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Chronic liars really ARE “wired differently”!
By Lauren | March 8, 2008
Have you ever met someone who seemed to be almost incapable of telling the truth? Someone whose constant lying, even when the truth would serve, seemed almost pathological? If so, you might have come away from an encounter with that person shaking your head and believing that, somehow, he or she just seemed to be “wired differently” than the rest of us.
Turns out, you may have been right.
National Public Radio’s Robert Krulwich and Jad Abumrad reported this week on a study that was first published in The British Journal of Psychiatry. Researchers Yaling Yang of the University of Southern California and Adrian Raine from from University of Pennsylvania issued the study, which suggests that the brains of people who have a history of chronic lying may actually be structured differently from those of everyone else.
Although it’s common to refer to the brain as “gray matter,” the prefrontal cortex of the human brain is actually made up of both gray matter (brain cells that process information) and white matter (connective tissue that carries signals between groups of neurons). According to the study, people who compulsively lie have more connective white matter than the rest of us. That apparently makes it easier for them to quickly fabricate lies and excuses than it is for people whose brains contain less of the white stuff.
It’s not yet clear whether chronic liars are just born with more white matter or whether the act of lying actually creates white matter in the brain. Either way, the study has some unsettling implications. If chronic lying really is, in whole or part, a product of biology, are chronic liars able to control the impulse to lie even when they have a strong incentive to do so? Could brain studies of the sort conducted here help courts, police and potential employers screen out those who are predisposed to lie? Even if the science of using brain scans to identify chronic liars proves to be reliable, should it be used? If so, when and how?
The researchers emphasized that the study was preliminary, and that much more work would need to be done before their work could yield any practical applications. In the meanwhile, the study certainly suggests that some segment of our population faces special challenges in telling the truth. That’s a scary thought for anyone with an interest in ethics.
Topics: Business Ethics, Personal Ethics |