The truth and nothing but the truth .....about lies.
The truth and nothing but the truth about lies
?Some weeks ago, I got a call from my 14-year-old daughter. Her brand-new bike was stolen at the hang out where the kids meet. How unfortunate but also puzzling, didn’t we invest in an additional quality lock? Surely, she still had the key if she locked the bike, right? Ahh no, the key to the lock was lost as well, imagine that!
Now I don’t want to jump to conclusions here but I’m sure you can understand that at that point it did cross my mind that my teen daughter might have been somewhat negligent and didn’t lock her bike to begin with. The thing is: there was no way of knowing for sure whether she took me for a fool or that she was in fact the victim of both the unfortunate loss of her key and subsequently the ill fortune that the thief found it (and checked all the bikes and was able to leave with hers). Was my sweet, beautiful girl lying to me? Just 14 years ago I gave her milk bottles and fresh diapers and now this!
?That got me thinking … are there, regardless of a hunch, telltale signs of lying? Is there a way of ensuring somebody is speaking the truth? Max Headroom was sure he figured it out. He was supposedly able to detect if a politician was lying: because ‘their lips moved’. ?But seriously, would you be able to detect a lie? Do you know what behaviors are giveaways for lying?
?There is a longstanding assumption that there must exist some physical identifiers of lying. That there is some sort of cue or behavior that allows us to spot a liar, like: is the person averting his gaze, avoiding eye contact, touching his noise, or rearranging his posture. But it seems that our implicit assumption that lying can be -at least in some way- physically detected is flawed. Neither by overt behavior like eye or hand gestures nor by medical imaging like fMRI or EEG scans have we been able to unambiguously identify lies. If anything, science was only able to debunk the assumption that we can detect lies in the physiology /chemistry of a person. Most experiments rarely beat the predictive odds of mere chance. And the few exceptions who do, proofed hard to replicate.
?Not that we aren’t able to measure ‘something’: polygraphs do detect increased stress levels and fMRI scans can visualize which part of the brain are being activated. We can even see that during (transparent) lies some prefrontal zones are used more intensely and reversely that people that have less functionality in those zones (like Parkinson patients) find it harder to lie. But the thing is: none of those markers is uniquely and indisputably related to a lie. That is, the person might be lying but might just as well be speaking the truth with increased stress.
?All the above however does not mean we are entirely powerless in the face of dauntless liars. Not only have there been some indications that voice pitch might undergo minuscule changes during lying, also by listening carefully you can increase your chances of detecting a lie. When it comes to spotting lies attentive listening’ seems to beat ‘close watching’.
?In consequence it is essential that -when you suspect being lied to- you get the person to talk extensively and as detailed as possible about the actual behavior and the actual context. This follows from the fact that fabricating a detailed and context rich sketch of reality requires a lot of mental effort. Chances are that liars will find it hard to create, maintain and reproduce their alternate realities consistently. So, the best way to debunk liars is to get them to talk, a lot, in detail, and give them the opportunity to talk themselves into it. (Interestingly people tend to talk longer when lying as if to counterbalance their lies with additional ‘facts’). Obviously this method isn’t bulletproof, but chances are you will spot ?inconsistencies throughout the different versions of the plotlines.
?As to my girl, …. ?I remember losing my dad’s bike when I was young. I went to the movies with my girlfriend and when I came out the bike was stolen. I’m sure I locked it, although I couldn’t find the key either.
?As managing director of Sue Behavioural Design, it is my firm belief that solutions for the world’s challenges can’t solely come from technological innovation but need to take human psychology and social behaviors into account. With my work and writings, I hope to contribute to this view.