Studies conducted with MRIs reveal that certain areas of the brain are called to overwork when the truth is altered. It is talked about in the Corriere Salute on newsstands on Thursday 21 July
We are publishing a preview of an article in the new Corriere Salute. You can read the full text on the free issue on newsstands on Thursday 21 July or in Pdf on the Digital Edition of Corriere della Sera.
They want us concentration and commitment to tell lies, at least if you don’t want to run the risk of inventing weak stories, at the risk of being very easily discovered. Indeed, when the mind is engaged in other activities, inventing a credible lie becomes a difficult task, and there is a high risk of being caught. The results of an experimental study carried out by Aldert Free of the Department of Psychology at the University of Portsmouth, UK, published in the International Journal of Psychology & Behavior Analysis.
Our research has shown how truth and lie can appear equally plausible as long as the liar is given a chance to stay focused on what he is saying, says Aldert Vrij. But as soon as he is denied the opportunity to reflect, the listener realizes that the truth appears far more plausible than the lie. In our experiment we obtained this result by entrusting those who tried to tell a lie with a second task to be carried out at the same time, emphasizing that it was an important task. This last aspect is decisive, since if the second task is not covered with its own importance, the effect of cognitive load on the construction of the lie is lost.
Double task
The experiment was carried out in a cognitive psychology laboratory and involved 164 participants. Some members of the group were told to express their true views on some current issues, while others were asked to lie about their true views. A part of the latter was also entrusted with the task of remembering a seven-digit number and in the end it was the latter who built the least successful lies. The mind engaged in a difficult task, such as remembering the number without being able to write it down, had less cognitive energy to spend on generating a believable lie. an approach called “cognitive load imposedThe study authors say. The rationale for this approach is that in an interview setting, telling lies is cognitively more challenging than telling the truth. The cognitive load can be increased through specific interventions that impose a certain need for concentration.
You can continue reading the article in Corriere Salute on newsstands for free on Thursday 21 July or in Pdf on the Digital Edition of Corriere della Sera
July 19, 2022 (change July 19, 2022 | 15:25)
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