“The Brain Adapts to Dishonesty.” That’s the title of an article published recently in the medical journal Nature Neuroscience. The authors are Neil Garrett, Stephanie C. Lazzaro, Dan Ariely and Tali Sharot. You can find the full article here: www.nature.com/...
In the article, the authors describe how they conducted a clinical investigation into dishonesty, trying to find a biological reason why some people move from small transgressions to larger ones over time.
“From financial fraud to plagiarism, online scams and scientific misconduct, deceivers retrospectively describe how minor dishonest decisions snowballed into significant ones over time…”
They tested subjects by asking them to perform a task involving a glass jar filled with pennies. The task offered the opportunity for the subjects to perform honestly or dishonestly. If they chose to act dishonestly, the subjects would not be required to admit it, so they could be entirely self-serving without worrying about getting caught. The details of the experiment are much too involved to go into here, but they can be found in the article.
When they tallied the results, the authors found that the magnitude of dishonesty increased “when it benefited the self,” but not otherwise.
“Dishonesty is an integral part of our social world, influencing domains ranging from finance and politics to personal relationships. Anecdotally, digressions from a moral code are often described as a series of small breaches that grow over time. Here we provide empirical evidence for a gradual escalation of self-serving dishonesty [emphasis mine] and reveal a neural mechanism supporting it. … The findings uncover a biological mechanism that supports a ‘slippery slope’: What begins as small acts of dishonesty can escalate into larger transgressions.”
So it becomes easier and easier to lie, particularly when such lying or other acts of dishonesty are self-serving and will benefit that person. After lying so often and so long, you become immune to that biological signal—call it the “little voice” or the angel on your shoulder—that part of your conscience that works to keep you on an honest path. Lying continually, and getting away with it, makes it even easier to keep lying, about matters both large and significant and trivial and unimportant, until you yourself finally believe everything you say is true.
“… the behavioral results demonstrated that dishonesty is driven both by considerations for self and other but its escalation is driven only by whether dishonesty benefits or hurts the self, …”
Donald Trump lies because he has to continue to support his grandiose vision of himself, his monstrous ego. He is biologically incapable of acting in an honest, self-sacrificing manner. All of his thoughts, actions and words are calculated only to benefit himself, and it will always be that way. Any attempts to hold him accountable will do no good, because he has already gotten away with it for so many years.
Can you image such a person as President of the United States?
Credits: Nature Neuroscience, doi:10.1038/nn.4426. Published online October 24, 2016.
www.nature.com/...