Other research shows that number is on the conservative side. And it gets worse: Those that did lie actually told an average of three lies during that short conversation.
In surveying more than psychology graduate students currently or previously in therapy, Leslie Martin, PhD, of Wake Forest University's counseling center, found that of the 37 percent who reported lying, most did so "to protect themselves in some way — mostly to avoid shame or embarrassment, to avoid painful emotions and to avoid being judged.
Then there are the little fibs called pro-social lies which we are taught as kids are harmless. Telling grandma that you love the new sweater when you actually hate it, or telling your wife she looks great in that outfit, when you actually think she looks a little on the heavy side. The problem with these little lies — which are harmless at first — is that they tend to have a snowball effect.
A study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience found that lying is a slippery slope: When people tell small lies, the brain becomes desensitized to the pang of guilt that dishonesty usually causes.
It turns out we are pretty good at pegging liars, but that we end up talking ourselves out of it. Research published in Psychological Science found that we all have pre-set instincts for detecting liars, but they are often overridden by our conscious minds.
Research shows our accuracy of distinguishing truths from lies is just 53 percent — not much better than flipping a coin. A large meta-analysis revealed overall accuracy of distinguishing truths from lies was just 53 percent — not much better than flipping a coin, note the authors, psychologists Charles Bond, PhD, of Texas Christian University, and Bella DePaulo, PhD, of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Among other things, so-called polygraphs register how sweat production, heart rate and breathing change when certain questions are asked. But in everyday life we use the same instruments as our ancestors in distinguishing truth from falsehood: our eyes and ears. From to Ekman was a psychology professor at the University of California, San Francisco, where he is now emeritus.
Starting before that time, he became the first researcher to examine, on a large scale, how observable changes in the face and body reflect truth telling or lying. In the s he formulated his theory of universal facial expressions for the basic emotions: anger, disgust, enjoyment, fear, sadness and surprise.
Ekman categorized the facial muscles involved in producing these expressions in what he called the Facial Action Coding System. He and his co-author Wallace V. The core idea: emotions that one seeks to conceal are sometimes betrayed by facial expressions and movements of the arms, hands, legs and feet.
A prime example is a momentary facial expression that lasts no longer than a quarter to a half a second and is virtually invisible to an unpracticed observer. Such microexpressions that reveal concealed emotions do not, however, occur all that often, according to Ekman. We are more apt to observe emotions that are broken off or incomplete.
For example, if we try to fake fear or sadness, the characteristic creases on our forehead may not show. And the eye muscles may not be involved in a false smile. Ekman does not believe that such discrepancies are proof of falsehood. He merely thinks they are indications that something might be off. That is why repeated and varied clues are necessary; one is not enough.
In his book Telling Lies, Ekman claims that, in laboratory experiments, truth and lies can be told apart by facial expression alone with an accuracy of more than 80 percent—and that the figure reached 90 percent when factors such as facial and body movements, voice and language were all included in one analysis. But these statistics may be misleading.
Even when Ekman requires extensive training of testers, he has apparently not published a single study that confirms his figures. The theory is itself inadequate. Suchotzki is currently the German researcher most active in the field of lying. She focuses on evidence of mental effort that may be associated with false statements. It is simply not easy to lie. One of the few independent studies on this theme was conducted by psychologists Stephen Porter and Leanne ten Brinke in Their test subjects were asked to conceal their true feelings upon viewing sad, fear-inducing and joyous pictures.
If they tried to mimic a different emotion, their facial expressions were more often dissonant or incongruous. Microexpressions were seen in 2 percent of all snapshots. They occurred in 22 percent of all test subjects—though not only when they tried to cover up their feelings.
There is one thing that Ekman and his critics agree on, however: humans are generally very poor lie detectors. Ekman has compiled over 50 years of his research to create comprehensive training tools to read the hidden emotions of those around you.
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Paul Ekman. Training Tools. Dan Sackheim directed the season premiere episode. The science of deception detection is based on the work of Dr. Ekman, who has contracted himself with the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security as well as every government agency to consult in deception-related fields. This series launched on Wednesday, January 21st
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