Brain damage can help you detect liars

A study measured how accurately 3 groups of people could determine if someone was telling a lie.

Group R: damage to the right hemisphere

Group L: damage to the left hemisphere

Group N: normal (no brain damage)

Those with damage to the left hemisphere (L) were more accurate than those with damage to their right hemisphere (R). This supports the notion that complex emotional perception and processing happens more in the right hemisphere.

The surprise is that group L did better than group N. That is, those with damage to the left hemisphere were better at detecting lies than those with NO brain damage. In that sense, one's left hemisphere is a handicap when it comes to recognizing complex emotions (that explains a lot about me).

I don't know what study established these results, but it was mentioned in a PSYCH 261 lecture.