Human Lie Detectors Almost Never Miss, Study Finds
[size=-1] As he lies, the young man shrugs, flutters his eyelids and shakes his head. Another, on a witness stand, grimaces for a millisecond as he answers a question. [/size]
[size=-1]Most people believe they could easily detect such lying behavior, but in fact most miss a good 50 percent of lies, says deception expert Maureen O'Sullivan of the University of California San Francisco. [/size]
[size=-1] But O'Sullivan says she has found a special group -- just 1 percent of those she has tested -- who catch a lie nearly 90 percent of the time. [/size]
[size=-1] "We call them wizards," O'Sullivan told a briefing sponsored by the American Medical Association on Thursday. "Wizardry is a special skill that seems magical if you don't have it." [/size]
[size=-1]These wizards have a special ability to ferret out little tics that show when a person is lying. [/size]
[size=-1]She and her colleagues have so far screened 13,000 people for their ability to catch a liar on videotape. "We found 14 people who we called ultimate experts," she said. [/size]
[size=-1]They could tell when people deliberately lied about feelings, committing a crime or their own opinions. [/size]
[size=-1] Another 13 were good at detecting specific types of lies. For example, she said, "There was a group of cops who got very good scores -- they got 80 percent or more on crime but none of them did well on the video about feeling." [/size]
[size=-1] Now O'Sullivan is trying to find out how they do it. She finds they have little in common so far, except a motivation to catch liars. Some have advanced degrees, some only a high school education. About 20 percent had alcoholic parents. [/size]
[size=-1]"They are located all over the country. We sit down and go over the ... videotapes. I ask them to think aloud. I tape record them thinking aloud," she said. [/size]
[size=-1] While most people know to look for certain cues as a person lies, these wizards intuitively find an individual's peculiar cues. One may shrug when lying, and another may make fleeting expressions of disgust or even amusement. [/size]
[size=-1]"There are lots of clues. The problem is how do you put them together and how to you make any sense of them?"
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[size=-1]Yahoo News
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[size=-1] As he lies, the young man shrugs, flutters his eyelids and shakes his head. Another, on a witness stand, grimaces for a millisecond as he answers a question. [/size]
[size=-1]Most people believe they could easily detect such lying behavior, but in fact most miss a good 50 percent of lies, says deception expert Maureen O'Sullivan of the University of California San Francisco. [/size]
[size=-1] But O'Sullivan says she has found a special group -- just 1 percent of those she has tested -- who catch a lie nearly 90 percent of the time. [/size]
[size=-1] "We call them wizards," O'Sullivan told a briefing sponsored by the American Medical Association on Thursday. "Wizardry is a special skill that seems magical if you don't have it." [/size]
[size=-1]These wizards have a special ability to ferret out little tics that show when a person is lying. [/size]
[size=-1]She and her colleagues have so far screened 13,000 people for their ability to catch a liar on videotape. "We found 14 people who we called ultimate experts," she said. [/size]
[size=-1]They could tell when people deliberately lied about feelings, committing a crime or their own opinions. [/size]
[size=-1] Another 13 were good at detecting specific types of lies. For example, she said, "There was a group of cops who got very good scores -- they got 80 percent or more on crime but none of them did well on the video about feeling." [/size]
[size=-1] Now O'Sullivan is trying to find out how they do it. She finds they have little in common so far, except a motivation to catch liars. Some have advanced degrees, some only a high school education. About 20 percent had alcoholic parents. [/size]
[size=-1]"They are located all over the country. We sit down and go over the ... videotapes. I ask them to think aloud. I tape record them thinking aloud," she said. [/size]
[size=-1] While most people know to look for certain cues as a person lies, these wizards intuitively find an individual's peculiar cues. One may shrug when lying, and another may make fleeting expressions of disgust or even amusement. [/size]
[size=-1]"There are lots of clues. The problem is how do you put them together and how to you make any sense of them?"
[/size]
[size=-1]Yahoo News
[/size]