The Nature of Lying: The Science Behind Why We Deceive

I teach my children not to lie, or I do not like to tell lies. Well, you see we humans, are a machine of lies and saying you do not tell lie at all is a lie itself. When we speak to strangers for 10 minutes, there is a chance of telling at least three lies before the conversation ends. Researchers have come out to say that people who were their subject and told lies weren't even aware they were telling a lie. So it is possible that there is a purpose for humans telling a lie, so let's uncover why we tell a lie in full.

Humans are not the only ones that are able to tell a lie, as there was a non-human lying gorilla named Koko who was taught sign language in the 1970s blamed her pet kitten for ripping a sink out of the wall in her room, so maybe you should calm your nerves and understand that you are not the only one in nature that tell lies but it looks like humans do it a lot and one of the reasons is because we are a social animal.

Humans interact with ourselves and this is one of the reasons why we have big brains and since we live in a social live, we can say that lying is part of the way of we keeping our social interactions and structure. We have a name for it and it is called deceit but humans need to keep our social gathering while looking out for ourselves. Keeping our social gathering happy helps us with access to food, sexual partners, and higher social standing, so we could say that we began to lie from our early ancestors and they were able to keep good standing in their social group but then humans who were able to detect lies were cheated less compared to others. Now we have evolved to become good liars and good at spotting it as well.

Some researchers say that we start to lie as early as 6 months old such as when babies start to fake cries and this is when babies start to become better liars and at the time they are in college they lie to their parent once in every 5 conversations. By the time we are adults we even begin to lie to ourselves as we begin to flip information into two sides and hold on to the one that suits our person.

Humans now become so good that pathological liars tell lies and believe their own lies. Science has shown that there is a different between the brain of normal people and the brains of pathological liars. The difference is in the prefrontal cortex. According to a study in the University of Southern California, researchers say that there is an average of 22% - 26% percent more white matter in the prefrontal cortex of pathological liars than normal people. This shows these people can make a lot of connections in their brains really fast which helps them thick and process fast but while they have a lot of white matter, they have less gray matter than other people which means they are not critical thinkers.

Lying is an intrinsic part of human nature and social interaction. While it’s something we often frown upon, it has played a significant role in our evolutionary history. Understanding why we lie can help us navigate our social environments more effectively and encourage us to strive for greater honesty in our interactions. While we may never completely eradicate lies, recognizing their impact and purpose can lead to more meaningful and authentic relationships.

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_{https://consciouscompanion2012.com/2013/07/14/humans-arent-the-only-ones-that-can-tell-a-lie/
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-linden-koko-washoe-animal-sentience-20180708-story.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3788848/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3483871/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2376803/
https://today.usc.edu/liars-brains-wired-differently/}

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_{Image 1 || publicdomain pictures
Image 2 || flickr}