Picture infamous psychopaths from fiction, such as the eerily cold and calculating Patrick Bateman in the film adaptation of American Psycho, and they certainly seem like master deceivers. But what about real-life psychopaths?
Research confirms that psychopaths are more inclined to lie to get what they want, and that they typically display a striking fearlessness – as if they have ice running through their veins.
You’d think this cold calmness would make it difficult to tell when they’re lying. But surprisingly, several studies have suggested that psychopaths aren’t actually any better at lying than the rest of us.
For instance, a study from the 1980s found that guilty psychopaths were just as easily identified using a lie detector as non-psychopaths. A major caveat to this, however, is that lie detector tests, while popular and widely used, are notoriously unreliable.
Another, more recent, study from 2016 found that offenders with more psychopathic traits were more inclined to choose to lie (during a psychology task), but they still showed the usual cognitive costs of lying, such as making more errors and taking longer to respond.
Psychopaths might be free from the ethical and emotional influences that deter the rest of us from lying, but they can’t escape the mental demands of telling a convincing one.
There’s a twist, however. While psychopaths might not have a natural ability to lie better, there’s tentative evidence that they might be better at learning to lie.
In 2017, researchers found that, over the course of a task that involved lying about faces, students with high levels of psychopathic traits showed greater improvement in lying speed than their peers. This was accompanied by reductions in brain activity linked to lying, implying it was becoming less taxing.
So, psychopaths aren’t better liars as such, but they’re more prone to lying – and likely quicker to improve at it.
This article is an answer to the question (asked by Lyle Morse, email) 'Are psychopaths really that good at lying?'
To submit your questions, email us at questions@sciencefocus.com, or message our Facebook, X, or Instagram pages (don't forget to include your name and location).
Check out our ultimate fun facts page for more mind-blowing science
Read more:
