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Week 4 [04.11-10.11.19] The facts and follies of lie detection

Lie detection can be called the most needed and dreamed gift of all times. We think that if we know the truth, hundreds of problems will be solved (but, possibly, thousands of a new will be created instead). And we have a decent number of methods to detect lie: body language, voice changes, some special noises... But does it actually work? Is it any good? Can we use it? Or better to call lie detection expert to do that work for you?
Andre Wang with his presentation can help you find answers to these questions? He has unusual thoughts and a different approach to this problem and will shock you with his research.

  1. Have you ever been interested in lie detection?
  2. How often do you know that someone lies?
  3. Did you try to learn some methods of lie detection?

Comments

August Micota said…
Have you ever been interested in lie detection?
Just when i saw it in the movies - these was only moments when i thought about it and wondered whether it was possible to cheat the machine.

How often do you know that someone lies?
It's hard to say as You can always tell when an "unexperianced" lier is lying but when You meet a real lying "artisian" it is close to impossible to ever know what's the truth.

Did you try to learn some methods of lie detection?
No I've never tried to look any information about it and never really needed it for anything.


I'm just wondering, as "lying" is a subject in which almost everyone has some experiance, why didn't You ask something like: "how often do YOU lie?" or something like that, I think that this could be really interesting to read :-)
Kuba Berliński said…
1. I always found it an interesting topic. There are many ways to detect lies, from body language for example. The lie detector was mainly notice by myself in cinematography, however I haven't heared about using it a lot in real life.

2. It depends, when I listen to some political speeches, yes it is very easy. In daily life, it is to me not that easy, as I have a tendency to believe people in general.

3. Once I tried to watch a bit of content, that would show how to detect lies based on body language. Sometimes you may notice when people get nervous or start sweating, but I guess it would more apply to lies while being interrogated.
The topic of lie detection appears in many movies and series. People who lie little tend to stress when lying, which can be seen. Sometimes you just have to look and you know that someone is lying. It's easier with people we know well because we know their behavior. Privately, I'm not interested in detecting lies and learning any lie detection techniques. I think that if someone wants to lie to me, then their loss and information for me that someone does not trust me :(
Maciej Sadoś said…
1. I don't know if interested is the right word but I remember that I read something about that in the past. After all it concerns a really interesting part of our everyday life.

2. I myself just can't lie, but I can quite often detect when people close to me lie. It's either obvious from their behavior, moves, voice temper or just from the information they say that I know is not true.

3. As I stated before I read a bit about it in the past. I know that for example it is quite common for people to touch their nose when their laying because of intensified blood pressure in it. But it depends on a person. If someone doesn't feel that emotion which leads to blush then he/she probably won't touch the nose.
Of course there are also people who can perfectly control their body so there are no any evidence of lie.
1. No, I wasn’t. It has just never really come to my mind.

2. I think that I am able to tell if someone is confabulating. Sometimes I have an occasion to hear certain stories which are just too improbable. That’s a little bit cringy, because everybody is laughing when such person goes deeper into his hilarious story with such details, that it is absolutely impossible that the story is real. I think that sometimes people just want to be funny, or to be listened with attention. I can give you two examples of stories which are probably a lie. One of them was a description of the situation which occurred on the training yard during the driving lesson. “And suddenly a motorcycle without a driver drove in front of our faces with high speed”. I really can’t imagine how something like this could have happened. Maybe you have an idea 😊 The second example is the story about trying to connect to an internet device by a wire put across whole apartment without father’s notice, with various creative methods. Yes – you can definitely place a wire on the floor without anybody noticing… I remember that I used to lie like that during childhood too, but now I find such behaviour pathetic and childish.

3. No, I haven’t.
Anna Koca said…
1. Have you ever been interested in lie detection?
Yes, I used to watch many crime movies and observe such technologies. I was fascinate by the level of advance technics and capabilities. My favorite game was to learn, predict and plan every move of perfect crime, not to be caught.

2. How often do you know that someone lies?
On the one hand I think I always know when someone lies, I can feel when something is not right, but on the other hand I want to believe people and don't be suspicious so. despite of signs, I tell myself to trust.

3. Did you try to learn some methods of lie detection?
Yes I did, but I couldn't test them, so I don't know if they were effective. I tried to control me breath and mimic reactions or even persuasion consisting of making myself believe in lied story and change the past in my memories.
Dawid Piotrak said…
1. Have you ever been interested in lie detection?
No, not really. I was always curious about it whenever something like this or other truth serums came up on some movies.

2. How often do you know that someone lies?
I usually assume that people wouldn't lie to me on some important stuff.
Especially those who are closest to me.
There is also a definition of a 'white lie' - It's a lie that people often use as of way of not hurting someones feelings just by telling them the truth.
I believe such lies are used on daily basis by everyone and i think it's ok - unless someone really needs us to express our true opinion then you'd have to think of a gentle way of telling him what he wants to hear.

3. Did you try to learn some methods of lie detection?
No, I never actually had the need to learn such methods.
Roman Batyuk said…
Yes, of course I have been interested in lie detection. In my opinion, everyone will want to know when somebody lies. For me, it is a very interesting topic, especially after I have watched 'Lie to me' television series. At first sight, lie detection does not look very hard. Just couple rules and that's all. But, unfortunately, it is not like that. First of all you to know how a person behaves in normal conditions. Then you need to be very attentive to catch the right changes in mimics, voice and body language. And the last and the most difficult step you have to give an appropriate evaluation to all those data. Also, you need to take into account that you could miss something because that person may hide it from you. I think you have to be very careful with lie detection because you can hurt other people if you will do mistakes in the evaluation.
Bartosz Waś said…
1.Not really but i have seen it in the movies many times. I have always wonder what skills are needed to actually cheat the lie detector or what body language people present when they lie.
2.I haven't encountered many situations when someone tried to lie to me so I can't really say.
3. No as I said I am not interested in this topic so i haven't. May one day I will try.
1. Yes, I used to be very interested in lie detection, because I like to play cards, mainly poker. You have to learn to bluff yourself and also watch carefully when others lie. However, I do not have one strategy and method, I always try to observe and analyze behavior, maybe some unusual reflexes of my opponents.

2. It's hard to say, I usually believe and trust people. When my colleagues lie, I can feel it. I know something is wrong. Always more than if someone is lying, I was interested in why he or she does it?

3. As I mentioned, I watched several tutorials about lie detection, but to be honest they were not very useful. During the game of poker, my method was to observe and analyze. It was extremely hard because you also have to watch your behavior and not show your emotions.
Interesting presentation. Answering your questions:

1. No, I have never ever been interested in lie detection. I just do not care.

2. Sometimes at first it can't be detected that this person is lying. But then it always comes to light. So I think it's not worth lying, because as the saying goes, a lie has short legs.

3. No I did not try to learn some methods of lie detection. Why? Because I value honesty and I am a sincere person. I hate lies and manipulation.
s15385 said…
1. I'm not interested in lie detection but I've always wondered what it feels like to be connected a lie detector.

2. Sometimes at first glance you know that someone is lying because he doesn't behave naturally. Personally I can't lie and hate when someone is doing this.

3. No, I haven't
1. Rather not in the process but methods that people use, trying to cheat lie detection 😊
It’s interesting what people can do to break the test.

2. It’s depends on how experienced and tricky the speaker is. There are people who make it for living, for example politicians. It can be very hard to find out whether someone is lying while she or he does it for all her or his life.

3. I know few that are the most popular ones, like sweating, scratching in one certain place or blinking. Every person has a sensitive point, you can find it out when you know the person for longer time. But as I said before, if someone is doing it professionally or for a living, it can be hard to find out because of her/his level of proficiency in lying.
1. No, I've never been interested in detecting lies. Often in movies we can see the image of the interrogation, in which a person uses a lie detector - widely known and popular scene. I think this concept can also be compared to mind reading, but I think it's rather negative power than positive. It also depends if you can control it.

2. It all depends on the person I'm talking to. For some, it's very easy to detect when someone is lying. Most often it consists of body language, eyesight, or a change in tone of voice. Sometimes, however, there are such interlocutors who can control it and I cannot detect their lies. Personally, I rather manage to catch the moment when a person is lying, but this rarely happens.

3. No, I have never tried it and I will never try. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not very interested in this subject and in my life I consider it an unnecessary skill. I would prefer to learn something else instead, e.g. recognize the feelings that guide the interlocutor and how they affect his speech.
1. Have you ever been interested in lie detection?
No, have never been interested in lie detection only lie detector I wondered if I could lie to lie detector
2. How often do you know that someone lies?
Almost never I’m too gullible person
3. Did you try to learn some methods of lie detection?
I didn’t try to learn any methods of lie detection.
Piotr Bednarek said…
1. Yes, I'm intrested in this topic, because it is useful to spot a liar. I have read a lot about techniques that help us to notice that someone is untruthful.
2. As I mentioned above I got bogged down in this topic and I know some signs that indicate that someone is lying. Firstly body language can help us decipher a liar. If you notice someone touching their face/neck who normally doesn't, it is a signal to keep in the back of your mind. Moreover liar avoid eye contact and they don't blink. Secondly they change patlance, it's mean that they pause before speaking and repeat themselves.
3. Yes, I have tried the methods. I think that it isn't a problem to put this knowlenge into practise because most of us lie, statistic shows that 60 % of people lied at least once during a 10-minute conversation.
Yep, first time it got my attention when I saw “Lie to me” tv-series. I think quit often. It happens naturally, I start suspect that something going on, person either lie or don’t tell everything. Yeah, after when I had finished watch “Lie to me” tv-series I’ve started take in attention people’s behavior: eyes contact, gestures etc.
Damian Drozd said…
1. Have you ever been interested in lie detection?
Sure I've been interested in lie detection, it's human psychological nature that we're curious about the truth.

2. How often do you know that someone lies?
Quite often, mostly when people brags about something, but I don't get mad - sometimes it's our nature and that's just funny :)

3. Did you try to learn some methods of lie detection?
Yeah, I can remember of one Ted talk about lie detection, there're so many symptoms of lying that if you know someone well, it's easy to tell if the person is lying.
There was this American series "Lie to me" which was about group of people helping the law enforcement help solve crimes using applied psychology in lie detecting. It made me very interested in lie detection in that time. But I haven't got much success in this field. I can detect lie mostly when analyzing conversation after it ended. I guess I'm not that good in reading people.
1. Yes, I think it’s interesting to get into the other person’s head, to understand how they think and when do they lie.
2. Sometimes it is possible to notice, like when someone tries to avoid answering a question and when they can’t run from the answer anymore, they tell some awkwardly patterned things.
3. You can often see some videos or articles about lie detection here and there and I watched them out of curiosity but that’s it.
1.Have you ever been interested in lie detection?

To be honest since I saw sometime ago how easy it is to cheat a lie detector I haven't been much interested in the topic. I am aware that the technology might have gone far further since I last checked but I can't say that I even bothered to update my knowledge.

2.How often do you know that someone lies?

It is a tricky thing to tell if somebody is lying but sometimes it is pretty much obvious. Me as a rather trusting person (sometimes even naive) I don't very often think about people as liars but there are times when even I can tell that somebody is not being honest. Changing tone, not looking straight in the eyes or becoming nervous are just few of the things that light my warning light.


3.Did you try to learn some methods of lie detection?

I have read about some methods but to be honest I would be lying if I said that I learned any of them. I usually rely on those methods which come naturally - my instinct. If I think that I am being lied to then it propably means that I am.
Mateusz Szych said…
1. Sometimes, while watching movies in which this topic appeared.

2. It depends, sometimes you see that someone is lying, but sometimes it is very difficult to notice.

3. No, I didn't.
Szymon Kluczek said…
1. Yes, I have read about lie detection many times. I think that this topic is very interesting. As it was said in the video lie detection process is much harder than we actually think it is. Stereotypes lead us to thinking that we can easy say if someone is lying basing only on verbal clues we see, but it’s not true. To detect a lie we have to take account of many factors, even the little ones and we also have to be aware that someone’s behaviour and way of speaking can be really misleading.

2. Not really often actually. Although I find that lie detection process is very interesting, in effect I am not good at detecting lies. I have to admit I am extremely gullible and believe almost anything someone tells me.

3. I’ve been trying to learn the methods of lie detection for a long time, but it’s really hard and long-term process to effectively learn them. Anyway I am not gonna give up on this,I think that this skill can be very helpful in life.
Kgajewska said…
1. In fact, I have been intrested in the lie detection. Ever since I can remeber I had the natural ability to figure out when someone is lying to me. I take pride in my great intuition in that matter but despite that I still try to get even more knowledge in said topic and eductae myself on that

2. As mentioned before I like to think I'm relatively good at seeing through somebody else's lies. People tend to behave very differently when they are hiding something and I pick up on those behavioural changes fairly easly especially if the person I'm currently talking to is someone I know well.

3. For quite a whileI have been intrested in body language and how to read it proplerly also in psychological tricks that can be used to make your interlocutors lose tracks of their lies and in the end force them into admitting theye weren't truly honest with me from the beggining.
Marta Matysik said…
1/3. I saw several movies where it was mentioned. I even remembered some of the information. However, I never devoted a lot of time to this topic and didn’t know the exact methods. But there are behavior like arrangement of hands or wrinkles around the eyes when we smile. You don't have to read about it, we learn it.
2. If I know someone well, I know when he is telling the truth. If it is someone I have recently met, it goes worse. Of course, some behavior raises suspicions, so I do not know whether the person is telling the truth or lying.
I have never researched lie detection much, but i have a really good sense for it. I am a person that always keeps distance from people. Not that I do not trust everybody, I just like to feel always safe and ready. I feel like I learned some methods more from personal experience than some tutorials or movies.

Vitalii Ohol said…
It is not so polite to ask "How often do you lie?". I agree that It's would be interesting to read, but who want to acknowledge and count how often he is lying? I think no one.
I also wondered if it was possible to cheat polygraph. And it turns out that it's very easy to do. You just need to not worry about your answers (especially the false ones). I assume that with a bit of practice anyone can cheat the machine.
Vitalii Ohol said…
Not only when being interrogated. If you will be aggressive enough in conversation, you will get the same signs or the different ones. But most signs have multiple meanings and even can have completely opposite meanings. It's all depends on people, situation, and a type of lie.
Vitalii Ohol said…
Wow, I agree with almost everything that you said and think in the same way. But actually only people that not so good at lying tend to stress. When you meet a really good liar you will never spot the difference and everything will sound like a story from his/her life.
Vitalii Ohol said…
Actually, I can't rely on body signs. I always touch my nose when stressing, thinking about some problems or tasks or when don't know how to explain something. But never when I lie. And actually I do nothing strange when lying. When lying, I behave in the same way as in normal conversation with friends and family. And if I can then other can, too.
Vitalii Ohol said…
Well, now I know who will help me if I will consider making some crime :)
You made a huge work in this type of problem. But I hope that you only use this for education purposes and not for your own benefit.
Vitalii Ohol said…
From my experience, I can say that the closest people lie at least twice as much as strangers. But maybe it’s just in my environment people not so honest.
Vitalii Ohol said…
I had the same problem in poker :) It's not so easy to analyze other people and control your behavior simultaneously. For me, the most useful tip in poker was to create some fake behavior when you are lying and connect your bluff and doubts about the game with it to fool your opponents. Maybe it will help in the future.
I wish you luck in your learning and lots of winnings in poker.
s15740 said…
1. Have you ever been interested in lie detection?
Yes, I remember some situations in my life when I need it. For example, when I was studying law, we were simulating the proceeding. And u could get some pluses, if you explain in what place, testimony at odds with the truth. We used simple logic to do that. It was very important to find the truth, to be just.
But now I know that it`s just an abstract form, that we received from past, it doesn`t exist somewhere else, except our own inside world; so I shifted my paradigm – I don’t care about lie and truth, they are the same, the only difference between them, how we explain it to ourselves. Of course, there are those who need one (truth, goodness) and another (lie, evil), to call something “something” (fairness, good/bad) and to make others think the same. But let’s be honest – everyone gets what he deserves. And the only thing that really matters is your deeds.


2. How often do you know that someone lies?
As I told before, my behavioral model doesn`t need such thing like lie. When someone askes me, and he uses not specific questions, I just answer him in not complete form. I think in such way, because for me, it doesn`t matter, what somebody is telling to me, I just don’t care, I don’t believe, I even don’t ask myself, am I believe? If someone told me lie – Okay, if someone told me truth – Okay, too. My opinion will not change. And the opinion is – the only thing that really matters is your deeds, not words.
3. Did you try to learn some methods of lie detection?
I`m not such a person who want to prove something to somebody or convince somebody in something. I am, and I try to make myself better, I want be sure, that I`m going in right direction, and maybe then I`ll try to share my way (and this way has no such a definition as “lie”). But there is “logic”, if something is illogical, I just stop it, I mean the conversation, for example, or any relations between me and those who use irrationality…
Vitalii Ohol said…
I am also familiar with this series. I can say that this is the most exciting way to show lie detection in action. And I feel very upset that these amazing series didn't get the second season.
I had the same problem as you. Mostly it was because in conversation i thought only about answers and information that I get and deliver. But after thousands of attempts and some practice it was possible, but not so good as I expected.
1. Have you ever been interested in lie detection?

Yes, this topic is interesting to me. It is very interesting, how it can be spotted, how we can use this knowledge and where. Also, for me, it was interesting with lie detectors until I find out they could be easily fooled.

2. How often do you know that someone lies?

To be honest, not so often. Sometimes I have a feeling, that the person next to my is lying but I am not 100% sure is it. Because of this, I try not to rely only on words, but I also need some evidence, that can confirm saying.

3. Did you try to learn some methods of lie detection?

Yes, some time ago I was very interested in how to detect the lie. I have read a lot of books, watched some films, etc. but it didn't help me a lot. Plus there is always someone, who can trick this or the knowledge is a little bit old or something else, so I left this.
Cem Ates said…


Have you ever been interested in lie detection?
Not really...

How often do you know that someone lies?
The important thing to remember from this is that no person will exhibit all of these behaviors. Matching a single (or even a few) of these behaviors tells you with just as much certainty that someone is being deceptive as flipping a coin. Although, I can't tell how to lie spot but here are a few things that can help deal with lies:

- If someone reaps his sentence or staring with a point that "a friend of him told sth..."

- If the information has an unknown source from. Unless they're a smooth criminal, you can pretty much expect to heard an, "uuhhh I heard it somewhere before.".. nah, that's a lie too.

- If it's being passed as a fact, just Google it. You have what basically amounts to the entire collective of human knowledge with you at all times. If you can't find it on Google it likely isn't true.

Lastly, you can think about whether or not a story is plausible. I personally don't worry about the veracity of stories too much, since they exist mainly for entertainment value. I generally give the first tale the benefit of the doubt. Everyone has at least one story where the impossible did happen, so everyone gets a single impossible feat. After that, well, just call them on their bs lol. Don't be a stubborn about it, but point out flaws, inconsistencies, and things that are just downright impossible. If they're smooth enough to cover the holes without looking like a bumbling idiot, then just let it go. :d

Did you try to learn some methods of lie detection?
No. Please watch this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1pWCkW95W0)
1. I was pretty interested more in physical symptoms of lying (such as pupils change or visible signs of pulse rising and so) but I was never actually checking it on my interlocutors.

2. It's impossible to tell how often do i know if somebody actually lies. Because if i don't know...i don't know. And even if i suppose that somebody lies to me and I am correct I have no idea if the other time I believed this particular person, that it was actually the thruth. The only thing i can assume is that when i know somebody quite close there is more likely i would know they are for example truly nervous and missing some important points in conversation.

3. I never tried to learn anything like this myself. As I mentioned before I was interested in methods of detection but not really in using them.
1. In the past, when I was a child, I heard about the lie detector only from movies. I deal with this topic much more often now. This is a very useful device but it has many disadvantages. Unfortunately, it's very easy to cheat the lie detector test result. During the test it is sufficient to cough more often than normal.


2. In my opinion it is very hard to realized if someone who we are tolking to is lying or not. Unfortunately some people lie every day so many times that over time they become experts in this field.

3. I never thought about that. I only have heard about that sometimes, just during a conversation, thanks to using our body language we could see if the other person is trying to deceive us, but how I mentioned it is very difficult.

1. When I was young, in the cartoons there were some lie detectors. Now, not really, I find it very usefull, but not in the area where I live. I watched a short movie how it works and there are plenty methodes how to cheat them.

2. It is easy to find that someone is lieing, they often dont look in your eyes, and they are nervous. Of course there are some people who are the masters in lying and I propably will never know the truth, but in general I think I can find what is truth.

3. I have never tried. I know only about the body language, eyes or the way they speak.
Yubin said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mykyta Smirnov said…
Yes, I am interested in a lie detection. If it would have been so simple, people wouldn't look for a tool or a recipe of truth unvealing.
Sometimes people do not even know they lie, because they believe. The most common way of knowing that someone is lying is knowing the truth. Also there are some methods that can unveil the truth, but they are not 100% exact. You may feel someone is lying, or you can notice their manner changes and simple marks that can help you to know. I've tried to teach myself, but it's a very difficult and uncommon for me so I left that idea.
Yubin said…
1.Have you ever been interested in lie detection?
Yes, I heard about lie detection in my school time, I was not that much into this topic back then, but now I am more curious about how lie detectors work.

2.How often do you know that someone lies?
To be honest, I didn't pay attention to it seriously, I guess it happened everyweek, for example, when I was with my close friends, if we were meeting and I would tell them I am in the bus now, it usually meant I just went out or maybe still at home... beacuse they usually did the same to each other too XD anyway we prefer to treat it as a joke rather than a lie.

3.Did you try to learn some methods of lie detection?
No, I didn't, I simply think it will be too tired to detect others' lies all the time, I guess it is better to let it be if the lies are not that serious.
1. Yes, I am definitely fascinated by this. I love crime movies. I always wonder why people don't use them anymore? Why don't people improve them? They could be an effective way to deal with deadlines in courts.

2. I do not know that. I often suspect, but I'm not 100% sure. People lie notoriously and statistically, they do it 5 times a day. They often do it out of laziness or for their own defense. Sometimes it's good that people cheat. Thanks to this we are happier. The truth is not always good for us.

3. Yes, I tried to do it. The easiest way of learning on your loved ones. We know them well and know how they behave when they cheat. However, I think it is very difficult and you need to have a lot of experience to be a specialist in this field.
Iryna Lehusha said…
I think it's a very breathtaking topic for me. And at one time I was interested in it a lot, read books and watched various videos. Now, in some cases, I can recognize lie. But luckily, I don't have to talk to people who lie. I try to avoid such a community.
The easiest way to detect the lies of your loved ones or your friends. Because you know their way of communicating, behaviour, habits and gestures.
The most interesting thing is the experiment with the computer. Will a person be able to deceive artificial intelligence?
And in what way would a machine be able to understand the lie? Even if a person can't always detect the deception. I'm really fascinated about this question. And I would like to know more about such an experimnets.

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