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Self-Lie Detection: New Challenges for Moral Neuroenhancement

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Psychiatry and Neuroscience Update

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Abstract

First invented in 1921, polygraph, also known as the lie detector, is a machine that has been used mainly in criminal trials, but not without controversy. In the past few years, however, and thanks to the recent interest in detecting lies through neuroimage analysis methods, like functional MRI-based lie detection, the government and public confidence in such devices’ results was found to have increased: examples include national security, job recruitment procedures, and divorce disputes. However, much less attention has been paid to detection of self-lies. The reasons are several and discussed in this paper. In the conclusions I defend that new phenomenological and neuropsychological approaches to inauthentic experiences might provide applicable keys for the understanding and detection of self-lies. Besides, I study the potential applications of self-lie detectors not only for criminal, mercantile, or therapeutic purposes but also to enhance moral life. Some ethical horizons and controversies are considered in the last part of this work: among the most important ones, first, the problem of self-lie detection in the context of postmodern notion of “post-truth” and, second, the dilemma between truth and free will – the second being the preferred option for Western postmodern taste. Is there a place for self-lie detectors in the virtual age? Or on the contrary, could it be used to help reversing such cultural trending?

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mind-Brain Group, Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

    Luis E. Echarte

  2. Unit of Medical Education and Bioethics, School of Medicine, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

    Luis E. Echarte

  3. Unity of Humanities and Ethical Medicine/Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Navarra, Spain

    Luis E. Echarte

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  1. Luis E. Echarte
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Correspondence to Luis E. Echarte .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cathedra of Psychopathology, Catholic University of Argentina, Mendoza, Argentina

    Pascual Ángel Gargiulo

  2. Laboratory of Neurosciences and Experimental Psychology, Area of Pharmacology, Department of Pathology, National University of Cuyo, Council of Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET), Mendoza, Argentina

    Humberto Luis Mesones Arroyo

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Echarte, L.E. (2019). Self-Lie Detection: New Challenges for Moral Neuroenhancement. In: Gargiulo, P., Mesones Arroyo, H. (eds) Psychiatry and Neuroscience Update . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95360-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95360-1_4

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