The opening sentence that titles this article is attributed to Adolf Hitler’s campaign manager: Joseph Goebbels, recognized for his importance in the process of Hitler’s rise to power and for the impact of his media strategies in the creation of the anti-Identity. Semite.
For Goebbels, as for the adherents of Machiavellian philosophy (that is, referring to the work of Niccolò Machiavelli), the act of lying had to be analyzed and evaluated beyond the prism of morality to extract from it an undeniable utility: that of influencing society.
In this way, the politician or public figure had to be prepared to adapt, deform and even consciously create distorted versions of the facts and subsequently transmit them to an audience that, although they could resist their acceptance, ended up giving in – said Goebbels – with the repetition of the lie.
The political field is undoubtedly an area where society can see the exercise of dishonesty reflected in a frank and common way, but so is the world of financial scandals, frauds, pyramids, sports doping and even the daily life of the ordinary individual who discovers an unthinkable deception by someone close to him.
Lying and fraud are undoubtedly an emotional scourge for those affected by them, but what happens in the brains of those who practice dishonesty?
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How does the escalation process unfold by which a person goes from uttering “little lies” to becoming an expert tax evader, scammer or crowd trickster?
“The first time you cheat, you feel bad about it. But that’s good, stop your dishonesty. The next time you cheat, you have already adapted.”
According to a study published in the journal, the key is how the brains of liars progressively adapt to deception. For researchers, the impact of dishonesty at the neural level is of such magnitude that one can even speak of a “neural mechanism” that supports lying, or in other words: a biological principle of adaptation that contributes to the phenomenon, called emotional adaptation.
To carry out the study, the team of researchers from University College London (UCL) recruited 80 adults to participate in a task that involved estimating and advising a couple about the amount of money that was in a jar of coins, which It contained between £15 and £35 (approximately $18 and $43).
Participants looked at large, high-resolution images of the jars for three seconds and their partner (played by an actor) was told they would see a smaller image of the jar for one second. Participants were told that their partner’s task was to estimate the amount of money in the jar with their help, which would be given through linked computers. This allowed the researchers to record participants’ estimates when they had no reason to lie.
Participants received different instructions that provided them with incentives to be dishonest. Comparing the estimates between the honest and dishonest situations allowed the team to measure the degrees of dishonesty.
Depending on the scenario, dishonesty could benefit the participant at the expense of his or her partner, benefit the partner at the expense of the participant, benefit both, or benefit the participant or the partner without affecting the other. In the first case, for example, participants were told that they would be rewarded based on how much their partner overestimated the amount of money in the jar, while their partner would be rewarded for accuracy. Participants were also told that their partner was unaware of these new instructions.
The researchers found that dishonesty increased over 60 pitcher presentations, but only when the benefit was selfish. Participants also lied when only their partner benefited, but this dishonesty remained constant. When both parties benefited, participants lied more, suggesting that they found this type of dishonesty more acceptable.
This study is the first empirical evidence that dishonest behavior intensifies when it is repeated
For Tali Sharot, a neuroscientist at UCL, people lie more when it is good for them and for others. When it’s only good for them, but it hurts someone else, they lie less. However, the experiment also showed that lying only increased over time when the participant gained some benefit, suggesting that self-interest is necessary for dishonesty to escalate.
“This study is the first empirical evidence that dishonest behavior intensifies when it is repeated, when everything else is held constant,” explains Neil Garrett, cognitive neuroscientist at UCL and lead author of the study.
Twenty-five of the participants performed the experiment with the support of a functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, which allowed the researchers to measure brain activity. The team focused on areas of the brain previously associated with emotional stimulation, using a database of brain imaging results. The area most observed was the amygdala, a brain region known for responding to and processing emotions.
The researchers found how activity in this region was initially high when participants lied, but declined over time during subsequent acts of dishonesty. One point of note is that greater reductions in amygdala activity predicted greater lying later in life. This suggests that a biological mechanism (adaptation) could support dishonesty.
“The first time you cheat, you feel bad about it. But that’s good, stop your dishonesty,” Sharot explained. “Next time you cheat, you’ve already adapted. There is less of a backlash to stop you, and you can lie more.”
Sharot’s team believes that these findings could be relevant to a better understanding of other types of behavior, such as escalating risk-taking or violent behavior.
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