By: Yaiza MartÃnez.
A brain scan shows that man is naturally honest. Honesty is not dependent on the strength of will, even a choice.
A brain scan shows that man is naturally honest. Honesty is not dependent on the strength of will, even a choice.
A study by psychologists at Harvard University in the United States has shown that honest people do not have to make any effort to be, but that comes naturally to them. In neurological terms, this means that, given the temptations, brain activity of the honest individuals is not increased, while the dishonest people does. The tendency to lie and act dishonestly was visible, thanks neuroimaging technologies in various parts of the cerebral cortex. Scientists at Harvard University conducted a study of brain activity during a series of tests that analyzed the honesty of a group of people.
Thus, they found that honesty is more dependent on the absence of temptations that active resistance to them or, in neural terms, the brain activity of people who are honest do not vary with the temptation (for example, make money by cheating), while brain activity becomes dishonest people to temptation, even if they do not succumb to it. Naturally honest
: According to published
Harvard University in a statement, research techniques were applied for registration of neuroimaging, which distinguish the structure of the brain and its functioning.
Specifically, the researchers observed brain activity in a number of people who were given the opportunity to make money dishonestly, by lies.
example, found that participants who did not lie showed no additional neuronal activity when telling the truth. This means that these people did not follow any extra cognitive process to "choose" to be honest, but they were naturally. In
However, in the brains of those individuals who have behaved dishonestly, extra brain activity was detected in brain areas related to control and care, even when these individuals tell the truth.
Will or Grace:
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), was directed by Joshua Greene, a professor of psychology at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Harvard University.
Greene explains that, according to these findings, to be honest it depends on an effort of will but rather to be predisposed to honesty in a spontaneous way. According to researcher, this may not be true in all situations, but it seems that it is true, at least in the situation studied.
The research was designed to test two theories about the nature of honesty es.wikipedia.org / wiki / Honesty. Because what makes people behave honestly when faced with the opportunity to gain a dishonest?
the researchers reported in PNAS, previous studies on the processes - automatic or decision-making have led to two hypotheses: the hypothesis of the "will" and the hypothesis of "grace." The first hypothesis
said that honesty is the result of active resistance to temptation, and cognitive process would be affordable to controlled which allows us to expect a reward.
The hypothesis of "grace", however, says that honesty is the result of the absence of temptation, namely, that the individual does not "feel" the temptation, even if you have, and therefore need not resist.
The results of this study would aim, according to Greene, that the theory of "grace" is true, because the honest participants showed no additional neuronal activity when told the truth.
Paranormal abilities:
To encourage participants to lie in the study, the researchers told a false story about the purpose of their study.
With the excuse of looking at certain paranormal abilities to predict the future, they asked the volunteers to predict the results of a series of coin rolls, which appeared on the screen of a computer.
In some tests, the subjects recorded their predictions in advance (before the shot), and others were rewarded based on the successes that they claimed to have had, allowing them to make money dishonestly.
Many participants advantage of the situation, as indicated the unlikely hit levels that they were counted.
Measurements made at the same time the brain activity of all participants showed that those individuals who had behaved honestly do not show any additional neuronal activity related to the control or any other cognitive process.
contrast, individuals who behaved dishonestly showed increased activity in areas related to the control, specifically the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the brain and the anterior cingulate cortex, both when they chose to act dishonestly and in those times that restrained dishonesty.
On the other hand, results showed that levels of activity in these areas were directly related to the frequency of dishonest actions of each individual.
detection of lies:
Previous studies had shown that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex are activated when an individual is asked to lie.
For example, a previous study of which we raised in Tendencias21 revealed that subjects who lie are activated three regions: the frontal lobe, temporal lobe and limbic lobe (all parts of the human brain cortex).
However, This study is the first that has not analyzed the consequences of lies in brain activity, but the effects on it of dishonest behavior. According to Greene
this work permit in the future to detect whether an individual is lying or not just by looking at their brain activity, but there is still much work ahead to make this possible.
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