原文: How Neuroscience Can Teach You To Lie

The human brain is a pretty amazing for a wet, grey sponge. It has all the tools to predict what’s going to happen in the future, as well as generating completely fictional worlds. These two things go hand-in-hand to give us the ability to plan ahead and create great works of art. It’s also the reason we are made to lie.

Common lies about lies
If you’ve ever watched any cop show on TV then you have a pretty good idea of how people behave when they lie. That is as long as the people we are talking about are actors on TV shows with their directions written by a team of writers. If we’re talking about the real world then we’d better start from scratch by dispelling some common misconceptions.

• Lie 1#: When you lie you end up talking more and faster as well as showing signs of vocal tension, and nervousness. This is a great description of someone on cocaine. It also describes my nephew when he gets excited playing with his Wii. While cocaine users, and my nephew might tell the odd fib, these are not concrete markers of someone lying.
  
  
• Lie 2#: While lying you tend to fidget, and go out of your way to avoid eye contact or make it way too much. This could be a textbook description of an introvert. If any of this was really true then nearly every computer programmer I’ve met was lying like there was no tomorrow. Really they’re just shy little flowers.
  

So that’s it then? There are no behaviors that really give you away? Not quite. The big thing about lying is that it’s hard work. How much work is different for everyone, but it’s always more than telling the truth. And a hard working brain makes mistakes.

The busy brain – Let’s concentrate on lying
Maintaining an artificial reality is hard work for the brain; it’s just so much easier to process the world around us as it is and file that away in our memories.

Though the analogy isn’t perfect, let’s think of the workload on the brain as much higher when it’s reading a book, having to create all the images in your mind's eye, than when it’s passively taking the story in when watching the movie version. Now imagine how much more concentration you’d need to write that book in the first place.

The reason passively taking it in is so much easier than creating reality is probably related to the evolutionary need for the brain to operate efficiently. For instance, if one morning you get to work late and your tardiness was due to the traffic being backed up because there was an accident involving a exotic red car, then it doesn’t take a lot of effort to explain. In fact, you’ll probably just launch into casual conservation about it over lunch with your co-workers without even thinking about the details. The processes of memory recall and communication are automatic, precisely so you don’t have to exert a lot of effort.

It’s really a great evolutionary survival tactic so that it makes it difficult for us to confuse reality with what you’ve made up. Back in the Stone Age, you don’t want to spend a long time concentrating on remembering that you should be running away from saber toothed tigers instead of them being cuddly little cereal box mascots.

But let's say you are late to work because you slept in and you decide to tell your co-workers that you are late because of a fictional exotic red car accident. If you are flat out lying, then your brain has to work a lot harder. Not only do you have to synthesize the details of your lie, you are simultaneously checking that what you’ve imagined is believable. On top of this, you then have to talk and think about what you’re going to say next instead of it just flowing.

Inevitably, since you know that you’re lying you are simultaneously trying to monitor and control your facial and physiological reactions to try and come across as what you think is natural. Trying to control expressions and behavior, you aren’t normally fully aware of, during normal conversation.

I say “what you think is natural” because it’s unlikely that you have an accurate picture or remember exactly how your body behaves from someone else’s point of view. So you’re trying to lie, thinking about what to say, all the while also thinking “Do I make eye contact? Maybe a little? Whoa! Was that too much? What am I usually doing with my hands when I talk? Hang on are they on to me?”

And this last thought means you are also trying to monitor what your audience’s reaction is, “Did that last thing I say give me away?” Wait, do they normally look at me like that when we’re talking? Is that the same expression they normally have when I talk to them?”

But that’s not all, it gets worse. Even when the immediate lie is over, your long term memory now has to keep track of two realities. What you experienced, and what your coworkers believe you experienced. Every time you interact with them in the future you’ll need your neurons to recall the exact details about what you said, and what the person you spoke to responded with, in addition to the actual events of that day.

And that’s where lies go wrong and you get busted. Not because of the behavioral myths I mentioned at the start, but because your behavior has changed from what it is normally.

So how can you lie your pants off?
Everyone is different. Some people are always nervous and rarely make eye contact. Lies can only be detected by comparison to what the truth looks like. The only thing that you’re looking for is a change in behavior.

1. Know your own behavior.
   Plan ahead and start consciously observing what you do during normal conversations. How does your voice sound? Where do you look normally? The biggie though is facial expressions. This is a tough one to monitor, since you don’t ever see your face when you’re talking to someone. Talking at yourself in a mirror isn’t natural either, so the least intrusive method here is a web cam conversation where you can see your own feed.
   
   
2. Avoid previous contact.
   The longer you’ve known someone the easier it is to spot changes from normal. This is a no-brainer. People have a lot longer to “collect” information on how you behave under normal circumstances. Slight deviations from the norm often register as an intuition like “that’s odd”. This is the subconscious processing what it’s just heard/seen and it not conforming to what it’s seen before even if they can’t put their finger on it. Since it’s not always possible to have avoided
   
   
3. Practice.
   Actors are great liars. They have to make what is to them an unnatural behavior, believable. If you lie you’re acting differently from your normal behavior so you’ll need to be acting normal. This is much harder than it sounds.

Unfortunately, if you were hoping to conquer the world, you’re going to need a lot more help than just these three points. As you can see from the 3 tips, the only way to effectively lie is to prepare each one well in advance. This is all going to take a lot of time and in the end it’s really just much simpler to be truthful. Of course now you’ve read this you also have all the ammunition you need to spot a liar. But what the points I’ve outlined can really be practical for is the fine art of playing poker.

So would any of you like to play? I’m not very good, honest.

译文: 神经学教你如何说谎

 

人类的大脑是一团令人惊奇的潮湿的、灰色的海绵状组织，它有着一切能预知未来的工具，能够生成完全虚构的世界。这两样使得我们有能力预先计划，创造伟大的艺术作品。这也是为什么我们会撒谎的原因。

 

常见的谎言的错觉

如果你看过电视上的警匪剧，你肯定知道一个人在说谎时的表现。那只是电视节目上的演员依照编剧指示所做出的行为。如果我们所说的是现实世界，我们就要从消除一些常见的误解开始寻找。

·                                 错觉1: 当你撒谎时，你的话越来越少，越来越慢，并且声音紧张。吃了可卡因的情况正是如此，而我侄子玩游戏机时的兴奋劲也是这样。所以当可卡因食用者或我侄子撒谎时，这就不是一个人撒谎的具体标志了。

·                                 错觉2: 当你撒谎时，你会坐立不安，一反常态避免过多的眼神接触。书上所说的内向的人大概就是这样。如果上述都是真的，那我所遇到过的电脑编程师就都在说类似没有明天这种谎话。事实上，他们只是有些害羞罢了。

 

就是这样了吗？没有行为能泄露你在撒谎吗？并不是这样。说谎最大的特征是你需要下功夫，至于下多少功夫则因人而异，但是总比说真话来的吃力。因此一个“苦干”的大脑往往是会出错的。

繁忙的大脑——让我们集中分析撒谎

维持一个人为编造的“事实”对于大脑来说是个苦差。处理我们周围的世界，并把它们在我们的记忆里归档则容易得多。

虽然这样的类比并不是完美的，但是让我们来想想，阅读时不得不在脑海中再现所有的情形时大脑所承受的工作量和被动的接受电视中的故事相比较，前这的工作量远远高于后者。现在你可以想象一下写一本书又需要多多少的集中力。

被动的接受之所以比创造事实容易得多是因为其需要大脑高效的运作。例如，如果一天清晨你上班迟到了，你的延迟是因为交通由于一辆外来的红色汽车所导致的车祸而受阻，你解释的时候不会很费力。事实上，你会在午餐时与你的同事谈论起这件事而并不用想它的细节。记忆输出和交流的过程都是自动的，你根本不用费力。

这确实是一个进化的生存策略，以至于我们很难将我们编造的谎言与真实混为一谈。早在石器时代，人们并不愿意花很长时间记住遇到剑齿虎要逃跑，而是记住它们是谷物盒子里惹人喜爱的小吉祥物。

但是让我们假设你上班迟到是因为你睡过头，你决定告诉你的同事你的迟到是因为一起编造的交通事故。如果你竭尽全力的说谎，你的大脑会运作的更费力。你不仅要综合处理谎言的细节，还要同时检查你的想象是否合情合理。除此之外，你还要边说边想接着要说什么而不是流畅的说完。

不可避免地，既然你知道自己在撒谎，你就会同时控制自己的面部和生理反映，试图保持你所认为的自然状态。你或许并没意识到，在正常的交谈中，你试图控制你的表情和行为。

我说“你所认为的自然状态”是因为你不可能准确的知道在别人眼里你是如何表现的。所以，你试图撒谎，考虑应该说什么，同时还要想“我要和别人眼神交流吗？也许一点点就好了。哇！是不是太多了？我平时说话时手都是怎么放的？握住不放吗？

最后一个想法正说明你还试图监测你的观众有什么反应，“我说的最后一件事有没有泄露我在撒谎？”等等，我们说话时他们都是这样看着我的吗？当我和他们说话时，他们的表情都是这样的吗？

不过还不止这些，还有更糟的。当即时的谎言说完后，你还要长时间的记忆这两个事实。你真正经历了什么和你的同事认为你经历了什么。以后每次你和他们交流时，你的神经元都要想起你所说的精确细节，和你所告知对象的反应，和那天发生的精确事件。

谎言就在此刻出错，你也失败了。并不是因为我在一开始所说的行为的误区，而是因为你的行为已经不同于正常了。

如何出神入化的说谎？
人各不同。有些人很会紧张，很少与人眼神交流。谎言只能在与真相比较之下才会被察觉。你所寻找的只有行为的变化。

1.       知道你在干什么.
提早计划，并在交谈时有意识地观察自己做了什么。你的声音听起来怎么样？你哪里看上去很正常？最重要的依然是面部表情，这很难监测，因为你在和别人说话的时候看不到自己的表情。对着镜子和自己说话也不自然，所以最有效的还是用网络摄像头交流，你就可以看到自己。

2.       避免过早的交流.
你认识一个人越久，就更容易发现你行为的变化。这是件不必伤脑筋的事。人们有很长时间可以搜集你在正常情况下的行为的信息。与正常行为轻微的不同变会使人产生“那很奇怪“的直觉。潜意识告诉他们看到或听到的与从前不符，即使他们说不出到底那里不符。不过这并不是那么容易去避免的。

3.       练习
演员是最好的骗子。他们要使不自然的行为变得合情合理。如果你撒谎，你就会表现得与正常行为不同，所以你需要表演的自然。这可比听起来难多了。

不幸地是，如果你要攻克，你要做的远比这三点多的多。从这三条来看，要成功的撒谎必须将每一条都事先准备到位。这都需要大量的时间，并且到最后，说实话反而会简单的多。当然现在你阅读这篇文章，你就可以利用所有的方法来认出一个撒谎的人。不过我所叙述的对玩扑克牌是最有使用价值的。

有人要玩吗？我可不怎么诚实哦。