Joshua Greene and Joseph Paxton used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study 35 people who predicted computerized coin flips for money, where participants could earn more by falsely claiming correct predictions.
Notes on verification
Core study design confirmed by the original PNAS paper and multiple independent secondary sources; only the exact sample size of 35 could not be independently cross-verified beyond the original publication. [tier=gold indep_score=1.0 clusters=5 claim_tier=notable] [kind-backfill 2026-09-15: kind=attributed eligibility=high]
Sources
- Will vs. Grace – are people honest because they resist temptation or ... (seed:science_and_space)
- https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0900152106 (corroboration)
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2718383/ (corroboration)
- https://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/32/10564 (corroboration)
- https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00616/full (corroboration)
- https://acmelab.yale.edu/node/15 (corroboration)