The tendency to claim more knowledge than one actually has is common and well documented; however, little research has focused on the neural mechanisms that underlie this phenomenon. The goal of the present study was to investigate the cortical correlates of overclaiming. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was delivered to the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), supplementary motor area, and precuneus during the presentation of a series of words that participants were told made up a cultural IQ test. However, participants were not informed that 50% of the words were actually fabricated. False claiming was reduced following MPFC TMS. Furthermore, reaction time decreases following MPFC TMS indicated that participants engaged in less reflection during the task, suggesting a potential reduction in social monitoring of behavior.
Previous research on deception detection has indicated that a number of factors influence accuracy. It has been hypothesized that deception and the detection of deception is highly influenced by mating context. The current study investigated sex differences in the detection of deception used in typical human mating situations. Sixty-eight females were tested for deception detection using a video paradigm in which the actors either lied or told the truth. An accompanying survey was given that evaluated common deception tactics. Contrary to previous findings, female deception detection was not significantly above chance. However, knowledge of opposite gender tactics increased deception detection such that those females that were aware of common male tactics were superior at detecting deception. The results, which are preliminary, suggest that the evolutionary advantage females have over males may have a top-down cognitive origin such that knowledge of tactics may influence perceptual abilities.
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