DISINFORMATION AND CREATIVITY: How Happen the Creation of Lies

The Creative Work of Disinformation

🧠 Disinformation and Creativity

We live in an era where lying has stopped being an accident — it has become architecture.And like any sophisticated architecture, it requires design, technique and, above all, creativity.

In the past, a “rumour” spread from a neighbour’s mouth or via sensationalist newspaper headlines.

Today, the lie arrives in high emotional resolution, tailored to the brain like a custom-made garment.

Deepfakes reconstruct faces, algorithms simulate emotions, narratives are refined in infinite loops until they sound too perfect to be questioned.

And the key point that neuroscience has been revealing:

👉 Creating a fake news story is not a random act — it is a complex cognitive process. It requires imagination, mental forecasting, emotional reading of the other person, and mastery of cognitive biases.

In other words:

✨ Creating disinformation requires creativity.

But not just any creativity — the kind directed towards manipulation, not expansion.

The same brain that produces art, innovation and science is also capable of producing convincing lies.

In the hyperconnected environments of 2025, this “destructive creativity” has a direct impact on politics, the economy, the social fabric and — perhaps most dangerously — on how we perceive reality.

The neuroscience of misdirected creativity shows that:

• creative minds are also more capable of inventing disinformation;

• manipulation activates reward circuits similar to those involved in artistic creation;

• the human brain is a biological machine perfectly built to believe fabricated stories;

• the combination — creativity + emotion + algorithms — has become the perfect storm of contemporary disinformation.

Normally, when we talk about creativity, we think of music, writing, science, drawing.

But neuroscience has never limited creativity to art.

Creativity is the ability to generate original ideas that make sense within a context (Runco & Jaeger, 2012).

And this includes:

• inventing stories,

• building plausible narratives,

• predicting how others will react,

• manipulating emotions through language.

In other words: perfect for fabricating disinformation.

---

🧩 The neural circuit of creativity is the same one used to invent complex lies

Crafting Lies and Innovation

Neuroimaging research shows that creativity involves the interaction of three major brain networks:

• Default Mode Network (DMN) — imagination, mental visualisation, narrative construction

• Executive Networks (dorsolateral PFC) — planning, sequencing, logic, strategic choice

• Salience Network (insula + anterior cingulate) — emotional evaluation and contextual relevance

Studies such as Ganis et al. (2003) and Abe (2011) show that:

• sophisticated lies strongly activate the DMN, because they require imagining non-existent scenarios;

• the prefrontal cortex works to maintain coherence and suppress the real truth;

• the anterior cingulate monitors errors, inconsistencies and emotional impact.

In other words:

👉 Lying is a creative act.

And the more creative the person, the more capable they are of producing emotionally convincing stories.

But creativity is not only a force that can be misused; it can also be channelled to fight disinformation — in educational campaigns, artistic productions, and critical-literacy initiatives.

---

🎭 The “creative liar” is, neurocognitively, a scriptwriter

Neurocognition Behind Crafting Lies

To craft a convincing lie, the brain must:

• predict how someone will react (theory of mind),

• evaluate which emotions will be triggered,

• construct a narrative that feels familiar but not obvious,

• connect cause and effect in a plausible way,

• adjust the story if there is resistance.

This process is almost identical to what writers, filmmakers and advertisers do.

The difference?

👉 The goal is not to inspire — but to manipulate.

Real-world examples of the impact of disinformation

• COVID-19 and vaccines — false information generated vaccine hesitancy and avoidable outbreaks.

• Elections — bots and artificial narratives shaped perceptions and influenced democracies.

Studies connecting creativity and deception

• Gao & Maurer (2010): divergent thinking → more convincing false stories

  
  

• Deline & Haruno (2017): verbal creativity → lower moral sensitivity + greater cognitive flexibility

  
  

• Verschuere et al. (2018): the more narrative creativity, the harder it is to detect lies

💡 Creativity is a neutral tool — it is the use that defines its ethics

---

🧬 The brain of those who create fake news: dopamine, power and a “switched-off” moral circuit

Dopamine, Power, and the Switched-Off Moral Brake

If creativity provides the raw material, neurochemistry provides the fuel.

Strategic fake-news creation is not only a cognitive act — it is emotional and rewarding.

Neuroscience has already mapped exactly how this works.

🎭 Deliberate lying has its own neural signature

Studies by Joshua Greene (Harvard), Abe (2011) and Bandura (2016) show:

🔹1. Reduced activation of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)

The ACC is responsible for:

•           detecting moral conflict,

•           inhibiting unethical behaviour,

•           generating discomfort when lying.

When someone lies deliberately, this circuit shows reduced activity.

👉 The brain deactivates the moral brake to allow fluent lie construction.

🔹2. Increased dopaminergic activity in the mesolimbic system

Abe & Greene (2014) showed that successful deception activates:

•           the nucleus accumbens,

•           the ventral tegmental area,

•           the orbitofrontal cortex.

These are the same regions involved in:

•           social rewards,

•           gambling,

•           sex,

•            mild addiction.

👉 Manipulating someone else’s beliefs produces a neurochemical “high”.

🔹3. Creativity + switched-off morality = a perfect environment for inventing lies

The creative brain already operates with:

•           a hyperactive DMN,

•           high cognitive flexibility,

•           ease in constructing imagined narratives,

•           sharpened social intuition.

When this combines with:

•           dopamine (pleasure),

•           reduced ACC (low empathy),

•           social motivation (status, influence, power),

what emerges is the:

👉 “creator of alternative realities”.

A producer of fake news is not uninformed.

They are skilled.

---

📢 The brain of those who share fake news: you're not a manipulator — you're vulnerable

Cognitive Immunity in the Digital Age

👉 Sharing fake news does NOT make you a manipulator.

The circuits are entirely different.

The brain of someone who shares looks much more like the brain of someone reacting emotionally — not someone planning manipulation.

📌 Three mechanisms are activated in those who share:

1.       Dopamine from social validation

You share → someone reacts → dopamine.A simple, automatic reinforcement loop.

2.       Limbic system on alert

Fake news activates:

o   the amygdala (fear, anger),

o   the hypothalamus (physiological alert),

o   noradrenaline (urgency).

The body reacts before reason.

3.       Temporarily “switched-off” prefrontal cortex

In emotional states:

o   PFC activity drops,

o   critical checking decreases,

o   the person shares because they believe — not to manipulate.

🛡️ Practical ways to protect yourself from disinformation

1. Check the sources

Ask: Who said this? Why? From where?

2. Educate yourself about disinformation

Workshops, media literacy, short courses.

3. Promote critical thinking in practice

Discuss, question, converse, confront ideas — without confronting people.

---

🌱 Conclusion: the brain as an antidote

Disinformation does not grow because people are naïve.

It grows because it understands human biology.

And the most fascinating — and dangerous — part is that the force sustaining this cycle is the same one that drives art and innovation:

✨ creativity.

The brain that composes a musical piece is the same brain that fabricates a convincing lie.

But there is a powerful twist:

👉 the same brain that falls is the one that can learn.

👉 the same brain that reacts is the one that can reflect.

👉 the same brain that believes is the one that can question.

Neuroscience does not only expose how vulnerable we are — it reveals how we can protect ourselves.

And in the end, it’s not about distrusting everything — it’s about perceiving consciously, feeling maturely, and thinking intentionally.

✨ The future does not belong to the creative lie.

It belongs to the brain that recognises it — and chooses not to surrender to it.

📚 References

•           Abe, N. (2011). How the brain shapes deception: An integrated review of the literature. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 5, 87. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858410393359

•           Abe, N., & Greene, J. D. (2014). The cognitive and neural foundations of honesty and deception. In M. S. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The cognitive neurosciences (5th ed., pp. 553–564). MIT Press.

•           Bandura, A. (2016). Moral disengagement: How people do harm and live with themselves. Worth Publishers.

•           Berridge, K. C., & Robinson, T. E. (1998). What is the role of dopamine in reward: Hedonic impact, reward learning, or incentive salience? Brain Research Reviews, 28(3), 309–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-0173(98)00019-8

•           Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Impact of misinformation on vaccine uptake. https://www.cdc.gov

•           Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Williams, K. D. (2003). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302(5643), 290–292. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1089134

•           Ganis, G., Kosslyn, S. M., Stose, S., Thompson, W. L., & Yurgelun-Todd, D. A. (2003). Neural correlates of different types of deception: An fMRI investigation. NeuroImage, 19(4), 1310–1316. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/13.8.830

•           Greene, J. D., Nystrom, L. E., Engell, A. D., Darley, J. M., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment. Science, 293(5537), 2105–2108. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1062872

•           Kaplan, J. T., Gimbel, S. I., & Harris, S. (2016). Neural correlates of maintaining one's political beliefs in the face of counterevidence. Scientific Reports, 6, 39589. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep39589

•           LeDoux, J. E. (2000). Emotion circuits in the brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 23, 155–184. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.23.1.155

•           Montag, C., Lachmann, B., Herrlich, M., & Zweig, K. (2019). Addictive features of social media/messenger platforms and freemium games against the background of psychological and economic theories. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(14), 2612. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16142612

•           Oxford Internet Institute. (2018). The global disinformation order: 2019 global inventory of organized social media manipulation. University of Oxford.https://demtech.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2019/09/CyberTroop-Report19.pdf

•           Runco, M. A., & Jaeger, G. J. (2012). The standard definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), 92–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2012.650092

•           Sharot, T., Korn, C. W., & Dolan, R. J. (2011). How unrealistic optimism is maintained in the face of reality. Nature Neuroscience, 14(11), 1475–1479. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2949

•           Verschuere, B., Köbis, N. C., Bereby-Meyer, Y., Rand, D. G., & Shalvi, S. (2018). Taxing the brain to uncover lying? Meta-analyzing cognitive-load approaches to lie detection. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 7(3), 460–469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2018.04.005

•           World Health Organization. (2020–2022). COVID-19 misinformation and vaccine hesitancy. https://www.who.int