University of Kwazulu-Natal

Distorting The Truth Versus Blatant Lies The Effects Of Different

Bonisiwe Shabane
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distorting the truth versus blatant lies the effects of different

How Blatantly False Headlines Can Distort What We Believe In New research highlights the necessity of stopping huge falsehoods during the presidential election cycle Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images Politicians have never been known for a strict adherence to truth. U.S. voters admit they know their representatives routinely lie to them: voters routinely assume that even their own party’s politicians are dishonest about two fifths of the time, according to a 2021 study.But in this...

Mendacity in the style of former president Donald Trump—and the uncritical repetition of such blatant lies—can measurably chip away at our ability to assess the plausibility of other, unrelated news stories, according to a... Repeatedly viewing obviously outlandish claims makes people more likely to believe more ambiguous-seeming ones, the behavioral and cognitive scientists behind the new study conclude. The team’s results deal primarily with people’s beliefs rather than their ability to detect fake news (after all, something can be hard to believe yet still true). But the researchers also looked at how increases in perceptions of believability influenced people’s overall view of the truth. Posted November 28, 2024 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader In the first (2020) study of its kind, Erasmus University researchers Speer, Smidts, Maarten, and Boksem, using magnetic resonation imagery (MRI), found biologically consistent neural activation and connectivity patterns that differentiate honest from dishonest...

Their study showed the brain activity in play during decision-making when honest people lie or liars choose honesty. Findings of significant individual differences in the total amount of cheating suggest that people are distributed along a continuum from individuals who are consistently honest (20%), whose default behavior is truthful, to cheaters who... Activity in three brain regions reveals why the same person may cheat on some occasions and remain honest at other times. By observing activity in the areas of the brain that reflect self-referential thinking, cognitive control, and reward, the researchers can classify cheaters versus honest individuals. The biological mechanism that modifies those behaviors relies on cognition. Individuals with a default inclination to be honest when given the opportunity to cheat associate with their self-image as “honest” and behave honestly.

A network of three areas of the cortex promotes honesty. Neural evidence suggests that when exposed to an opportunity to cheat, particularly honest people value their moral self-concept and its maintenance enough to forgo potential financial reward. Honest people are motivated to uphold their self-concept even if it comes at the cost of potential monetary gains because they weigh the conflicting motivations to obtain a monetary reward versus the long-term goal... This shows up on MRIs as connections between three nodes of brain activity that disappear when truth-tellers lie. To lie, truth-tellers must adjust their self-image to accommodate a lie.

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How Blatantly False Headlines Can Distort What We Believe In

How Blatantly False Headlines Can Distort What We Believe In New research highlights the necessity of stopping huge falsehoods during the presidential election cycle Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images Politicians have never been known for a strict adherence to truth. U.S. voters admit they know their representatives routinely lie to them: voters routinely assume that even their own par...

Mendacity In The Style Of Former President Donald Trump—and The

Mendacity in the style of former president Donald Trump—and the uncritical repetition of such blatant lies—can measurably chip away at our ability to assess the plausibility of other, unrelated news stories, according to a... Repeatedly viewing obviously outlandish claims makes people more likely to believe more ambiguous-seeming ones, the behavioral and cognitive scientists behind the new study c...

Their Study Showed The Brain Activity In Play During Decision-making

Their study showed the brain activity in play during decision-making when honest people lie or liars choose honesty. Findings of significant individual differences in the total amount of cheating suggest that people are distributed along a continuum from individuals who are consistently honest (20%), whose default behavior is truthful, to cheaters who... Activity in three brain regions reveals why...

A Network Of Three Areas Of The Cortex Promotes Honesty.

A network of three areas of the cortex promotes honesty. Neural evidence suggests that when exposed to an opportunity to cheat, particularly honest people value their moral self-concept and its maintenance enough to forgo potential financial reward. Honest people are motivated to uphold their self-concept even if it comes at the cost of potential monetary gains because they weigh the conflicting m...