4.8 • 985 Ratings
🗓️ 17 November 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Lying is something all humans do. We find it in every culture around the world. It’s in the world of work, in our relationships and online. It’s all pervasive and hard to escape.
Our question this week is from listener Anthony from Cambodia. He asked us to find out why we lie, and wants to know how conscious we are of the lies that we tell?
CrowdScience’s Caroline Steel is in the hot seat, on a journey where she will attempt to untangle the complex story behind lying.
It’s a subject scientists and psychologists have been studying for a long time. It’s also something writers, philosophers and theologists have been interpreting for thousands of years. But we’re only now really starting to get to grips with how it works as a human behaviour.
There are lies in our folklore, lies in the media and also lies in everyday conversation. It’s something we’ve all had to learn to navigate at some point in our lives. In this episode the CrowdScience team unravels the mysteries surrounding the behaviour and the art of lying.
Our journey will take us to meet the world’s ‘second best liar’, an award she picked up at West Virginia’s Liar Contest. We’ll also meet a comedian who’s proud of the down-to-earth plain honesty of Dutch people.
An academic who has studied thousands of children’s brains will explain when we first start learning to lie. And we’ll hear about new research using magnetic resonance imaging, commonly known as MRI scans, which is helping to show how the more we actually lie, the less our brain reacts telling us not to.
Caroline looks at how lying changes from culture to culture. Do we really all lie? And do we lie in the same way?
The surprising and intriguing answer is found in how early it develops in us as a human behaviour.
Contributors:
Prof Kang Lee, Professor in Applied Psychology and Human Development at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto Prof Tali Sharot, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London Ian Leslie, journalist and author of ‘Born Liars’ Ariana Kincaid, Champion Liar at West Virginia Liars Contest Derek Scott Mitchell, actor and comedian | @letsdoubledutch on Instagram Readings by Kitty O'Sullivan
Presenter: Caroline Steel Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski Editor: Richard Collings Production Co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris Studio Managers: Emma Harth, Donald MacDonald, Andrew Garratt
(Photo: Young Businessman Interviews for new job. Credit: Andrew Rich/ Getty Images)
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0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
0:25.5 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
0:31.5 | First question, could you introduce yourself please? |
0:35.0 | My name is Ariana Kincaid. |
0:38.0 | And whereabouts in the world are you? |
0:40.0 | I am in West Virginia, Charleston, West Virginia, in the United States. |
0:45.0 | And is your name really Ariana? |
0:48.0 | It really is. |
0:52.0 | You're listening to crowd science on the BBC World Service. |
0:55.0 | I'm Caroline Steele and I don't normally question everything people say. |
1:00.0 | Could you explain to our listeners why I'm doubting what your real name is? |
1:05.0 | Because I have been in and judged liars contests. |
1:12.0 | Ariana is the world's second biggest liars. contests. listeners. Hi, I'm Anthony. I'm in the capital of Cambodia, Penon Penh. |
1:25.0 | And what's your question for crowd science? |
1:28.0 | My question for crowd science is, why do we lie and how conscious are we of the lies that we tell? |
1:34.8 | We all do it at some point during the day or during our lives in general, |
1:38.8 | so is this influenced by culture or say the context that we tell certain lies. |
... |
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