Lie detection is a necessary skill in the world of diplomacy. These skills begin at the visa line and, successfully honed, can serve a diplomat throughout his career. Most people have a reasonable sense of when we’re being lied to. If someone breaks eye contact, pauses frequently, or repeatedly touches their face, people subconsciously being to doubt what they’re saying. Unfortunately, much of this breaks down when lying across cultures. Here are a couple of methods that I’m told work well no matter the origin of the detectee.
Using Micro-expressions
Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, blink, describes what I’m told is the most reliable method for lie detection:
Whenever we experience a basic emotion, that emotion is automatically expressed by the muscles of the face. That response may linger on the face for just a fraction of a second or be detectable only if electrical sensors are attached to the face. But it’s always there. Silvan Tomkins once began a lecture by bellowing, “The face is like the penis!” What he meant was that the face has, to a large extent, a mind of its own. This doesn’t mean we have no control over our faces. We can use our voluntary muscular system to try to suppress those involuntary responses. But, often, some little part of that suppressed emotion…leaks out…Our voluntary expressive system is the way we intentionally signal our emotions. But our involuntary expressive system is in many ways even more important: it is the way we have been equipped by evolution to signal our authentic feelings.
With a little practice and a lot of attention, you can learn to spot these “micro-expressions.” These won’t always be caused by a lie; if you mention my wife and I show a micro-expression, it may be because we fought last night, not because she doesn’t exist.
Eye Detection
I’m told that diplomatic security agents learn this method, but I’ve also been told it could be a load of hooey. I’ve tried it, and found it to be reasonably accurate, but this doesn’t have my full endorsement. The basic premise is that we use one side of our brain to remember and another side to create. When people access one or the other side, their eyes involuntarily look toward the side of the brain they’re using. Generally, people look to their right when creating (i.e., lying) and to the left when remembering, but the sides are often reversed. Blifaloo.com has a great diagram.
These are just a couple, I’m sure there are many more. For a fun experiment, try giving someone a positive response while shaking their head no; it’s a simple way to confuse someone and see their lie detection skills in action. Are there any other ways? Let me know in the comments!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I was taught in my old law school negotiations class that eye dilation was a sure way to tell if someone is lying. Of course, you need to be able to see a person’s irises pretty well to look for that.
Per my ophthalmologist, my eyes are naturally dilated more than the average person - hope people don’t think I’m lying most of the time!
There’s a new show on FOX called Lie To Me and it’s all about micro expressions!
As an ex-cop I can tell you that the eye thing does occur, but like all detection methods, it isn’t perfect. Not all people pause and search the sky when thinking about telling a lie. Plus, not all people who are lying look up into their left brain. That being said, the ’searching eye’ method is just one indicator among a number of indicators when, taken in their totality, can give an officer an idea of whether the interviewee is being deceptive.
My favorite method to use (back when folks called me ‘Sarge’) was to not let on immediately that I had caught someone lying. I’d just let it slide and continue asking questions, but I would try to tailor my questions in order to have the person contradict his original falsehood. Once you get someone off balance trying to prop up their fibs they will generally come apart, sometimes even admitting, “You got me, Bubba.”
Often, If you ask them to recount the story(plot) backwards chronological order.. they often screw up… when a lie is created we often recite it forwards but not backwards… True memories are created so our brains have no difficulty recalling the events backwards.
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