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Increasing honesty in humans with noninvasive brain stimulation.

  • Maréchal MA Department of Economics, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland; christian.ruff@econ.uzh.ch alain.cohn@chicagobooth.edu michel.marechal@econ.uzh.ch.
  • Cohn A Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637; christian.ruff@econ.uzh.ch alain.cohn@chicagobooth.edu michel.marechal@econ.uzh.ch.
  • Ugazio G Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.
  • Ruff CC Department of Economics, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland; christian.ruff@econ.uzh.ch alain.cohn@chicagobooth.edu michel.marechal@econ.uzh.ch.
  • 2017-04-12
Published in:
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - 2017
brain stimulation
cheating
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
honesty
social decision making
Deception
Decision Making
Female
Humans
Male
Morals
Prefrontal Cortex
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
English Honesty plays a key role in social and economic interactions and is crucial for societal functioning. However, breaches of honesty are pervasive and cause significant societal and economic problems that can affect entire nations. Despite its importance, remarkably little is known about the neurobiological mechanisms supporting honest behavior. We demonstrate that honesty can be increased in humans with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Participants (n = 145) completed a die-rolling task where they could misreport their outcomes to increase their earnings, thereby pitting honest behavior against personal financial gain. Cheating was substantial in a control condition but decreased dramatically when neural excitability was enhanced with tDCS. This increase in honesty could not be explained by changes in material self-interest or moral beliefs and was dissociated from participants' impulsivity, willingness to take risks, and mood. A follow-up experiment (n = 156) showed that tDCS only reduced cheating when dishonest behavior benefited the participants themselves rather than another person, suggesting that the stimulated neural process specifically resolves conflicts between honesty and material self-interest. Our results demonstrate that honesty can be strengthened by noninvasive interventions and concur with theories proposing that the human brain has evolved mechanisms dedicated to control complex social behaviors.
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  • English
Open access status
bronze
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https://sonar.ch/global/documents/47909
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