What signs do you look for to tell if someone is lying?

[Reply]

@Wakinyan

I recently read about a study about these matters, where it was shown that policemen generally thought they were very good at discovering a lie, when in fact they were not, and also told about their tricks, which were proven useless.

Cite, please?

[Hunter_Hawk]

I believe Paul Ekman has at least one book out on detecting lies, so that might be a starting point for further reading.

(This is not a reply to Reply, btw.)

[The_Second_Stone]

When someone is dead, I can tell an untruth if they lie still.

[chrisn]

@Hunter_Hawk

I believe Paul Ekman has at least one book out on detecting lies, so that might be a starting point for further reading.

(This is not a reply to Reply, btw.)

Yeah, I thought of Ekman, too. Here’s the abstract from his study:

The ability to detect lying was evaluated in 509 people including law-enforcement personnel, such as members of the U.S. Secret Service, Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, Drug Enforcement Agency, California police and judges, as well as psychiatrists, college students, and working adults. A videotape showed 10 people who were either lying or telling the truth in describing their feelings. Only the Secret Service performed better than chance, and they were significantly more accurate than all of the other groups. When occupational group was disregarded, it was found that those who were accurate apparently used different behavioral clues and had different skills than those who were inaccurate. http://www.citeulike.org/user/tessaverhoef/article/3836625

It’s from 1991, but it’s referenced in a book that was recently published called Quirkology by Richard Wiseman. He says that most people tend to be really bad at catching liars because they attend to the wrong signs (i.e., things which are fairly easy to control, like eye gaze and fidgetiness). Apparently, you’re better off noticing language rather than physical behaviour – liars tend to give fewer details, are less likely to admit memory lapses, and refer to themselves less in their stories.

There’s actually a spot-the-lie test you can do on the Quirkology website: http://www.quirkology.com/USA/Experiment_lying.shtml
I was able to tell when the guy was lying, but …

…I found it hard to believe that his fave film could be The Core so I was inclined to think he was lying just based on content alone.

Anyway, the results of this experiment indicate that you’re better off paying attention to your ears rather than your eyes:

There was no difference between those who saw the video and those who only heard the soundtrack, suggesting that the visual signals (such as facial expressions and body language) do not help people detect lies.

But I thought it interesting that “people with a science background were the best lie detectors, followed by visual artists, engineers, and finally mathematicians”. I tend to think of these professions as requiring good visual-spatial skills, so I’m not sure why they had an edge if visual cues aren’t that important.

[Thom_Yorke_s_Left_Eye]

Go on AIM or call me, JoeSki (you know who i am)