slippery slope

Lies have a way of snowballing, don’t they? Understanding why people lie is complicated, but a recent study might prove there’s a biological reason behind those fibs. “When we lie for personal gain, our amygdala produces a negative feeling that limits the extent to which we are prepared to lie,” says Tali Sharot, an associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London and one of the authors of the study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.” In the study, as participants continued to lie, the emotional response—guilt—wore o , and the more it faded, the more comfortable they were with lying and the bigger the lies became. Our conclusion? Don’t lie in the first place!