谎言，竟能改变大脑！

每个人都曾经做过这种事，即使我们知道它是错的。

But here's the problem with lying: Research shows that the more you lie, the easier it gets, and the more likely you are to do it again.

但这就是撒谎的问题：研究表明，撒谎越多，你就更加容易再次撒谎。

"The dangerous thing about lying is people don't understand how the act changes us," said Dan Ariely, behavioral psychologist at Duke.

“说谎的危险之处在于，人们不明白这种行为会如何改变我们。”杜克大学的行为心理学家Dan Ariely说。

Lying is in the news this week after President Trump's longtime lawyer testified that Trump had directed him to pay hush money to a porn star named Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election. The courtroom admission not only implicated Trump in a crime, it also exposed months of denials by Trump and his aides as lies.

在特朗普总统的长期律师作证说，特朗普指示他在2016年大选之前向一位名为Stormy Daniels的色情明星支付封口费之后，法庭上的证言不仅使特朗普深陷违法指控中，还暴露了特朗普和他的助手几个月来始终坚持的谎言。

Psychologists have documented children lying as early as age 2. Some experts even consider lying a developmental milestone, like crawling and walking, because it requires sophisticated planning, attention and the ability to see a situation from someone else's perspective to effectively manipulate them.

心理学家发现，早在2岁时，儿童就会说谎。一些专家甚至考虑将其视作心智发展的一个里程碑，就像第一次爬行和行走，因为它需要复杂的计划、注意力以及从他人的角度看待事情以有效操纵他人的能力。

But for most people, lying gets limited as we develop a sense of morality and the ability to self-regulate.

但是对于大多数人来说，随着道德感和自律能力的建立，我们不再随随便便说谎。

A 2010 study on the prevalence of lying in America found that in a given 24-hour period, most adults reported not telling any lies.

2010年的一项调查发现，在给定的24的小时内，大多数成年人报告称自己没有说谎的行为。

Almost half the lies recorded in the study could be attributed to just 5 percent of participants. And most people avoided lying when they could, turning to deception only when the truth was troublesome.

研究记录中几乎有一半的谎言可归因于仅占5%的参与者。大多数人在有选择的时候会避免撒谎，只有在真相很麻烦时才会选择欺骗。

Harvard cognitive neuroscientist Joshua Greene said for most of us, lying takes work. In studies, he presented study subjects with a chance to deceive for monetary gain while examining their brains in a functional MRI machine, which maps blood flow to active parts of the brain.

哈佛的认知神经科学家Joshua Greene指出，对我们大多数人说，撒谎不是一件轻松的事情。在研究中，他给研究对象选择的机会，可以通过欺骗获得金钱;

Some people told the truth instantly and instinctively. But others opted to lie, and they showed increased activity in their frontal parietal control network, which is involved in difficult or complex thinking.

有些人立即本能地说出真相。但其他人选择撒谎，他们的额叶顶叶控制网络活动增加，这一区域和困难或复杂的思维过程有关。

This suggests that they were deciding between truth and dishonesty — and ultimately opting for the latter.

这表明他们在真相与不诚实之间作出了决定，最终选择了后者。

For a follow-up analysis, he found that people whose neural reward centers were more active when they won money were also more likely to be among the group of liars — suggesting that lying may have to do with the inability to resist temptation.

后续分析发现，那些神经奖励中心在获取收益时更为活跃的人也更有可能成为骗子——这表明撒谎可能与无法抗拒诱惑有关。

Scientists don't really know what prevents all of us from lying all the time. Some believe truth-telling is a social norm we internalize, or a result of conflict in our brains between the things we want and the positive vision of ourselves we strive to maintain.

科学家们并不知道是什么阻止我们所有人选择欺骗。有些人认为说实话是我们社会规范内化的结果，或者是我们大脑想要的事物与我们努力维持的积极愿景之间抗争后的结果。

But the curious thing about this preventive mechanism is that it comes from within.

但这种预防机制的奇怪之处在于它来自内部。

"We are our own judges about our own honesty," said Ariely, the Duke psychologist. "And that internal judge is what differentiate psychopaths and non psychopaths."

“我们自己对自己诚实的评判，”杜克大学心理学家Ariely说， “这位内部法官就是区分精神病患者和非精神病患者的主要特征。”

External conditions also matter in terms of when and how often we lie.

外部条件主要对撒谎的时间和频率方面产生影响。

We are more likely to lie, research shows, when we are able to rationalize it, when we are stressed and fatigued, or when we see others being dishonest. And we are less likely to lie when we have moral reminders or when we think others are watching.

研究表明，当我们能够合理化谎言的时候，当我们感到压力和疲惫的时候，或者当我们看到别人不诚实的时时候，我们更有可能撒谎。当我们有道德提醒或我们认为有旁观者时，我们不太可能选择撒谎。

"We as society need to understand that when we don't punish lying, we increase the probability it will happen again," Ariely said.

“每个社会成员都需要明白，如果我们不惩罚说谎者，谎言的数量就会增加。”Ariely说。

In a 2016 study in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Ariely and colleagues showed how dishonesty alters people's brains, making it easier to tell lies in the future.

在2016年《自然神经科学》上的一篇论文中，Ariely及其同事展示了不诚实如何改变人们的大脑，使得在他们未来更容易说谎。

When people uttered a falsehood, the scientists noticed a burst of activity in their amygdala. The amygdala is a crucial part of the brain that produces fear, anxiety and emotional responses — including that sinking, guilty feeling you get when you lie.

当人们说出谎言时，科学家注意到他们的杏仁核中出现了一系列活动。杏仁核是大脑中产生恐惧、焦虑和情绪反应的关键部分——包括你撒谎时沮丧和内疚的感觉。

But when scientists had their subjects play a game in which they won money by deceiving their partner, they noticed the negative signals from the amygdala began to decrease.

但是当让他们参与通过欺诈赢得金钱的游戏时，科学家注意到，他们杏仁核的负面信号开始减少。

Not only that, but when people faced no consequences for dishonesty, their falsehoods tended to get even more sensational.

不仅如此，当人们发现不诚实行为没有任何后果时，他们的谎言往往变得更加耸人听闻。

"If you give people multiple opportunities to lie for their own benefit," said Tali Sharot, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London who led the research, "they start with little lies and get bigger and bigger over time."

“如果你给人们机会让他们出于自己的利益而撒谎，”领导这项研究的伦敦大学学院的认知神经科学家Tali Sharot说，“他们会从无关紧要的谎言开始，随着时间的推移，越来越大，变成弥天大谎。”