The truth is, honest people need willpower to cheat, while cheaters need it to be honest
- Reference: 1598435949
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/08/26/brain_processes_behind_being_honest_or_cheating/
- Source link:
It all depends on what kind of person is doing the cheating.
New research from the Rotterdam School of Management claims to show that the neurocognitive processes for cheating differs between people who are usually honest and those who are less so.
Participants in the study were cocooned in an MRI scanner and asked to perform a series of cognitive tests. Not the kind [1]Donald Trump felt the need to tell the world about , but a spot-the-difference trial.
Subjects were told there were "always three differences between the image pairs" and that "the purpose of the study was to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms of visual search for marketing purposes."
Under an investigatory ruse, they were also led to believe the experiment was supposed to look at how a monetary reward affected the speed and accuracy of visual search.
The subjects were told to say when they had spotted all three differences between image pairs, and that the reward would be greater the more pairs they got through in a given time.
But here's the catch: not all the image pairs had three differences, so the researchers knew when the subjects were lying.
The information allowed researchers to place their subjects into two broad groups – "honest" and "cheaters". But honest people were not always honest; sometimes they cheated. And cheaters were sometimes honest. Using data from the MRI scanner, the researchers claim they were able to discern some of the underlying processes.
They found that the brain region associated with the processing of reward was more strongly activated for cheaters during the decision-making process, while honest people showed higher activity and connectivity in a network of regions related to self-referential thinking.
But differences in "cognitive control", the phrase psychologists use when they mean willpower, was the most significant result. "Surprisingly, we found that for honest participants, more cognitive control was needed to cheat, whereas for participants who cheated frequently, control was needed in order to be honest," explained Sebastian Speer, PhD candidate and lead author of [2]the paper .
Whether someone is likely to cheat or not depends not only on their willpower, but also on the individual's "moral default".
Professor Ale Smidts, who helped conduct the study along with Prof Maarten Boksem, said: "There are immense economic costs caused by dishonest behaviour, such as tax evasion, music piracy or business scandals, so finding effective ways to reduce dishonest behaviour are of great relevance to policy makers. Also, during the COVID-19 pandemic dishonesty in the form of selling low-quality face masks and fraud on governmental subsidies are highly prevalent, which highlights the relevance of our findings."
Which might all seem a bit rich coming from the researchers who had to lie to people to get a scientific result.
It turns out you can't trust anyone these days. Except The Register , of course. ®
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[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/21/opinions/truth-trump-cognitive-test-drexler/index.html
[2] https://www.pnas.org/content/117/32/19080
[3] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Lying vs projection
"so the researchers knew when the subjects were lying"
Lying or mistaken, add the reward and they're skipping double checking, and claiming tiny imperfections in prints as differences. Are those fibres on the paper causing that defect or is it a difference?
You cited Trump, but he doesn't lie so much as projects truths onto others.
So, "Democrats will use Corona Virus to undermine the election" is really him telling you he's going to use coronavirus to undermine the election. I call them his boner statements, because he gets off telling you what evil plan they've discussed, and Melania gets bothered that night. His kids seem to handle the bare faced lies with drugs, all dilated pupils and squinting in the light, as they spew their lies. Does the coke affect the brain as they lie?
Semi-related:
Trump intends to send armed officers to 'guard' polling stations, after Chad Wolf said he wasn't legally allowed to:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-security/top-u-s-security-official-says-he-cannot-send-law-enforcement-to-polling-sites-idUSKBN25J0LU
So you understand from Trump's projection, what is going to happen. Trump will give the order. Republicans will close polling stations in Democrat areas, people will protest, they will be shot, Trump will pardon the killers.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-pardons-broke-law-illegal-miles-taylor-dhs-a9688556.html
Go ask Trump, "if the polling stations are crowded will you order the voting station closed". Go ask Desantis the same question. Or any of the Republicans that worked so hard to spread the virus. Ask them. You don't need to put a cap on them and measure their brain activity, Trump will flat out tell you the plan, the Governors will point to proxies for the same decisions, e.g. "if the State health secretary says so" i.e. citing authority of a person under them, who doesn't actually have that authority. You might recall Pompeo did this, citing Bill Barr's non-existent right to delay an election.
Don't be afraid to ask now while you still can.
"There are immense economic costs caused by dishonest behaviour, such as tax evasion, music piracy or business scandals, "
This moron classifies *piracy* to the same class as tax evasion? WTF?
Piracy *increases* sales (actual research data, not RIAA/MPAA bullshit) and therefore is not a loss at all. While tax evasion losses for tax payers are in billions yearly.
Beat me to it - a bad example
Also lots of honest people will be against tax evasion, but less so about music "piracy" - given the frequently obscene prices charged for music then, unless you have lots of free cash, try before you buy makes sense - be it "piracy", listening on youtube or whatever
Going back a few years, It was "piracy" that introduced me to some bands that led to me buying their music CDs. Same with the original DOS based Doom games, went on to buy the later versions.
Moral flexibility
Moral flexibility explains why one form of cheating is ok but another is not. In absolute terms they are both cheating, in relative terms they are both different, in reality they are part of the balance.
Tax evasion can be seen as a bad thing (for good reason) yet because people can do so it incentives governments not to rob all of us blind (because those who can move it will and the gov loses). Compare that with the well established morality of music piracy.
hmm,
You reach down and you flip the tortoise over on its back, Leon.
Leon : Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden? Or do they write 'em down for you?
Holden : The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping.
Leon : What do you mean, I'm not helping?
Holden : I mean: you're not helping! Why is that, Leon?
Holden : They're just questions, Leon. In answer to your query, they're written down for me. It's a test, designed to provoke an emotional response... Shall we continue?
If it were possible to trust certain politicians even less...
then this kind of analysis shows it can always be worse than you think.
I'm sure everyone can think of a few example politicians who frequently 'strain plausibility'. I honestly believe that some of them have so little cognitive control that they don't have any realistic chance of stating truths or facts.