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WASHINGTON (AP) — The more we lie -- the easier it gets.
A new study finds that when we tell little fibs, it leads down a slippery slope to bigger lies. And our brains adapt to the escalating dishonesty, which makes lying easier.
Neuroscientists at the University College in London put 80 people into scenarios in which they could repeatedly lie. And the bigger their lie, the more they'd get paid.
The researchers say they were the first to demonstrate that people's lies grow bolder the more they fib.
According to a study published online in the journal Nature Neuroscience, they used brain scans to show that our brain's emotional hot spot becomes desensitized, or accustomed to the growing dishonesty.
One researcher says, "It highlights the potential dangers of engaging in small acts of dishonesty on a regular basis because these can escalate to much larger ones further down the line."
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APPHOTO WX101: FILE - In this Nov. 26, 2014 file photo, a brain-scanning MRI machine at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In a study coming out in the tail end of a U.S. presidential election where the truth has been strained, neuroscientists at the University College London's Affective Brain Lab put 80 people in scenarios where they could repeatedly lie and get paid more based on the magnitude of their lies. They said they were the first to demonstrate empirically that people's lies grow bolder the more they fib. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File) (21 Oct 2016)
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