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The Truth About Lies (and Why Your Brain Loves Them)

The Truth About Lies (and Why Your Brain Loves Them)

NAYANA IZ TNT (2020)

We all lie, that’s a fact. While occasional white lies are often considered harmless, scientific studies show that frequent lying can change the brain. So, let’s take a little dip into neuroscience:

The amygdala is the part of the brain responsible for emotions, fear and moral perception and plays a crucial role in the context of lying. This is where it gets interesting: A study published in 2016 found that the amygdala’s response to repeated lying decreases over time. Initially, the amygdala reacts strongly to dishonesty, triggering feelings of guilt and discomfort. However, the more frequently people lie, the weaker this response becomes. The brain essentially adapts to lying. This could explain why pathological liars or fraudsters continue to escalate their deception: their brains have simply adapted accordingly.

But the brain doesn’t stop there! Memories are not stored like a camera roll but are reconstructed by our neurons each time we recall them. Now for the wild part: Experiments by memory expert and psychologist Elisabeth Loftus have shown that we can manipulate actual memory—and how fabricated stories can become (our) reality. In some cases, habitual liars are even able to pass lie detector tests because their bodies no longer show a typical stress response to falsehoods.

So, next time you get caught up in a lie, shake it off with London-based rapper NAYANA IZ’ explosive track “TNT” and ask yourself: “Why you lyin' for?”

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