Category: Lying

Since time immemorial efforts have been made to devise methods of detecting falsehoods. For the sake of justice and security it is essential that one identifies liars. Personally I have been fascinated with the field of forensic psychology and understand the potential benefits of knowing how to detect a liar. Visualizing how the brain lies using functional MRI is a huge step in this direction. Studies have identified several brain regions that are activated when people lie as compared to when they are not lying. The current paper will look into neural substrates that underlie human deceptive behavior.

Prefrontal Cortex and prefrontal white matter

There is a huge body of research available to validate the role of prefrontal cortex in lying. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies on neural correlates of deception have shown that the prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) were more strongly activated during lying than during telling the truth (Lee et al. 2002; Ganis et al. 2003). It has been suggested that frontal cortex plays a significant role in lying as it aids in planning. Self-control and attention (Bhattacherjee.,2017).

Functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI) studies on deception revealed that the prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex(ACC) were activated more than during telling the truth (Ganis et al. 2003). The study further demonstrated that the aPFC had an active role to play in lies that were well rehearsed and built around a coherent story than in lies which were spontaneous and noncoherent. On the other hand, ACC was more active when the lying was spontaneous and not -memorized.

Another study that examined white matter volumes in four prefrontal sub regions using structural magnetic resonance imaging on 44 individuals out of which 10 were pathological liars, 14 antisocial controls, and 20 normal controls. Results revealed that liars had a relatively widespread increase in white matter in orbitofrontal, middle and inferior, but not superior, frontal gyri compared with antisocial and normal controls. Which reflects that an increase in white matter may predispose some individuals to pathological lying. (Yang, et al, 2007). A study which had more realistic lying tasks found prefrontal activation which was focused more in ventrolateral and orbitofrontal cortex as compared to superior frontal cortices (Spence et al, 2004). There is also evidence that over a period of time a lying pattern desensitizes our brains to the associated negative emotions and enhances a behavior of stating bigger lies (Garrett, Lazzaro, Ariely,& Sharot .,2016) .

Personality and Intelligence in Lying

Tendency to lie is something which is engrained in our personalities. We all have an attitude towards lying which manifests in different situations. Research has shown that personality disorders like OCD, Antisocial, histrionic, borderline and narcissistic are associated with lying ( Ford, King & Hollender., 1988).Pathological liers have shown structural changes in pre frontal cortex (Yang .,2005

)A case study showed that prefrontal impairment affects executive functions and Theory of Mind which predisposes an individual to pathological lying (Poletti, Borelli & Bonuccelli .,2011). A study conducted on 38 undergraduate subjects indicated that subjects with high energy and outgoing nature were more successful deceivers as compared to subjects who were apprehensive (,Riggio, R. E., Salinas, C., & Tucker, 1988) There is evidence to show that intelligence plays a role in lying where intelligent extraverts have a tendency to lie (Sarzyńska et al.,2017) and lateral prefrontal cortex is a global hub that furthers control processes which are essential for human intelligence(.Cole, Yarkoni, Repovš, Anticevic, & Braver, 2012). Individuals suffering from Parkinosns have personality traits such as industriousness, seriousness and inflexibility which are usually associated with honesty. Now has evidence which demonstrates that this honesty has neurobiological basis especially prefrontal hypometabolism.

Physiological and Chemical basis in lying

Lying leads to brain arousal level because of a catecholamine response that is triggered by the Autonomic Nervous System. The same system is also responsible for various other physiological changes like voice modulation, skin conductance changes etc. The most sensitive measure in laboratory studies of the detection of deception has been electrodermal activity (e.g., Orne, Thackray, andPaskewitz, 1972). Neuroendocrine hormone, testosterone, appears to been seen to be associated with behaviors which are involved in lying (Carney & Mason.,2010) .Research shows that testosterone increases ones tolerance for risk [Coates & Herbert.,2008] and an insensitivity to punishment [Dabbs Jr, J. M., Carr, T. S., Frady, R. L., & Riad.,1995] acts which can encourage dishonest acts.Cortisol has also been found to be linked with lying Cohen, S., Doyle, W. J., Turner, R. B., Alper, C. M., & Skoner, .,2003().

Many people feel Have you ever felt misunderstood?or wonder A about why people in this world lie so much to each other, whether it be like it could be a friend, family member, or even a your spouse. Sometimes lying could be a good thing to do because it could be to protect someone from getting hurt if they are told the truth. There are many different kinds of lies that could be told to people. Some are white lies, which assume that the truth will cause more damage than a simple harmless untruth, and another one is omission, which it involves telling most of the truth minus one or two key facts whose absence changes the story completely. In the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, the author suggests that the truth is not always always kind but in this occasion it is and lies are necessary in certain moments. Ed Boone’s decision to lie to his son about his mother’s true whereabouts was justified because he did it for a good thing so Christopher won’t find out that his mom left him because of his sickness and she was embarrassed of him. Mark Haddon’s message in his mystery novel seems to suggest that lying can be necessary at times because knowing the truth can hurt more than life.

Throughout the novel, many lies occurred. There are many lies in this world like some examples that we have already said like white lie, omission, and some new ones are out and out lies, deflecting and many more. In the novel where there’s an example of a lie being told by Ed Boone which is the father of Christopher which he told his son Christopher about his wife’s death because he did that to protect him and because he found it easier to get over Mrs. Boone after she left him because of the autism Christopher had. Mr Ed Boone also told his son Christoher to stop investigating about the death of Mrs Wellington’s dog because he was the one who killed the dog but Christopher didn’t know that exactly. Later on, on the book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time”Also some previous example of lying were set to be know as “white” lies, what Ed Boone told his son Christopher was exactly a white lie it was something more serious than that. Ed Boone thought that telling Christopher this things about his mother that she had died then that she had to go to the hospital because she needed time for herself, instead of telling his son Christopher that she left them because she had an affair and is leaving us. Ed Boone could have possible felt in that moment on telling his son the lie a moment of worthless, betrayal, loneliness, lost and have lots of hate. That was towards his wife for what she has done and what he felt was the need for more love towards his son and feel to be Christopher’s protector. Ed Boone lied to his son because of the love he felt towards him.

When you lie to someone or about something you know exactly that the truth will come out eventually and it might get even worse if the person doesn’t like being lied to or if it was something really bad but at the moment you make the decision to lie and not go with the truth. In the time you make a decision for both in keeping the truth away and that will make you selfish in deciding which is the best thing to do if telling them the truth or keep going on with the lie. That was the case of Mr Ed Boone, where he decided that his Christopher wouldn’t be able to take the truth of his mom leaving them and is not strong enough for it. That’s when Ed Boone decided he was gonna lie to his son to protect him because he loves him. Also Ed Boone didn’t want to hurt Christopher so that’s why he lied but didn’t lie to get away from things like what other people do. Ed Boone made the decision to lie like any father or mother would go to protect their kids from them getting hurt when knowing the truth, it was a good thing Ed Boone lied to Christopher because he could get a worse reaction because of his Autism,and wouldn’t be able to take it like other people will. Even if that differs Christopher what the truth was would still be devastating to someone in the young age.

Ed Boone was left alone with his 15 year old kid and now was the only guardian of Christopher he was really hard broken about that his wife left him with their adorable son. This book is mainly about the feeling about Christopher but also about Mr Ed Boone because his wife left him for another guy and because he was embarrassed of their son Christopher. Saying all that Mark Haddon used words in this book that have a deep meaning and could see emotions on people and on the character of the book. One of these examples was “No it’s an Ordinary hospital, she has a problem with her heart” (Haddon 23).What happened here was that Haddon actually initialed was the Ed Boone was heartbroken and Christopher’s mom was a really selfish person and that had no heart because she left him and their son Chistopher and messed up the whole family love. In this book it was acceptable that Ed Boone lied to Christopher because all the things he did was to protect him from the bad side of knowing his mother had left him for some other guy.

One part that I didn’t like that they lied was from the episode that we watched from the show called “Taken at Birth” . The doctor named Thomas Hicks lied to the parents that there kids died when they were born be he was actually selling them to other people for $1,000. There still a lot of people that still haven’t met there parents because of this doctor that would sell them .

Many people believe that they know how to detect deception. They rely on nonverbal cues or actions that often speak louder than words. Indeed, there are body language signals that can help determine if a person is telling the real story. It is often believed that you can tell if the person is honest or not by looking at his eyes. If he looks straight in the eye, he is presumed honest. However, there have been instances where nonverbal cues alone have failed to detect deception.

According to research, lying is a skill. It is something that can be learned – very much like biking, swimming, and driving. Professional liars have trained themselves to tell lies with a straight face and can do it with ease after long hours of practice. It only takes patience to learn a skill. If you want to know how to detect deception, it’s best if you use other tools in addition to reading body language signals alone. Relying solely on nonverbal cues can lead to misinterpretation. Telling the truth can be quite stressful for some people. This is especially true when sensitive and painful matters are concerned. For some, discussions about sexuality cause discomfort that they cannot talk casually or look straight in the eye. With misleading nonverbal cues, people tend to overestimate their capacity to detect deception so that they end up being deceived.

The process of lie detection is quite tricky that people rely on technological tools to uncover the truth. This objective approach could achieve a better success rate than simply relying on nonverbal cues. Lie detection tools are used by law in interrogating witnesses or suspects in crimes. These tools demonstrate how inept a person’s judgment is when it comes to translating signals. Some of the most common tools used to uncover deceptions are the polygraph and the functional magnetic resonance imaging, otherwise called FMRI.

The polygraph measures and monitors a person’s heart rate, skin conductance, and blood pressure. Changes in the monitored data are associated with a person’s anxiety level. When a person is anxious during interrogation, then there is a huge possibility that he is lying.

Another technological tool that works for the same purpose is fMRI. It uses brain scans to understand how a person’s mind works and contains indicators that determine whether a person is telling the truth.

Police investigators know how to detect deception. They start the process by asking non-threatening questions. These questions do not prompt a person to lie. Then they proceed with the formal interrogation process. They compare and observe the changes in the brain’s activity.

Again, these tools are sometimes not one hundred percent accurate. Being subject to a lie detector test causes an increase in the anxiety level and brain activity for any normal person. This may lead to a misinterpretation of data leading to the conclusion that the person is lying even if he is telling the truth. He is just self-conscious or may be apprehensive about the machine. It can swing both ways. Professional liars can conceal their feelings of anxiety, while others become stressed out by telling the truth. However, people should not wring their hands and give up on these tools. They seem to forget that most individuals they are dealing with are not professional liars, and not all people are out there to deceive them. Operating from such a negative mindset can only attract more of these unwanted persons in their experience. Let us be thankful that science has come up with those tools that can help in knowing and understanding how to detect deception.