Lying because we care: Compassion increases prosocial lying.

Lying because we care: Compassion increases prosocial lying.

Prosocial lies, or lies intended to benefit others, are ubiquitous behaviors that have important social and economic consequences. Though emotions play a central role in many forms of prosocial behavior, no work has investigated how emotions influence behavior when one has the opportunity to tell a prosocial lie-a situation that presents a conflict between two prosocial ethics: lying to prevent...

Lying aversion and prosocial behaviour

The opportunity to tell a white lie (i.e., a lie that benefits another person) generates a moral conflict between two opposite moral dictates, one pushing towards telling always the truth and the other pushing towards helping others. Here we study how people resolve this moral conflict. What does telling a white lie signal about a person’s pro-social tendencies? To answer this question, we cond...

Lying and Deception Lying and Self-deception

Questions about truthfulness occur in many contexts—when parents ask their children if they are using recreational drugs, when an employer ask applicants about the reasons they left their last job, when international leaders consider each others’ threats or promises, when voters evaluate candidates’ promises, when physicians consider a patient’s complaint, when at the start of a romantic encoun...

Pathological Lying

Spine imaging: should we take this lying down?

The purpose of this editorial is to advocate further experimental work such as that which Muhle et al describe in this issue of the American Journal of Neuroradiology (page 1763). For spine imaging, patients are placed in a supine position, often with supports or cushions to enhance their comfort. This position, which minimizes the patient’s discomfort, may diminish any visible effect of spinal...