You’ve probably lied in your life and of course, you do, lying is part of human nature. (Obviously, you shouldn’t be lying TOO much). There may be many reasons why we lie such as not hurting someone’s feelings, getting you out of trouble, helping you gain something, look better, etc. For example, your friend asks if they look good in their new shirt and although you absolutely hate the shirt they’re wearing, you still manage to tell them, “Yeah, you look good in that shirt.” We obviously don’t want to hurt others’ feelings so we tell lies to prevent that. Lying sometimes gets so satisfying that we keep doing it. What happens in our brain when we lie?
When we lie, our anterior prefrontal cortex, which is in the front part of our brain and is in charge of decision making and honesty, is most active because when we think about telling a lie, we are considering whether or not we tell the truth. Studies have shown that when the prefrontal cortex was temporarily “switched off”, people were more likely to lie than those who still had theirs. Basically, the prefrontal cortex is the thing that stops us from telling lies and is connected to lying.
Also, our amygdala, the part of our brain that deals with our emotions and behavior, shrinks every time we tell a lie. Therefore, as we keep lying, we realize less and less that we’re lying because our amygdala is so small that it can’t tell us to stop! Lying is a never-ending cycle and if we lie too much, sooner or later, we won’t be able to stop.

The next time you lie, you should think about what is happening in your brain :)