• Question: what are signs that someone is lying?

    Asked by anon-237322 to Peter, Mhairi, Madeleine, Catherine, Andrew on 14 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Mhairi Bowe

      Mhairi Bowe answered on 14 Mar 2020:

      Popular belief is that people look away or add too much or too little detail to their accounts. However, science and history has shown that is not always the case and that people are pretty poor at identifying lying despite being typically great at reading body language. Have a look the book Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell.

    • Photo: Andrew McNeill

      Andrew McNeill answered on 18 Mar 2020:

      Have you ever watched “Lie to Me”? It’s based on the work of Paul Ekman, a psychologist, who looks at people’s facial expression to decode what emotion they are feeling. Obviously the series vastly exaggerates Ekman’s work but it’s fun to think about it. Frankly, it’s very difficult/impossible to tell if someone is lying. Even cues like nervousness (increased heart rate, sweaty palms) don’t show that a person is lying – there are other reasons why they might be nervous.

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