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Human lie detectors

The Mighty Thor

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3743448.stm

Select few 'can identify liars'

A select group of people have a unique ability to spot when someone is lying, US research shows.

A University of San Francisco study found only 31 people out of 13,000 could identify in nearly all cases when someone was lying.

The group used facial expressions, body language and ways of talking and thinking to spot liars while the others did little better than chance.

The team are now using them to help train police and other investigators.
Click to expand...

Can they tell when mediums and psychics are lying, I wonder?
 
CNN had one of these people on to comment on the final debate between Bush and Kerry. He basically said that Bush had some mannerisms that could indicate lying. He specificity mentioned Bush's tendency to blink allot. Though, to the commentator’s credit, he did say that it would be impossible to tell for sure if he was actually lying without first going over old videotapes with known lies being told. He then mentioned that it is even harder to tell if Kerry is lying because he has so much experience at debating. The man mentioned that it is especially hard to tell when actors and politicians are lying because they both practice their lines constantly before presenting them. He claimed it's much easier to pick up a lie when it is told the first time, and becomes gradually harder to detect as the lie is repeated.
 
I say we take those select group of people out on a holiday. Right when they're enjoying themselves, we go "you didn't expect THIS, did you" and spring Barry Manilow on them.

It works both ways, the man needs a job.
 
Dr. Oliver Sacks had similar comments about people who have aphasia, in his book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat". He said that they were much better at detecting lies, and theorized the reason was because they couldn't hear the content (having aphasia, they could no longer understand any spoken language) and were keenly focused only on body language.

Interestingly enough, when he recounts this in his book, he talks about a group of aphasia patients watching a Presidential debate (or maybe it was a speech, I forget now). And they were all laughing hysterically at it. ;)
 
Marian said:
Dr. Oliver Sacks had similar comments about people who have aphasia, in his book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat". He said that they were much better at detecting lies, and theorized the reason was because they couldn't hear the content (having aphasia, they could no longer understand any spoken language) and were keenly focused only on body language.

Interestingly enough, when he recounts this in his book, he talks about a group of aphasia patients watching a Presidential debate (or maybe it was a speech, I forget now). And they were all laughing hysterically at it. ;)
Click to expand...

Not only the people who couldn't understand the words, there was also a patient in the reverse situation, who could understand the words, and not the emotions behind them (agnosia). She also was not impressed, and said that the president was either brain-damaged or concealing something.
 
Consider, that the only person for sure who can detect your lying would be your mother!

Would make for an interesting addition to the guest list at a political speech – e.g.

GWB – “I will lower taxes and……”
His mother – “GEORGE! Stop that, what did I tell you about lying to the public, rant rant rant ….
GWB – “yes mother, I mean no mother, sorry mother …..”
 
Consider, that the only person for sure who can detect your lying would be your mother!
Click to expand...

That must be why Kerry's mom had to remind him, "Integrity!, Integrity!, Integrity!" as she lay on her death bed........she knew he forgot about it all the time. :D
 
I saw a BBC documentary with John Cleese as popularisator/host, and they also described ways of detecting lies. They claimed that when people lied, they involuntarily made some facial expressions of very short duration that it was possible to be trained to recognised. I do not remember the actual term, but it was something like micro-facial-expression.

They showed some people lying and ran the film in slow-motion so that we could see a slight frown appearing briefly on their forehead.

I could not help thinking that once people are aware of this phenomenon, they must also be able to learn not to make these "micro-frowns".
 
RamblingOnwards said:
How about the whole ' looks up and to the left' or 'to the right' thing?
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In this BBC documentary they did not mention eye-movement as a marker for lying. Perhaps somebody else with a better memory than I has seen the documentary?

Anyway, what is lying? I think that these micro-frowns, or whatever, arise from some slight embarassment that comes in the mind when telling a lie. Other subject might cause the same kind of embarassment without lying being involved, and you might train yourself not to fell embarassed by the lies.

A perforing magician is lying and cheating all the time, but I do not think that highly trained people would be able to pick up reliable signs of lying.
 
RamblingOnwards said:
How about the whole ' looks up and to the left' or 'to the right' thing?
Click to expand...

As I understand it, this specifically applies to the conflict of remembering vs. imagining, not necessarily lying in general. Of course, one can be trained not to do this once aware of it, and I don't know exactly how true it is to begin with.
 
steenkh said:
I saw a BBC documentary with John Cleese as popularisator/host, and they also described ways of detecting lies. They claimed that when people lied, they involuntarily made some facial expressions of very short duration that it was possible to be trained to recognised. I do not remember the actual term, but it was something like micro-facial-expression.

They showed some people lying and ran the film in slow-motion so that we could see a slight frown appearing briefly on their forehead.
Click to expand...
With politicians you can tell if they are lying by watching their mouths very closely. If their lips move they are lying.
 
Remember Susan Smith? The South Carolina woman who strapped her two children into the back seat of her car and pushed it off a boat ramp? She stood there and watched it roll all the way down and into the water, and then claimed the car and kids had been taken by a black man.

She would not look directly at anyone when she told her fake story about being carjacked. She kept closing her eyes and looking down. Absolutely would not look at the person asking her the questions.

This was the first person I can remember where I thought immediately and strongly that she was a liar as soon as I saw her telling her story. She kept playing the "look away" game.
 
The Mighty Thor said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3743448.stm
Select few 'can identify liars'

A select group of people have a unique ability to spot when someone is lying, US research shows.

A University of San Francisco study found only 31 people out of 13,000 could identify in nearly all cases when someone was lying.

The group used facial expressions, body language and ways of talking and thinking to spot liars while the others did little better than chance.

The team are now using them to help train police and other investigators.
Click to expand...
Crack teams of mentalist policemen, trained by Derren Brown...

It's just crazy enough to work.
 
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