Department of Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern 3012, Switzerland.
Affective Brain Lab, Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, WC1H 0AP, United Kingdom.
Cereb Cortex. 2023 May 24;33(11):6693-6700. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhac535.
Much research finds that lying takes longer than truth-telling. Yet, the source of this response time difference remains elusive. Here, we assessed the spatiotemporal evolution of electrical brain activity during honesty and dishonesty in 150 participants using a sophisticated electrical neuroimaging approach-the microstate approach. This uniquely positioned us to identify and contrast the entire chain of mental processes involved during honesty and dishonesty. Specifically, we find that the response time difference is the result of an additional late-occurring mental process, unique to dishonest decisions, interrupting the antecedent mental processing. We suggest that this process inhibits the activation of the truth, thus permitting the execution of the lie. These results advance our understanding of dishonesty and clarify existing theories about the role of increased cognitive load. More broadly, we demonstrate the vast potential of our approach to illuminate the temporal organization of mental processes involved in decision-making.
许多研究发现，说谎比说实话需要更长的时间。然而，这种反应时间差异的根源仍然难以捉摸。在这里，我们使用一种复杂的电神经影像学方法——微状态方法，评估了 150 名参与者在诚实和不诚实时大脑电活动的时空演变。这使我们能够独特地识别和对比诚实和不诚实过程中涉及的整个心理过程链。具体来说，我们发现反应时间差异是额外的后期心理过程的结果，这个过程是不诚实决策所特有的，会中断先前的心理处理。我们认为，这个过程抑制了对真相的激活，从而允许谎言的执行。这些结果增进了我们对不诚实的理解，并澄清了关于认知负荷增加作用的现有理论。更广泛地说，我们展示了我们的方法在阐明决策过程中涉及的心理过程的时间组织方面的巨大潜力。
