that could elucidate the true motive behind white lies.
‘White lies, also known as Pareto lies are known to benefit both parties. However, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) is found to encode the real motivations / selfish motives of these lies by revealing distinct activity patterns in this brain region. This helps in differentiating varying brain patterns depending upon the type of lies and thus can also be utilized in analyzing certain behavioral studies.
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The participants were asked to tell lies to earn a reward for themselves, for an unknown person, or both. Then the fMRI was utilized to measure the MPFC activity of participants. Thus by comparing the brain activity of white lies with the selfish and altruistic lies, the true motivation for the lies was being predicted.
It was found that people with higher selfish motivation in Pareto white lies revealed greater activity in the ventral MPFC (red for selfish lies Activity patterns) and rostral MPFC (blue for dissimilar activity patterns to altruistic lies).
The study thereby helps differentiate varying brain patterns depending upon the type of lies and thus can also be utilized in analyzing certain behavioral studies.
Source: Medindia
