Lies, Damn Lies, and MRI's
“Once you can fake sincerity you’ve got it made!”
Words for our time it seems.
And since lying has physiological and psychological principles associated with it, we can examine it medically.
How can you tell if a politician is lying ?
His lips are moving!”Science has indeed shown that the best liars often become politicians. Researchers at Colgate University in New York ( no relation to the toothpaste) have shown that, even as children, those who are the best liars are the most likely to be successful leaders. And judging by our local crop of politicians, this ability improves with constant practice.
Lawyers are practically trained to be professional liars. That’ why so many become politicians. A good lawyer will deliberately string together an outrageous list of improbable events in order to raise doubts in the juries mind as to their clients guilt.
“ Ladies and gentlemen of the jury: If we are not alone in the universe, and if there are indeed intelligent beings out there, and if they do indeed take an interest in human affairs, then it is quite possible that an alien being from another galaxy killed O.J. Simpson’s wife, is it not ?”
And then lawyers are trained to stare the jury right in the eye, to demonstrate that they believe this guff with every particle of their being. Unless of course they are being paid to lie for the other side!
Lying,scientifically speaking ...
Surveys done by Dr. Bella DePaulo at the University of Virginia show that we all lie at least as often as we brush our teeth – at least once or twice a day. Any conversation that last for more than ten minutes has a one in five chance of having a lie in it. In any given week we will lie to thirty percent of the people whom we interact with. Lies vary with the type of relationship as well. Parent-teenager interactions are virtual magnets for deception. College students deceive their mothers in one out of every two conversations.
Dishonesty also infiltrates our romantic relationships. Missouri psychologist Dr. Dory Hollander has found that in eighty five percent of college age couples either one or both partners lied about previous relationships or recent indiscretions.
There are even different types of lies. There are the “fake positive” lies, like “Gee Honey, these are the best muffins you ever made!” or “ No, that dress doesn’t make your ass look big.”
Women are especially prone to telling “altruistic lies”, which are little falsehoods designed to spare someone else some discomfort or embarrassment. “Honey, I’m one of those women who gets really turned on by scrawny white legs, beer bellies and bald heads.”
Men, on the other hand, tend to be very self – centered liars. “Hey, did I ever tell you the one about the length of my fish/penis/winning streak/putt/lovemaking … ?”
Detecting lies...
can be difficult. especially if the liar is experienced and confident. Certain personality types are more likely to be liars – those who are manipulative, Machiavellian, and overly concerned with their own appearance and the effect they make on others. On other words, politicians! Several medical conditions seem to decrease lying. Those who are severely depressed rarely seem to bother with lies.
People who are dying of a terminal illness also seem reluctant to indulge in our usual quota of self deceit. This is perhaps because they no longer need to maintain some of the delusions that help us to facilitate everyday life. There is no point in pretending to yourself that everything is “going to be alright”, when you know absolutely that it won’t. Polygraph machines are highly over-rated for detecting lies. The body changes they detect are usually heart rate, respiratory rate, and skin conductivity. These alter more from fear than from lying. A nervous honest person may score worse than a confident liar.
Technology, Tell-tale-tics, and liars language
According to Geoffrey Braun, a polygraph historian at the University of Toronto, under ideal circumstances polygraphs are wrong between twenty-five and seventy-five percent of the time. This makes it more useful for spy story plots than for any practical purposes. A more accurate measure of lying may be by using videotape records to analyze hesitations in speech, changes in vocal pitch, and activities such as blinking and fidgeting. You all know what I mean – 60 Minutes has just asked the zinger question, and then zooms in to catch culprit trying to think up a good answer – eyes whirling like a slot machine, lips stuttering and sputtering like a stranded carp.
Liars are also less likely to use words like “I” or “me”, and less likely to use words indicating emotion. “I hate broccoli!” is likely to be true. “ The broccoli dish must have fallen over on its own” is likely to be a lie. Lying is also hard work. It requires more creative thought than telling the truth. Even for professional liars like actors.
Bond, James Bond...
When asked his name, even after years of practice, it takes just a teeny bit more brain activity to respond with “Bond, James Bond” than it does to say “Sean Connery”. Doctors can pick up this increased brain strain on certain types of function MRI scans. So under the right circumstances doctors can take pictures of lies. (The yellow arrow on the scan to the above left shows the amount of brain used in telling the truth. The right hand side scan supposedly shows the amount of brain activated in lying to the same question.)
I never tell a lie! Truthfully !
People Generally overestimate their ability to detect lying. Even professional "lie detector " occupations such as judges, lawyers, and police rarely score above random chance when their ability to tell truths from fibs is tested.
In fact only two occupations seem consistently able to predict lies. Second best at this are the Secret Service – their training involves scanning peoples faces for the thirty or so “micro-expressions” that go with deceitful activities.
And the toughest person to get a lie by ? Top of the heap at truth detection are Buddhist monks. Probably because years of meditation affects their sensory awareness of minute events around them. (By the way, did you notice that grasshopper at your feet ?)