Liars’ brains make fibbing come naturally

New Scientist.com ^ | Sept 30, 2005 | Celeste Biever

[DeweyCA]

"He [BJ Clinton] is an unusually good liar, unusually good." (Sen. Bob Kerry - D. Neb.) quoted in Esquire magazine article in the mid-90s

[ApplegateRanch]

Finally!

A scientific explanation for imams.

[injin]

my ex-wife....

[varyouga]

The 'Toon, the Beast and Teddy seem to have good genes for this ability.

[Just mythoughts]

I think this should be a "top" down study, start with the politicians, then the tenured professors at all the great universities. Judges/lawyers. Imagine how much "white" matter could be found at the top.

[Larry Lucido]

Quotes from my all-time favorite accomplished liar:

"Vandelay Industries, is uh. 129 West 81st street. It's a very small industry Vandelay. It's one of the reasons I wanted to uh, work for them."

"Yes, this is a business office, but I'm not a businessman per se. I'm here working for the people. I'm causing dissent, stirring the pot, getting people to question the whole rotten system."

"Algae, obviously plankton, I don't know what else I can tell you, Oh I just got back from a trip to the Galapagos Islands, I was living with the turtles."

"I'm an architect. Have you seen the new addition to the Guggenheim?"

"The Human Fund: Money for People"

[Seaplaner]

... pathological liars have structural abnormalities that could make fibbing come naturally

I think that there might be some oversimplification on Prof Raines' part.

Pathological prevarication probably has many causes; and, a subset of socicopathological behavior (aka the Clinton syndrome) is one of the more well-established.

With apologies to any shrinks in F.R., psychological research sometimes has a reputation of lacking scientific rigor.

.

[bethtopaz]

Well ... that explains all the white stuff on top of Bill Clinton's head.

[demlosers]

University of San Francisco star test subject:

[Jeff Gordon]

Want to bet no one will ever dare to expand this study to compare the ratio of white matter to gray matter based upon race?

[wideminded]

"Liars think all men are fools who do not possess the divine art of lying." - Casanova

[Rocky]

Besides Toon and the Beast, there is ANSWER, Cindy Sheehan, and Air America. And the MSM.

[the_Watchman]

"Always tell the truth and you don't have to remember anything!" -- Mark Twain

[Majic]

The Hard Facts

Raine interviewed 108 volunteers from five temporary employment agencies in Los Angeles and set them standard psychopathic tests. This allowed him to identify 12 as pathological liars, 16 as people with a personality disorder but who did not exhibit pathological lying and 21 as controls, who were neither anti-social, nor liars.

What this means: Based on this representative sample from five different agencies, 11% of temporary workers in L.A. are pathological liars and another 15% have other kinds of personality disorders.

In other words, about one out of four temps in L.A. have diagnosable personality disorders -- a serious psychiatric condition.

Whatever the case may be regarding the brains of pathological liars, that's an interesting statistic to know.

Meanwhile, I would expect Bill Clinton to hold all calls from USC right about now...

[Grenada]

Wow, Jeff Gordon. I met you in a doller store in Oklahoma a few weeks ago. Do you remember me? :)

[RTINSC]

GO DONS!..

[so_real]

Liars were born that way. They can't help it. It's a natural state and it's repressive for them to live within others' boundaries of normalcy. I see the need for an addendum to the 'hate crimes' legislation. Can't we all just get along?

Do I really need to add the sarcasm tag here?

[derllak]

Which one?

[Daaave]

January 17, 1998

Deposition in the Jones sexual harassment lawsuit

"Q. Did you have an extramarital sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky?

A. No."

January 22, 1998

At White House photo opportunity with Yaser Arafat

"Let me say, first of all, I want to reiterate what I said yesterday. The allegations are false and I would never ask anybody to do anything other than tell the truth."

January 26, 1998

At White House news conference on education

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

August 17, 1998

Nationally televised speech

"Indeed, I did have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate."

[Khurkris]

"The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A death! What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no reponsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last 9 months floating... then you finish of as an organism !!! "

- George, in "The Pie"