called emotional adaptation. This procedure can modify your brain in such a way that you become less aware of the repeated act you do. The response of your brain to a certain stimulus will constantly decrease.
The moment you get used to doing a certain activity, the awareness of the event decreases in time. It is like when using perfume or doing a particular activity which is part of your daily routine. After a while, you will barely notice its effects, being already accustomed to it.
The theory asserts that the reaction of the brain becomes weaker and weaker to a particular activity and the decreased adverse response to a dishonest activity will transform it in a terrible habit. Sharon together with her team developed an experiment.
The test was a two-person speculating game. Eight different people were asked to team up with another individual, who was, in fact, an actor, to try and guess the number of pennies in a jar. Scientists have built different versions of the game that determined people to lie to gain the reward.
Some participants had the chance to look at higher-resolution images of the jar compared to other participants in the study. Thus, those who had a better picture had also more opportunities to lead their partners to a wrong answer. Researchers were using a functional magnetic scanner to detect if the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for emotions, will light up when participants lied.
Neuroscientists have managed to trace the evolution of liars that proved to decrease the stimulation of the amygdala as the lies became bigger.
Image courtesy of: flickr
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