This is your brain on lies: Why liars get better at lying with practice

[marmar]

This is your brain on lies: Why liars get better at lying with practice
From pathological liars to Trumpian gaslighters, brain studies show practice makes perfect

By MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS
NOVEMBER 22, 2020 3:00PM


(Salon) The last five years have been a master class in gaslighting. For those of us who came into the Trump Era with some personal experience with narcissists, emotional abusers and flat out liars, it has been a jarringly familiar time.

For those who previously had the luxury of expecting honesty of others, this has been a sharp learning curve. We all now know exactly what it feels like to be on the receiving end of untruth so blatant and shameless it makes us question ourselves. We know what it's like to hear a falsehood repeated so insistently it almost becomes convincing. We get it from the highest levels of government, from cable news networks, from our radicalized relatives and neighbors. And we know the confusion, self-doubt and fear that come with long term exposure to what liars like to call "alternative facts."

It feels pretty crappy. But what does it feel like for the liars? How can they keep spinning their BS with such shocking ease and conviction?

....(snip)....

But toxic people, people with antisocial personality disorder, people with pseudologia fantastica (a.k.a. pathological liars) lie for other reasons, and they do it a lot. They lie to gain control in their relationships. They lie to self exonerate and to justify their behavior. And the more they do it, the better they get at it, and the bigger their lies can become.

....(snip)....

The other key component of chronic lying is that it often resides in the same neighborhood as delusion. Individuals with delusional disorders have "fixed beliefs that do not change, even when presented with conflicting evidence," and oh boy, there is no shortage of a spectrum of unchanging fixed beliefs here in our country right now. This is why gaslighting is so persuasive. It's the blatant, brazen confidence that only people who really put in their ten thousand hours of bald faced lying and genuine dissociation from reality can deliver that sells it. ........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/11/22/this-is-your-brain-on-lies-why-liars-get-better-at-lying-with-practice/

[catrose]

1. He seems to be worse at lying, like there's no kernel of

Truth or believability. The base don’t care, don’t see it, but the rest of us do. Fortunately that has included judges in his latest travesty, but he’s clearly expected them to act like his base.

[mitch96]

3. As the Nazi proved at doing so well.. Repeat a big lie often enough and the people willl believe it.

..

[catrose]

4. Yes. The Rs game plan is always to scream reality into being

Or at least make people believe in that reality.

[mitch96]

5. Yup, pound the table if you don't have the law or facts...

There's an old legal aphorism that goes, "If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table."

In this case lie your ass off to people that will believe you...
m

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Part of "getting better" at lying is

1) Seeing what works and what doesn't work and learning from that experience.

2) Emotional Intelligence. As a liar, you have to be able to read people's reactions to the lie. Are they skeptical or do they buy the package? Read their faces. Do they debate you or accept your lies as facts?


There are always two actors to a lie: The one who lies and the one who wants to believe the lie.

[RainCaster]

6. The narcissist lies for his own gratification

He doesn't care about anyone else, so he never tries to ascertain their reactions to his lies. He only does it because it makes him feel good. So he never gets any better at lying, even though he is truly experienced at it.

[Trailrider1951]

8. What you said is essentially true, but it's much worse than that

These assholes lie because it gives them an super ego boost. If they can put something over on you, that makes them soooo much smarter than you. So much better than you. I was married to a man like that. He was very charming and manipulative when he wanted something, but when the mask fell off after the wedding, he became very abusive. When I got it through my thick head what an asshole he truly was, I couldn't' get away from him fast enough. I was wife number 1. Apparently he has gotten better at lies and manipulation since then, as he is now married to wife number 4.