Neuroimaging suggests that truthfulness requires no act of will for honest people

Harvard University ^ | July 13th, 2009 | Unknown

[3niner]

This is probably related to something I noticed years ago.

An honest person slows down considerably, when they don't want you to know something. The most honest will not lie, even when they deem it very important for you to not know the truth, they will simply avoid telling you what they do not want you to know. Of course, this makes it very obvious that they are withholding information.

A dishonest person is actually quicker when they are lying. The most dishonest have become so habituated to simply stringing stuff together, that it requires almost no effort for them to just make stuff up. On the other hand, honestly revealing something important requires a significant act of effort, and takes longer.

These patterns are only obvious in the more extreme cases, however, and most people seem to fall somewhere in between.

I almost never watch talking head shows, because I can tell that most participants are simply lying non-stop. I would be hard pressed to name honest people who often appear on these shows. The only one who comes to mind is Michelle Malkin.

[3niner]

What you are describing is an example of a basic contradiction which probably only appears in humans. Humans (for the most part) have enough intellect to understand that certain impulses are "wrong", and can decide to behave in the "correct" manner, regardless of the impulses.

Your father was telling you that he had the nature of a dishonest man, but chose to be an honest man. This might have been a very valuable lesson for you.

There are many examples of this kind of behavior. We call it "resisting temptation". It is so basic in humans, that we even have an example in the Bible, of Satan tempting Jesus, and Jesus resisting.

It is easy to behave correctly if you are not tempted, but requires an act of will when you are. The useful aspect of this Harvard study lies not in catagorizing people as "honest" or "dishonest" by nature, but in recognizing that one will get to a honest response in a different way, depending on the underlying nature. This is an important step toward developing a reliable lie detector.