This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedanta.

Six years ago, I was diagnosed with a rare, inoperable form of bone cancer called

Condrosarcoma. A cancer I still have to this day.

Elizabeth Finch used to be a writer on the popular medical TV show, Grey's Anatomy.

Other writers said they deferred to her opinions while writing episodes,

since, as a cancer patient, she was the authority on what patients were going through.

I told my cancer cost me my hair, my immune system, one knee, half my bank account, half my

thirties, and one functioning kidney. I mean, never be cancer free.

But in a December 2022 interview with the Ancler, a newsletter about goings on in Hollywood,

Elizabeth Finch admitted that her cancer diagnosis was a lie.

One of her colleagues told the newsletter that Elizabeth Finch was someone who sported,

a visible chemo-port bandage, who regularly took breaks to vomit,

who only ate saltines for long periods of time, and who wrote and talked about her experiences all the time.

We were unable to reach Elizabeth Finch for a response.

Her story may seem extraordinary, but she's not alone in making false claims.

In 2021, the website Intelligent.com surveyed more than 1200 white college applicants.

More than a quarter of the respondents on the online survey said they had lied about being a racial minority on their college application.

Blanca Véa Gomez is the website's Higher Education Counselor.

She says that most of the people who lied claimed to be Native American.

And we found that the number one reason for why these applicants lied was they believed that they would improve their chances of getting accepted.

It used to be that we tried our best to conceal disadvantages, hardships, and humiliations.

Trauma's were often experienced as shameful and hidden away.

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