Who is honest and why: Baseline activation in anterior insula predicts inter-individual differences in deceptive behavior

Baumgartner, Thomas; Gianotti, Lorena; Knoch, Daria (2013). Who is honest and why: Baseline activation in anterior insula predicts inter-individual differences in deceptive behavior. Biological psychology, 94(1), pp. 192-197. Elsevier 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.05.018

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Humans engage in deceptive behavior that negatively affects others. The propensity to deceive is,however, characterized by vast inter-individual heterogeneity that is poorly understood. Attempts to investigate the origins of this heterogeneity have so far mainly relied on subjective measures and have shown little predictive power. Here, we used resting electroencephalography to measure objective and stable individual differences in neural baseline activation in combination with an ecologically valid deception paradigm. Results showed that task-independent baseline activation in the anterior insula, a brain area implicated in mapping internal bodily states and in representing emotional arousal and consciousfeelings, predicts individuals’ propensity for deceptive behavior. The higher the neural baseline activation in this area is, the lower individuals’ propensity to deceive. Moreover, results provide evidence that high baseline activation in the anterior insula is associated with negative affect and dispositional tendencies to avoid aversive emotional situations. These results provide converging neural and psychological evidence that individuals might avoid a deceptive act due to a highly active negative emotional system which would make a deceptive act too stressful and bothersome.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology

UniBE Contributor:

Baumgartner, Thomas, Gianotti, Lorena, Knoch, Daria

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology

ISSN:

0301-0511

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Thomas Baumgartner

Date Deposited:

06 Oct 2014 07:21

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:36

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.05.018

PubMed ID:

23735708

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.58293

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/58293

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