… You’ll end up thinking about how you live. A popular belief that neuroscience supports. A study recently published in “Nature Neuroscience” shows that the brain adapts to dishonesty . That it is today, unfortunately, so fashionable: “Dishonesty is integral part of our social world, influencing domains ranging from finance and politics to personal relationships. Anecdotally, transgressions moral code often described as a series of small faults that grow over time. In this paper, we provide empirical evidence of a gradual escalation of dishonesty for personal gain and the neural mechanism behind this escalation. In behavior, shows how the degree to which participants perform dishonest acts that benefit increases with the repetition of the same,” the study’s authors explain. You will find more interesting information by visit http://gpdfoundation.com/
By fMRI they saw the part of the brain that leads to “normalize” these, at first, small faults is the amygdala, a structure involved in emotional processing and connected with most other brain structures. Psychology empirically knew what now neurobiology details. When we do wrong first, once the amygdala, which warns us of potential dangers, be active and feel fear. If this unethical action is not followed byan unpleasant consequence and we have also obtained a personal benefit, the assessment we make of that act changes. We no longer seem so dangerous. The next transgression no longer be considered by the amygdala so threatening. So the sense of danger will be less intense and increasing the likelihood of a slightly dishonest behavior increases. The brain changes its “vision” on the dubious actions and moral relax.
The amygdala is sensitive to the history of dishonest behavior, leading to an adaptation to these little perverse actions. Moreover, as explained psychology, when we do not want / can change the fait accompli, we decided to change our thinking about them. Downplaying the fact, we managed to decrease psychological distress. This small trap is a defense mechanism of the brain, which aims to reduce the “cognitive dissonance”, i.e., the difference between what we consider right and the way we have behaved.
And, say the researchers, the degree of reduction in sensitivity of the amygdala to dishonesty in a current decision regarding the above predicts escalating magnitude of dishonesty in the next decision. The findings reveal a biological mechanism that puts us in a “very slippery inclined plane” which explains the neurobiological mechanism that makes what begins as small acts of dishonesty can result in major transgressions.
In short, the popular wisdom is right to warn that anyone who does not behave in line with their principles, their thinking, thinking will end the same way he lives to silence his conscience …
“Many dishonest acts can be traced to a sequence of small transgressions that were increasing in importance gradually. Plagiarism financial fraud, online scams and scientific misconduct, who misled others describe how dishonest minor decisions created a kind of snowball that grew over time, “the researchers explain. This recalls the arguments put forward by some of those involved in political corruption scandals, trying to normalize and justify their behavior. Everyone does not think it was a crime …
To test the escalation of dishonesty and its underlying neurological mechanism, researchers from University College London, scanned the brains of participants while they performed a task in which they had repeated opportunities to act dishonestly, for example lying or staying something that was not theirs.
“The results show the potential dangers of regular participation in small indecency, dangers that are frequently observed in domains ranging from business to politics and law enforcement. Despite being small initial transgressions, the participation in dishonest acts can trigger a process leading to greater transgressions.”