No, really! A recent study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry,found that pathological liars have signifiicant, actual differences in their brains (compared to normal, non-lyin’ folks); namely, the pathological liars had “increased prefrontal white matter volumes and reduced grey/white ratios compared with normal controls”.
My background is weak enough that I don’t quite have a grasp of what this means, and I’m at least marginally uncomfortable with a scientific study showing “abnormalities” with a marginalized/socially unacceptable group of people, but I’m still fascinated by the matter. And eager to see any developments that might come of it.
An interesting side-note in the study: “[l]iars… had significantly higher verbal relative to performance IQ compared with both control groups”. (The “both” controls being mentioned are the standard control & the anti-social non-lying control, FYI.)
(Ref: Yang, Y., et al. (2005). Prefrontal white matter in pathological liars. British Journal of Psychiatry, 187, 320-325.; props also to the Abc.au.net/Reuters article that mentioned the BJP article.; article also referenced in NewScientist: “Liars’ brains make fibbing come naturally,” by Celeste Biever [September 30, 2005])