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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 6, 2026

An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime

An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime

Published on: May 3, 2016

The ease of lying.

Bruno Verschuere¹, Adriaan Spruyt, Ewout H Meijer

¹Department of Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Bruno.Verschuere@ugent.be

Consciousness and Cognition

|November 25, 2010

Summary

Human brains default to truth telling. This study found that frequent truth-telling makes lying harder, while frequent lying makes lying easier, impacting lie detection accuracy.

Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

Brain imaging suggests truth telling is the brain's default.
Lying requires intentional suppression of the truth response.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate if the truth response dominance is malleable.
Explore the impact of truth/lie proportion on lie detection.

Main Methods:

Manipulated truth proportion in the Sheffield lie test.
Assessed changes in lying difficulty based on prior truth-telling frequency.

Main Results:

Frequent truth-telling increased the difficulty of lying.
Frequent lying decreased the difficulty of lying.

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The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory

Published on: January 31, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 6, 2026

An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime

An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime

Published on: May 3, 2016

The Modified Temptation Resistance Task: A Paradigm to Elicit Children's Strategic Lie-telling

The Modified Temptation Resistance Task: A Paradigm to Elicit Children's Strategic Lie-telling

Published on: April 6, 2018

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory

Published on: January 31, 2017

Habitual lying strengthens the lie response dominance.

Conclusions:

Truth response dominance is malleable.
Lie detection accuracy may improve by enhancing truth response dominance.
Habitual lying can alter the brain's default response patterns.