A Look At The Inside Of A Liar’s Brain
When someone lies over and over again, the person stops reacting to their own lies emotionally. This lack of feeling also makes it easier to continue lying. For the most part, it turns into a recurring habit. Neurologists have come to the conclusion that a liar’s brain works differently. It seems that his brain is being shaped for just this.
A fundamental property of the human brain is malleability. Therefore, it is not surprising to see lying as a trait like any other. This means that you have to practice every day for the property to develop to its utmost. People who are passionate about math, design, writing or anything else, shape their brains according to these purposes.
Psychology and sociology have always interested the world in lies and betrayal. But in recent decades, it is neuroscience that has given us the most valuable information. This is due to enormous advances in diagnostic technology. The information is worrying. Why is it so worrying? If we tell you now that a dishonest person comes from consistent training and habit-forming, some may surprise you.
It starts with small lies that then become a habit. Then your brain slowly begins to become insensitive to them. Slowly but surely, it will not bother you to pull bigger lies and they will largely become a cornerstone of your life.
You can probably spot lies in celebrities or other well-known characters. For example, there are politicians who cling to their lies. They defend their honesty and normalize actions that are sometimes downright criminal. Is this just part of their job as public servants or is there another active biological factor.
Tali Sharot, Professor of Neuroscience at University College London, has something to say here. She believes that there is a biological component, but that there is also a training process.
A part of the brain has a very clear and direct relationship to dishonest behaviors – this part is the amygdala. A liar’s brain goes through a very sophisticated process of self-training, and this training helps the person to push away the natural feelings of guilt.
There is a very interesting article from 2017 in the journal Nature Neuroscience, where they really go into depth. But we can help you with your own example.
For a moment, imagine a young person who has reached a position of power in his company. She wants to convey leadership and trust to her employees, so she begins to tell small lies. These “dissonances”, these small falsehoods, activate the amygdala. These structures in the limbic system handle memory and emotional reactions. It is also part of the brain that determines how willing a person is to lie.
Eventually, the young leader begins to constantly use lies. Now her position is largely and constantly based on deliberately misleading people. When this form of behavior becomes a habit, the amygdala stops responding. It builds a tolerance and stops sending out an emotional reaction. Feelings of guilt no longer exist, and you experience no remorse or anxiety.
In other words, a liar’s brain is adapted to dishonesty.
People who lie basically need two things: memory and emotional coldness. This is exactly what psychology professor Dan Ariely from Duke’s University says in his book The Honest Truth about Dishonesty: How to lie to everyone – especially to ourselves – one of the most in – depth investigations of a liar’s brain. He also talks about many other related neurological processes that are just as fascinating.
Dr. Airely has conducted an experiment in the area. The results showed that the brains of pathological liars have 14% less gray mass. They also had between 22 and 26% more white mass in their prefrontal cortex.
What does that mean? Basically, a liar’s brain makes a lot more connections between his memories and ideas. A larger network of connections means that they can access these associations faster and make their lies constant.
It is an important clue that shows how dishonesty arises from within. It begins with cognitive processes that become stronger when you exercise them. At the same time, your brain will begin to involve fewer emotions in your actions.
Dr. Ariely finds this scary. The fact that the amygdala can stop reacting to certain things also means that we begin to lose something that makes us human. When you can not see the consequences that your actions have on other people, you lose the natural goodness that should exist in every human being.
A liar’s brain is shaped by a series of relatively dark motivations. Within a person who has made lying a way of life, there are special specific goals: a desire for power, status, dominance and self-interest. It is the ideology of people who at one time or another decide to put themselves above everyone else. There is nothing more disturbing than that.
