Does deception always require cognitive control?

• ¹ University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland
• ² Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Poland
• ³ Jagiellonian University, Poland

Background Contemporary models of cognitive processes associated with deception consistently assume that production of deceptive responses is associated with inhibition of honest ones. This assumption is based on results of behavioral and neuroimaging experiments, which utilize heavily criticized 'instructed lying' paradigms as tools to study deception. These experiments show increased RTs for deceptive responses, as well as increased brain activity in brain regions related to cognitive control, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). In this study we challenge this view based on a novel paradigm, in which subjects are free to choose whether they want to lie. Methods During Speed-Dating Task (SDT), participants respond to yes/no questions belonging to different categories, asked by different dates. After each response they receive feedback informing whether the response is consistent with the current date's attitude or not. The attitudes of the dates are stereotypical and easy to infer after a few feedbacks. The goal is to give responses which will lead to a real date. Half of the questions were consistent with both the subject's and date's attitudes, the other half was inconsistent. Results There was a negative correlation between the fraction of deceptive responses and the RT increase associated with them. The RTs for deceptive responses for subjects who were consistently adaptive did not differ from honest responses. The same pattern of brain activity difference was observed in dorsal ACC, right frontal pole and right orbitofrontal cortex. Conclusions Results suggest that deceptive responses do not always require additional cognitive processing. One example of such situation is a predictable social situation in which subjects use a 'consistent strategy'. Consistent strategy is understood as responding in line with the the other person's attitudes.