A new study reveals that people are more likely to believe lies, especially from friends, when rewards are involved. Neuroimaging shows synchronized brain activity that predicts successful deception in social bonds. The research highlights how incentives and relationships influence judgments of honesty.
Detecting dishonesty involves interpreting social cues, judging intent, and assessing trustworthiness, but scientists have puzzled over how relationships affect these processes. Led by Yingjie Liu from North China University of Science and Technology, a team explored this in a study published in JNeurosci.
The researchers used neuroimaging to observe brain activity in 66 healthy adults. Participants, in pairs, interacted via computer screens, exchanging messages with 'gain' or 'loss' consequences—'gain' benefiting both, 'loss' producing negative outcomes. Contributing researcher Rui Huang explained, "The key reason we chose 'gain' and 'loss' contexts is that they illustrate how people adjust decision-making in response to potential rewards or punishments."
Findings showed people trusted false information more in 'gain' situations, linked to brain activation in reward processing, risk assessment, and intention-reading regions. This indicates positive outcomes can make lies seem believable despite doubts.
Friendship played a key role: when a friend delivered potentially deceptive information, both showed synchronized brain activity. This synchrony varied by context—greater in reward regions during 'gain' scenarios and risk regions during 'loss'—allowing prediction of deception success.
Overall, the study suggests vulnerability to rewarding lies, with social connections complicating truth judgments. Brain processing differs between friends, potentially leading to easier acceptance of falsehoods in incentive-driven situations.