Neural Correlates of Ad Deception Detection: a Bold Imaging Study

Deception detection is an important marketplace skill—failing to discern false claims is costly for consumers and managers alike. Yet people often identify false claims little better than chance. Here, we examine neural activation during an fMRI protocol in which individuals were exposed to product claims that were believable, moderately deceptive, and highly deceptive. The data suggest a generalized two-stage process; early-stage “defensive” attention is directed to more deceptive claims, but during the later stage, highly deceptive claims lead to resource truncation. Neural activation patterns suggest that moderate deception may be dangerous because it prompts increased attention in the early-stage and leads to belief reasoning and counterfactual processing equal to that evoked by believable claims in the second stage. Finally, we examine emotional response to deception detection and find that, in the marketplace, it may be a case of suspicious minds more than suspicious hearts.

Citation:

Adam Craig, Yuliya Komarova, Stacy Wood, and Jennifer Vendemia (2009) ,"Neural Correlates of Ad Deception Detection: a Bold Imaging Study", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 4-7.