Brain & Behavior

[Michael Scally MD]

Bhatt MA, Lohrenz T, Camerer CF, Montague PR. Distinct contributions of the amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus to suspicion in a repeated bargaining game. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Distinct contributions of the amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus to suspicion in a repeated bargaining game

Humans assess the credibility of information gained from others on a daily basis; this ongoing assessment is especially crucial for avoiding exploitation by others. We used a repeated, two-person bargaining game and a cognitive hierarchy model to test how subjects judge the information sent asymmetrically from one player to the other. The weight that they give to this information is the result of two distinct factors: their baseline suspicion given the situation and the suspicion generated by the other person’s behavior. We hypothesized that human brains maintain an ongoing estimate of the credibility of the other player and sought to uncover neural correlates of this process. In the game, sellers were forced to infer the value of an object based on signals sent from a prospective buyer. We found that amygdala activity correlated with baseline suspicion, whereas activations in bilateral parahippocampus correlated with trial-by-trial uncertainty induced by the buyer’s sequence of suggestions. In addition, the less credible buyers that appeared, the more sensitive parahippocampal activation was to trial-by-trial uncertainty. Although both of these neural structures have previously been implicated in trustworthiness judgments, these results suggest that they have distinct and separable roles that correspond to their theorized roles in learning and memory.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Flashed Face Distortion Effect – Pretty girls turn ugly
http://mbthompson.com/research/

Like many interesting scientific discoveries, this one was an accident. Sean Murphy, an undergraduate student, was working alone in the lab on a set of faces for one of his experiments. He aligned a set of faces at the eyes and started to skim through them. After a few seconds, he noticed that some of the faces began to appear highly deformed and grotesque. He looked at the especially ugly faces individually, but each of them appeared normal or even attractive. We called it the “Flashed Face Distortion Effect” and wanted to share it with the world, so we put it on YouTube.

The effect seems to depend on processing each face in light of the others. By aligning the faces at the eyes and presenting them quickly, it becomes much easier to compare them, so the differences between the faces are more extreme. If someone has a large jaw, it looks almost ogre-like. If they have an especially large forehead, then it looks particularly bulbous. We’re conducting several experiments right now to figure out exactly what’s causing this effect, so watch this space!


Tangen JM, Murphy SC, Thompson MB. Flashed face distortion effect: Grotesque faces from relative spaces. Perception 2012;40(5):628-30. Perception abstract

We describe a novel face distortion effect resulting from the fast-paced presentation of eye-aligned faces. When cycling through the faces on a computer screen, each face seems to become a caricature of itself and some faces appear highly deformed, even grotesque. The degree of distortion is greatest for faces that deviate from the others in the set on a particular dimension (eg if a person has a large forehead, it looks particularly large). This new method of image presentation, based on alignment and speed, could provide a useful tool for investigating contrastive distortion effects and face adaptation.

[BE VERY SURE TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE CROSS. DO NOT WAVER.]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT9i99D_9gI]Shocking illusion - Pretty celebrities turn ugly! - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM6lGNhPujE]Shocking illusion - Pretty girls turn ugly! - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Is that smile real or fake?
A computerized system developed at MIT can tell the difference between smiles of joy and smiles of frustration.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/smile-detector-0525.html

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYmgCQjgXQU]Is that smile real or fake? - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Piff PK, Stancato DM, Cote S, Mendoza-Denton R, Keltner D. Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior

Seven studies using experimental and naturalistic methods reveal that upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals. In studies 1 and 2, upper-class individuals were more likely to break the law while driving, relative to lower-class individuals. In follow-up laboratory studies, upper-class individuals were more likely to exhibit unethical decision-making tendencies (study 3), take valued goods from others (study 4), lie in a negotiation (study 5), cheat to increase their chances of winning a prize (study 6), and endorse unethical behavior at work (study 7) than were lower-class individuals. Mediator and moderator data demonstrated that upper-class individuals’ unethical tendencies are accounted for, in part, by their more favorable attitudes toward greed.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

New research suggests that even when an outcome is out of our control we often act as though we can still get on the good side of fate by doing good deeds.

Converse BA, Risen JL, Carter TJ. Investing in Karma. Psychological Science. http://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/Be...arter-2012-Psych-Sci-_-Investing-in-karma.pdf

People often face outcomes of important events that are beyond their personal control, such as when they wait for an acceptance letter, job offer, or medical test results. We suggest that when wanting and uncertainty are high and personal control is lacking, people may be more likely to help others, as if they can encourage fate’s favor by doing good deeds proactively. Four experiments support this karmic-investment hypothesis. When people want an outcome over which they have little control, their donations of time and money increase (Experiments 1 and 2), but their participation in other rewarding activities does not (Experiment 1b). In addition, at a job fair, job seekers who feel the process is outside (vs. within) their control make more generous pledges to charities (Experiment 3). Finally, karmic investments increase optimism about a desired outcome (Experiment 4). We conclude by discussing the role of personal control and magical beliefs in this phenomenon.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Wiseman R, Watt C, ten Brinke L, Porter S, Couper S-L, Rankin C. The Eyes Don’t Have It: Lie Detection and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. PLoS ONE 2012;7(7):e40259. PLoS ONE: The Eyes Don’t Have It: Lie Detection and Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Proponents of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) claim that certain eye-movements are reliable indicators of lying. According to this notion, a person looking up to their right suggests a lie whereas looking up to their left is indicative of truth telling. Despite widespread belief in this claim, no previous research has examined its validity. In Study 1 the eye movements of participants who were lying or telling the truth were coded, but did not match the NLP patterning. In Study 2 one group of participants were told about the NLP eye-movement hypothesis whilst a second control group were not. Both groups then undertook a lie detection test. No significant differences emerged between the two groups. Study 3 involved coding the eye movements of both liars and truth tellers taking part in high profile press conferences. Once again, no significant differences were discovered. Taken together the results of the three studies fail to support the claims of NLP. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Linking Brain Structure and Activation to Explain the Neurobiology of Human Altruism

The volume of a small brain region influences one’s predisposition for altruistic behavior. Researchers from the University of Zurich show that people who behave more altruistically than others have more gray matter at the junction between the parietal and temporal lobe, thus showing for the first time that there is a connection between brain anatomy, brain activity and altruistic behavior.


Morishima Y, Schunk D, Bruhin A, Ruff Christian C, Fehr E. Linking Brain Structure and Activation in Temporoparietal Junction to Explain the Neurobiology of Human Altruism. Neuron 2012;75(1):73-9. http://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Morishima-et-al.-2012.pdf

Human altruism shaped our evolutionary history and pervades social and political life. There are, however, enormous individual differences in altruism. Some people are almost completely selfish, while others display strong altruism, and the factors behind this heterogeneity are only poorly understood. We examine the neuroanatomical basis of these differences with voxel-based morphometry and show that gray matter (GM) volume in the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) is strongly associated with both individuals' altruism and the individual-specific conditions under which this brain region is recruited during altruistic decision making. Thus, individual differences in GM volume in TPJ not only translate into individual differences in the general propensity to behave altruistically, but they also create a link between brain structure and brain function by indicating the conditions under which individuals are likely to recruit this region when they face a conflict between altruistic and selfish acts.

º Econometric evidence reveals large individual differences in behavioral altruism
º Gray matter volume in the right TPJ predicts subjects' behavioral altruism
º GM in right TPJ predicts functional activity profile in TPJ during altruistic choice
º Individual differences in altruism relate to both structure and function of right TPJ

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Rudd M, Aaker J, Vohs K. Awe Expands People's Perception of Time, Alters Decision Making, and Enhances Well-Being. Psychological Science, 2012 http://faculty-gsb.stanford.edu/aaker/pages/documents/TimeandAwe2012_workingpaper.pdf

When do people feel as if they are rich in time? Not often, research and daily experience suggest. However, three experiments showed that participants who felt awe, relative to other emotions, felt they had more time available (Experiments 1, 3) and were less impatient (Experiment 2). Participants who experienced awe were also more willing to volunteer their time to help others (Experiment 2), more strongly preferred experiences over material products (Experiment 3), and experienced a greater boost in life satisfaction (Experiment 3). Mediation analyses revealed that these changes in decision making and well-being were due to awe’s ability to alter the subjective experience of time. Experiences of awe bring people into the present moment, which underlies awe’s capacity to adjust time perception, influence decisions, and make life feel more satisfying than it would otherwise.

 

[ergomaniac]

Rudd M, Aaker J, Vohs K. Awe Expands People's Perception of Time, Alters Decision Making, and Enhances Well-Being. Psychological Science, 2012 http://faculty-gsb.stanford.edu/aaker/pages/documents/TimeandAwe2012_workingpaper.pdf

When do people feel as if they are rich in time? Not often, research and daily experience suggest. However, three experiments showed that participants who felt awe, relative to other emotions, felt they had more time available (Experiments 1, 3) and were less impatient (Experiment 2). Participants who experienced awe were also more willing to volunteer their time to help others (Experiment 2), more strongly preferred experiences over material products (Experiment 3), and experienced a greater boost in life satisfaction (Experiment 3). Mediation analyses revealed that these changes in decision making and well-being were due to awe’s ability to alter the subjective experience of time. Experiences of awe bring people into the present moment, which underlies awe’s capacity to adjust time perception, influence decisions, and make life feel more satisfying than it would otherwise.

so how to define awe. just some from the pdf. "one, awe involves perceptual vastness, which in the sense one has come upon something immense in size, number, scope, complexity, ability or social bearing. two, awe stimulates the need for accommodation, meaning it alters ones understanding of the world. these features are intertwined." "experience involving awe, such as optimal athletic performance , peak performance, and spiritual or mystical experiences, often also involve a sense of timelesness. the phenomenolgy of awe, therefore suggests it might expand the perception of time." yeah, among things in other ways.

aside from trying to define what awe may be or where it comes from, what if there was a medicine that could provide these things, or at the very least encourage them. on top of outside experiences and posibly combined. that would be some pretty powerful medicine. you wouldnt have to take it everyday, or worry about missed doses, or even side effects. but it would change you for the better. in more ways than one. in a lasting way. with someone like a doctor maybe, in the right setting, if you need that. im thinking a real natural setting would be best as opposed to an clinical office type, unlike a psychiatrist. and are natural psychedelics and mind altering drugs paleo or primal. im saying yes. there are so many.

the world is an amazing, wonderous place that is often obscured by the mundane and everyday. certain mindsets act more as tools than a true refelection of what really is. reality is in the mind of the beholder.

yeah, that would be some good medicine. i wonder...

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Overconfidence Increases Social Status

One of the more entertaining foibles of human psychology is the “Lake Wobegon Effect” — the tendency for most people to think they’re above average. While it’s easy to imagine how such a flaw can lead to increased disappointment and tragically hilarious failures, the murkier nature of its benefits begs the question of why it has survived as a seemingly adaptive cognitive process.

One explanation is that overconfidence has the psychological benefits of improving a person’s self-esteem, mental health, and persistence. Yet the higher number of failures that results from overconfidence would seem to mitigate some of these benefits. A more complete explanation would spell out how overconfidence leads to better outcomes without the potential for drawbacks.

A new study led by Berkeley psychologist Cameron Anderson appears to provide such an explanation. In a series of experiments Anderson and his team examined the social benefits of overconfidence. They found that overconfidence often leads to an increase in social status by making people appear more competent.


Anderson C, Brion S, Moore DA, Kennedy JA. A Status-Enhancement Account of Overconfidence. J Pers Soc Psychol. http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/workingpapers/119-12.pdf

In explaining the prevalence of the overconfident belief that one is better than others, prior work has focused on the motive to maintain high self-esteem, abetted by biases in attention, memory, and cognition. An additional possibility is that overconfidence enhances the person's social status. We tested this status-enhancing account of overconfidence in 6 studies. Studies 1-3 found that overconfidence leads to higher social status in both short- and longer-term groups, using naturalistic and experimental designs. Study 4 applied a Brunswikian lens analysis (Brunswik, 1956) and found that overconfidence leads to a behavioral signature that makes the individual appear competent to others. Studies 5 and 6 measured and experimentally manipulated the desire for status and found that the status motive promotes overconfidence. Together, these studies suggest that people might so often believe they are better than others because it helps them achieve higher social status.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFhm-xhQocM]Diagnostic & Statistical Manual: Psychiatry's Deadliest Scam - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Embedded Image Unvailable

Embedded Image Unvailable

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Borg C, de Jong PJ. Feelings of Disgust and Disgust-Induced Avoidance Weaken following Induced Sexual Arousal in Women. PLoS ONE 2012;7(9):e44111. PLOS ONE: Feelings of Disgust and Disgust-Induced Avoidance Weaken following Induced Sexual Arousal in Women

Background - Sex and disgust are basic, evolutionary relevant functions that are often construed as paradoxical. In general the stimuli involved in sexual encounters are, at least out of context strongly perceived to hold high disgust qualities. Saliva, sweat, semen and body odours are among the strongest disgust elicitors. This results in the intriguing question of how people succeed in having pleasurable sex at all. One possible explanation could be that sexual engagement temporarily reduces the disgust eliciting properties of particular stimuli or that sexual engagement might weaken the hesitation to actually approach these stimuli.

Methodology - Participants were healthy women (n = 90) randomly allocated to one of three groups: the sexual arousal, the non-sexual positive arousal, or the neutral control group. Film clips were used to elicit the relevant mood state. Participants engaged in 16 behavioural tasks, involving sex related (e.g., lubricate the vibrator) and non-sex related (e.g., take a sip of juice with a large insect in the cup) stimuli, to measure the impact of sexual arousal on feelings of disgust and actual avoidance behaviour.

Principal Findings - The sexual arousal group rated the sex related stimuli as less disgusting compared to the other groups. A similar tendency was evident for the non-sex disgusting stimuli. For both the sex and non-sex related behavioural tasks the sexual arousal group showed less avoidance behaviour (i.e., they conducted the highest percentage of tasks compared to the other groups).

Significance - This study has investigated how sexual arousal interplays with disgust and disgust eliciting properties in women, and has demonstrated that this relationship goes beyond subjective report by affecting the actual approach to disgusting stimuli. Hence, this could explain how we still manage to engage in pleasurable sexual activity. Moreover, these findings suggest that low sexual arousal might be a key feature in the maintenance of particular sexual dysfunctions.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Hall L, Johansson P, Strandberg T. Lifting the Veil of Morality: Choice Blindness and Attitude Reversals on a Self-Transforming Survey. PLoS ONE 2012;7(9):e45457. PLOS ONE: Lifting the Veil of Morality: Choice Blindness and Attitude Reversals on a Self-Transforming Survey

Every day, thousands of polls, surveys, and rating scales are employed to elicit the attitudes of humankind. Given the ubiquitous use of these instruments, it seems we ought to have firm answers to what is measured by them, but unfortunately we do not. To help remedy this situation, we present a novel approach to investigate the nature of attitudes. We created a self-transforming paper survey of moral opinions, covering both foundational principles, and current dilemmas hotly debated in the media. This survey used a magic trick to expose participants to a reversal of their previously stated attitudes, allowing us to record whether they were prepared to endorse and argue for the opposite view of what they had stated only moments ago. The result showed that the majority of the reversals remained undetected, and a full 69% of the participants failed to detect at least one of two changes. In addition, participants often constructed coherent and unequivocal arguments supporting the opposite of their original position. These results suggest a dramatic potential for flexibility in our moral attitudes, and indicates a clear role for self-attribution and post-hoc rationalization in attitude formation and change.


How to confuse a moral compass
Survey 'magic trick' causes attitude reversal.
How to confuse a moral compass : Nature News & Comment

 

[Michael Scally MD]

DeSteno, D., Breazeal, C., Frank, R. H., Pizarro, D., Baumann, J., Dickens, L, & Lee, J. (in press). Detecting the trustworthiness of novel partners in economic exchange. Psychological Science. http://static.squarespace.com/stati...2c2/t/505007e5c4aaf3413fd4b06b/1347422181365/

Deciding to trust a person one knows nothing about often entails high risk. The ability to infer a potential partner’s trustworthiness would consequently be highly advantageous. To date, however, little evidence supports the ability of humans to accurately assess the cooperative intentions of novel partners through the use of nonverbal signals. In two studies using human-human and human-robot interactions, we show that accuracy in judging the trustworthiness of novel partners is heightened through exposure to nonverbal cues as well as identify a specific set of cues as predictive of economic behavior. Employing the precision offered by robotics technology to model and control human-like movements, we demonstrate not only that experimental manipulation of the identified cues directly impacts perceptions of trustworthiness and subsequent exchange behavior but also the readiness of the human mind to utilize such cues to ascribe social intentions to technological entities.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Reddon AR, O'Connor CM, Marsh-Rollo SE, Balshine S. Effects of isotocin on social responses in a cooperatively breeding fish. Animal Behaviour 2012;84(4):753-60. ScienceDirect.com - Animal Behaviour - Effects of isotocin on social responses in a cooperatively breeding fish

Oxytocin and its nonmammalian homologues play an important role in modulating a diverse array of social behaviours. Recently, it has been suggested that one of the key functions of oxytocin is to direct attention towards socially relevant stimuli, increase social motivation and guide social decision making. Here, we test whether an exogenous increase in isotocin (the teleost homologue of oxytocin) increases the response to social information in a cooperative breeder, the highly social cichlid fish, Neolamprologus pulcher. In our first experiment (a simulated territorial contest), we found that N. pulcher injected with isotocin were more sensitive to the size of their opponent regardless of whether their opponent was a live rival or a mirror image. Isotocin-treated fish fought in accordance with the size of their opponent whereas control fish fought according to their intrinsic aggressive propensity. In our second experiment (a social group context), we found that isotocin-treated N. pulcher were more responsive to aggressive feedback and produced more submissive displays (an important social signal in this species). These experiments provide evidence that isotocin increases responsiveness to social information and further support the function of the oxytocin family of nonapeptides as a highly conserved regulator of social behaviour across vertebrates.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Karlsson MP, Tervo DGR, Karpova AY. Network Resets in Medial Prefrontal Cortex Mark the Onset of Behavioral Uncertainty. Science 2012;338(6103):135-9. Network Resets in Medial Prefrontal Cortex Mark the Onset of Behavioral Uncertainty

Regions within the prefrontal cortex are thought to process beliefs about the world, but little is known about the circuit dynamics underlying the formation and modification of these beliefs. Using a task that permits dissociation between the activity encoding an animal's internal state and that encoding aspects of behavior, we found that transient increases in the volatility of activity in the rat medial prefrontal cortex accompany periods when an animal's belief is modified after an environmental change. Activity across the majority of sampled neurons underwent marked, abrupt, and coordinated changes when prior belief was abandoned in favor of exploration of alternative strategies. These dynamics reflect network switches to a state of instability, which diminishes over the period of exploration as new stable representations are formed.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Pitfalls

Carp J. The secret lives of experiments: Methods reporting in the fMRI literature. Neuroimage 2012;63(1):289-300. ScienceDirect.com - NeuroImage - The secret lives of experiments: Methods reporting in the fMRI literature

Replication of research findings is critical to the progress of scientific understanding. Accordingly, most scientific journals require authors to report experimental procedures in sufficient detail for independent researchers to replicate their work. To what extent do research reports in the functional neuroimaging literature live up to this standard? The present study evaluated methods reporting and methodological choices across 241 recent fMRI articles. Many studies did not report critical methodological details with regard to experimental design, data acquisition, and analysis. Further, many studies were underpowered to detect any but the largest statistical effects. Finally, data collection and analysis methods were highly flexible across studies, with nearly as many unique analysis pipelines as there were studies in the sample. Because the rate of false positive results is thought to increase with the flexibility of experimental designs, the field of functional neuroimaging may be particularly vulnerable to false positives. In sum, the present study documented significant gaps in methods reporting among fMRI studies. Improved methodological descriptions in research reports would yield significant benefits for the field.


Carp J. On the plurality of (methodological) worlds: Estimating the analytic flexibility of fMRI experiments. Frontiers in Neuroscience 2012;6. Frontiers | On the Plurality of (Methodological) Worlds: Estimating the Analytic Flexibility of fMRI Experiments | Frontiers in Brain Imaging Methods

How likely are published findings in the functional neuroimaging literature to be false? According to a recent mathematical model, the potential for false positives increases with the flexibility of analysis methods. Functional MRI (fMRI) experiments can be analyzed using a large number of commonly used tools, with little consensus on how, when, or whether to apply each one. This situation may lead to substantial variability in analysis outcomes. Thus, the present study sought to estimate the flexibility of neuroimaging analysis by submitting a single event-related fMRI experiment to a large number of unique analysis procedures. Ten analysis steps for which multiple strategies appear in the literature were identified, and two to four strategies were enumerated for each step. Considering all possible combinations of these strategies yielded 6,912 unique analysis pipelines. Activation maps from each pipeline were corrected for multiple comparisons using five thresholding approaches, yielding 34,560 significance maps. While some outcomes were relatively consistent across pipelines, others showed substantial methods-related variability in activation strength, location, and extent. Some analysis decisions contributed to this variability more than others, and different decisions were associated with distinct patterns of variability across the brain. Qualitative outcomes also varied with analysis parameters: many contrasts yielded significant activation under some pipelines but not others. Altogether, these results reveal considerable flexibility in the analysis of fMRI experiments. This observation, when combined with mathematical simulations linking analytic flexibility with elevated false positive rates, suggests that false positive results may be more prevalent than expected in the literature. This risk of inflated false positive rates may be mitigated by constraining the flexibility of analytic choices or by abstaining from selective analysis reporting.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Striepens N, Scheele D, Kendrick KM, et al. Oxytocin facilitates protective responses to aversive social stimuli in males. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Oxytocin facilitates protective responses to aversive social stimuli in males

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) can enhance the impact of positive social cues but may reduce that of negative ones by inhibiting amygdala activation, although it is unclear whether the latter causes blunted emotional and mnemonic responses. In two independent double-blind placebo-controlled experiments, each involving over 70 healthy male subjects, we investigated whether OXT affects modulation of startle reactivity by aversive social stimuli as well as subsequent memory for them. Intranasal OXT potentiated acoustic startle responses to negative stimuli, without affecting behavioral valence or arousal judgments, and biased subsequent memory toward negative rather than neutral items. A functional MRI analysis of this mnemonic effect revealed that, whereas OXT inhibited amygdala responses to negative stimuli, it facilitated left insula responses for subsequently remembered items and increased functional coupling between the left amygdala, left anterior insula, and left inferior frontal gyrus. Our results therefore show that OXT can potentiate the protective and mnemonic impact of aversive social information despite reducing amygdala activity, and suggest that the insula may play a role in emotional modulation of memory.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Newman EJ, Garry M, Bernstein DM, Kantner J, Lindsay DS. Nonprobative photographs (or words) inflate truthiness. Psychon Bull Rev 2012;19(5):969-74. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Volume 19, Number 5 - SpringerLink

When people evaluate claims, they often rely on what comedian Stephen Colbert calls "truthiness," or subjective feelings of truth. In four experiments, we examined the impact of nonprobative information on truthiness.

In Experiments 1A and 1B, people saw familiar and unfamiliar celebrity names and, for each, quickly responded "true" or "false" to the (between-subjects) claim "This famous person is alive" or "This famous person is dead." Within subjects, some of the names appeared with a photo of the celebrity engaged in his or her profession, whereas other names appeared alone. For unfamiliar celebrity names, photos increased the likelihood that the subjects would judge the claim to be true. Moreover, the same photos inflated the subjective truth of both the "alive" and "dead" claims, suggesting that photos did not produce an "alive bias" but rather a "truth bias."

Experiment 2 showed that photos and verbal information similarly inflated truthiness, suggesting that the effect is not peculiar to photographs per se.

Experiment 3 demonstrated that nonprobative photos can also enhance the truthiness of general knowledge claims (e.g., Giraffes are the only mammals that cannot jump).

These effects add to a growing literature on how nonprobative information can inflate subjective feelings of truth.