ArticleNature neuroscience2016
The brain adapts to dishonesty.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 171 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mindfulness training reduces slippery slope effects in moral decision-making and moral judgment.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- The role of oxytocin on self-serving lying.Brain and behavior · 2020Trial
- Inhibition and cognitive workload during deception about planned behavior: Investigating LPC, MFN, and PRP components.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- The Amygdala and Politics.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Beyond attention: methylphenidate reduces dishonesty in healthy adults.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Moral Injury Among Pakistani Lawyers: Measurement, Psychometric Properties, and Validation.Journal of religion and health · 2026Article
- Interpretable machine learning with SHAP predicts honest behavior from personality traits and physiological data.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Escalating risk-taking is linked to emotional habituation.Communications psychology · 2025Article
- Social connectedness mediates the effect of awe in reducing dishonest behavior.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Dishonest behavior can transition to continuous ethical transgressions.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Shifting Perspectives: A Community-Based Learning Science Outreach Course That Engages Undergraduate Metacognition through Midsemester Redesign.Journal of chemical education · 2025Article
- A computational account of multiple motives guiding context-dependent prosocial behavior.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Unraveling the neural basis of repeated moral decisions with mouse tracking and fMRI.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Poor lie detection related to an under-reliance on statistical cues and overreliance on own behaviour.Communications psychology · 2024Article
- Creative thinking does not promote dishonesty.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Reputation risk during dishonest social decision-making modulates anterior insular and cingulate cortex activity and connectivity.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Cognitive load promotes honesty.Psychological research · 2023Article
- The Role of Cognition in Dishonest Behavior.Brain sciences · 2023Review
- Model Sharing in the Human Medial Temporal Lobe.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2022Article
- Decision neuroscience and neuroeconomics: Recent progress and ongoing challenges.Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Dishonesty is an integral part of our social world, influencing domains ranging from finance and politics to personal relationships. Anecdotally, digressions from a moral code are often described as a series of small breaches that grow over time. Here we provide empirical evidence for a gradual escalation of self-serving dishonesty and reveal a neural mechanism supporting it. Behaviorally, we show that the extent to which participants engage in self-serving dishonesty increases with repetition. Using functional MRI, we show that signal reduction in the amygdala is sensitive to the history of dishonest behavior, consistent with adaptation. Critically, the extent of reduced amygdala sensitivity to dishonesty on a present decision relative to the previous one predicts the magnitude of escalation of self-serving dishonesty on the next decision. The findings uncover a biological mechanism that supports a 'slippery slope': what begins as small acts of dishonesty can escalate into larger transgressions.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.