People who tell small, self-serving lies are likely to progress to bigger falsehoods, and over time, the brain appears to adapt to the dishonesty, according to a new study.
The finding, the researchers said, provides evidence for the โslippery slopeโ sometimes described by wayward politicians, corrupt financiers, unfaithful spouses and others in explaining their misconduct.
โThey usually tell a story where they started small and got larger and larger, and then they suddenly found themselves committing quite severe acts,โ said Tali Sharot, an associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London.
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Amitai Shenhav, a psychologist at Brown University who has studied moral decision-making,…said the findings were โsuggestive of a slippery slope.โ But he added that it was still not entirely clear what was driving people down that slope.
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โThe implication is that we should watch out that we donโt tolerate lies, in order to prevent people from lying when it really matters,โ [saidย Christian Ruff, a professor of decision neuroscience at the University of Zurich.]
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:ย Why Big Liars Often Start Out as Small Ones
