Relationship between Lower Tendency to Deceive in Aging and Inhibitory Compromise

Abstract

Background: Deception can be associated with a heterogeneous network of concepts such as exaggeration, misleading, white lies, and faking. This paper assesses the tendency to deceive in aging. Objective: Our main aim was to assess whether older adults would demonstrate a low tendency to deceive. Methods: A total of 42 older adults (mean age 67.64 years, SD 7.87) and 45 younger adults (mean age 21.71 years, SD 2.66) were administered a deception scale including items such as “I sometimes tell lies if I have to” or “I never take things that don't belong to me.” Participants were also administered an inhibition task. Results: The results demonstrated a low tendency to deceive and low inhibition in older adults compared with younger ones. The low tendency to deceive in the older adults was significantly correlated with their diminished inhibitory ability. Discussion: The low tendency to deceive in aging seems to be related to a difficulty in inhibiting an honest response. Since inhibitory compromise has been considered mainly to trigger negative consequences for cognition, the present paper illustrates how this age-related compromise can be associated with positive social outcomes, i.e., a low tendency to deceive.