Topical Blog--Lying--Due 10/20 @ midnight

I choose Option 1 for this assignment. I watched “Lie to Me” episode 15 of season 2 “Teachers and Pupils”. The main character Lightman is hired by the D.C. Police to read the paralyzed victim of a horrifying shooting in a federal housing project. The person he has to analyze can't move anything. The only thing that Lightman is able to read is the man's eye pupil movement. When he is answering a question with yes, his pupils become wider and then closer. During the investigation Lightman also screens the facial expressions of all the persons involved in the investigation process.
The lie detection strategies in this episode are the following: analyzing facial expression such as pupil movement, eyelid movement, interpreting smiles, and analyzing group dynamics, such as finding the leader of a group by telling a joke and waiting for the first reactions. Lightman also uses provocation as a aid of lie detection.
In this episode he shows pictures to the suspects or eyewitness to see their reaction and to be able to read the expression in their face such as shame, fear or happiness. In this episode it is said that a raised eyelid suggests fear. I could not find out if this is the truth or not. It was also said that people have a tiny smile in their face when they think to get away with a lie.
All the testimonies are being video recorded for further interpretation while taking closer looks at the faces later on. That testimonies are recorded for later identification is probably true.
However, I don't think that it is possible to read expressions just by the movement of eyepupils.
I also can't imagine that an expert would be able to tell immediately if someone is lying or not while talking to a person. Since this kind of lie detection works with micro-expressions that only last for one-fifth of a second, I don't think you are able to tell without further detailed analyzing.
In reality the Facial Action Coding System or FACS is used to identify facial expression. This system was invented by Paul Ekman in the 1960s. It is based on the fact that micro-expressions may leak emotions someone wants to conceal, such as anger or guilt. It categorizes facial expressions of emotions.
Regarding my readings about lie detection so far, I don't think that “Lie to Me” is an accurate example of the use of lie detection. Lightman does look for physiological changes in a person and does look for body language while determining truth from lies. The show does rely on real facts and is based on real characters such as Paul Ekman or the software to detect facial expressions. However, most of the content is by far exaggerated and does not show the current status quo in lie detection (as example the use of the interrogation room with glass walls that be lightened up; the analysis of nothing but pupil movement without any kind of Polygraph or other measurements or techniques that where mentioned in Chapter 3 of our textbooks about lie detection). Also in the show everyone if very certain about if someone is telling the truth or is lying. Nevertheless, the textbook shows several studies in which body language was not a very good indicator for detecting lies.

The first link in option 2, is a website about lie detection in the face. It says that by looking at the face and its features, a person can make out whether a person is lying or not. They present a comparison between the face and the body in terms of lying. The face is something that, when under pressure, cannot be completely controlled to mask the lie. They say that the body is important to non verbal communication but it will not help to identify a liar accurately. Paul Ekman, an expert in deception, made the statement that detecting a lie is “very difficult, if not impossible.” They behavior of the liar is often telling when evaluating the truth. The things we look for in the face may be masked be another behavior. Most of the time this is hard to tell from talking to a individual in person, and then trying to evaluate them. It has been shown that it is more beneficial to watch the interview again in slow motion to see when the potential liar changed his behavior to mask a lie. The reading then changes to how to become a better liar. There has been a rise in increase in lying skills both for “good and evil” but there are no real ways to get that information. The controversy is that more people would use lying to get away with crime or misleading others for their own benefit, rather than helping. (in the scenario they mentioned with the doctor trying to hide a dire situation) However, some people are just born with that skill, and some can learn it through a lot of practice. The final bit in the article is about polygraph testing. It says that it does detect lies, it detects arousal. The Government is already invested in this “tested” method, even though many people in the psychology community do not agree that it is a valid method.
I think that the first article had bits that were exaggerated. As the reading was interesting, being able to pick out liars just by the features and actions of their face is exaggerated. When people are put under pressure they get nervous and their behavior changes. Is there a way to tell, in the face, the difference between nerves and lying? As far as I know there is not. People crack under pressure. When a interrogator is trying to get any and all information he can get from a witness, victim, or potential arrestee, it can be nervous. In our last assignments reading about lying there was a little piece about comparing students to prosecutors in identifying liars. They had about the same rate of correct identification, but the prosecutors were more confident. They just shows that average people have the same chance to identify a liars and experts do. Facial features alone cannot be an accurate method for finding the liars.
The youtube video of a former FBI agent explain how to catch a liar was farfetched for me. I would have to say that for the most part is was exaggerated. This man look at the eyes as a “window to the soul”. He said that depending on which way the eyes were looking indicated a lie. I find this untrue. When I am think during a test or during a conversation, I will look off to the ceiling or floor to think of the answer, almost as to keep distractions away. He also mentioned posture, movement, and putting an object between the interviewer and the interviewee as ways of identifying lies. Nervous movements like rubbing your neck or checking your watch, I find to be stereotypical. I think a lot of people would say that most people do that when they lie. They same thing with voice changes. If this was how lie detection would work today, somebody could figure out what they look for and rig the interview. They could change their behavior to make the interviewer think they are not lying, as their behavior did not fit their model for a liar.

In option 2 the first link is to a website talking about deception and how most assume deception is a bad thing, however almost everyone uses it in their day to day lives and it doesn’t always have to be such a bad thing. I know for sure that when I am at work at Texas Roadhouse I use deception all the time. If I am having a bad day I would never walk up to my tables with a sad look on my face, or ever tell them my day was bad. Instead, I walk up to my tables with a smile from ear to ear and ask them about their day etc. Obviously this is not to be fake, or mean, it is just what all of us do to make it through the day sometimes. The article also discusses how sometimes we can tell if a person is being deceiving by the rest of their body and not just their faces, however the best indicators are through the face. Even people who are being deceptive and trying to control their face are unable to control all the things that can “give them away” if they are being deceitful. A man name Paul Ekman is referenced in the article say, “it is very difficult, if not impossible” to tell if someone is being deceitful. People have all different reasons and motivations for why they deceive and some are very skilled in it making it even more difficult to tell the truth from the lie. When looking to see whether a person is lying we must look at their non-verbal ways of communicating while simultaneously listening to what they are verbally saying. This is often very difficult to do because they happen fast and can sometimes be obscured by one or the other. Being able to catch someone in the act of lying takes a lot of cognitive effort and processing and the best way to do this would be to go back and repeatedly watch someone’s actions in slow motion. Since the majority of lying is done for negative reasons there is no handbook or manual for how to become a good liar (thank goodness!) This could be a very harmful tool, especially if it got into the wrong hands. For those who seem to be good liars it is assumed that it is something they are just born well to do. The last portion of the article talks about lie detection and the use of the polygraph test. The article states that a polygraph test is not able to tell if a person is lying or not, but rather shows if a person becomes physiologically aroused and this arousal could be in an attempt to deceive or not. It seems that the polygraph test is either “loved or hated” some believe it is run by a bunch of quirks while those “quirks” think they are good at what they do and can uncover the liars from the not.
While this article does give some facts that agreed with what we have read in chapter 3 on lie detection, it doesn’t seem to give concrete information backed up with facts. The article jumps around a lot, saying what you can do to become a better detector of lying by then recants by saying it is difficult to do. This article seems to be trying to make everyone “happy”; the people who are trying to deceive and the people trying to “out” the deceivers. When I say “makes everyone happy” I mean that this article gives pros and cons for both sides which in turn make them contradict each other in the end.
The second is a video about a polygraph examiner, Bill Brown, who explains how he can tell if a person is lying or not. Brown says that “the eyes are a window to the soul and you can see right through a person”. He goes on to tell us that you are able to tell if a person is lying or fabricating lies in where they are looking. For right-handed people if they are looking to their right when speaking they are lying and vice versa for left-handed people. Brown also says that liars will look at their watch, tap their fingers and rub their neck etc and these are all signs of nervousness. They might also sit back in their chairs and cross their hands and arms. Brown tells us that people will often put something in-between them and the person they are talking to in order to put up a boundary. He also says that a person will change the tone or pitch of their voice when they are telling a lie.
Bill Brown, I think, would be one of those officials who would be overly confident in his decision on whether he thinks a person is guilty or not based on “lying cues”. He seems so confident in his thinking that he would seem to have a bias. He would have a bias to anyone who conveyed any of the traits of a liar as a liar. In chapter 3 of the book it says how hard it is to tell if a person is lying. If no two people are exactly alike, how could we possibly make a set of “rules” for lying that applies to all people? In fact, we can’t. Brown mentioned that if a person is lying they are likely to lean back in their chair. Whenever I lean back in my chair I am usually doing it to make myself comfortable, if I were lying I am more likely to be ridged and less likely to lean back in a comfortable position. He also said that a person will fold their arms when they are lying. I usually have my arms folded because I get cold easily, but that doesn’t mean that I am lying. As humans, we are constantly moving. When we stand in line, we will shift from our left to right foot. When we sit in class we will cross and uncross our legs, fold and unfold our hands. People do these things without even knowing it all the time. It seems to me that these are not a good way at being able to tell if a person is lying or not. In our book it called these liar stereotypes, and when we see someone doing them, we think they are lying when in actuality they most likely are not. If I were having a conversation with Bill Brown, knowing that he is always looking at people and their mannerisms, I think I would just become uncomfortable at the way he was looking at me; hence, making me more fidgety.
After reading chapter 3 and looking at these different articles I have come to the conclusion that detecting a liar is extremely difficult; someone may be exhibiting liar qualities while actually telling the truth. People lie and deceive everyday some for good reasons and some for bad reasons. Some people are good at lying and deceiving and some are not. Things are the way they are today because of lies and deception; deception makes the world go round.

I chose the section option for this assignment. On http://face-and-emotion.com/dataface/facets/deception.jsp, they talked about lying and deception. The key concepts they chose were the face, clues to deception, how to be a better liar, and lie detection. The section about the face talked about the expressions that we make and try to hide. We have to think about keeping the normal expressions hidden, so we don’t let others know we are being deceitful. It also talked about the reasons we may deceive such as for jobs, important reasons, or for the flat out reason for lying. The next section on clues to deception talked about way a person makes them self-seem. There are times to look to the body for nonverbal clues, but the author notes it’s still very important to focus on that face. People may be fooling you with the body language and giving away the answer with their face, or vice versa. It’s important to know there are different scenarios to pay attention to. Some expressions can be genuine or fake. You really must read the person as a whole to figure that out. The section about being a better liar just mentions why you might need to be for your career. They mention doctors seeming like there is hope when their patient is really just terminal. They also say that there really isn’t a way to be a better liar, but some people seem more born with the gift than others do. Finally this post ends with lie detection. They mention the reasons why lie detectors are important and the fact that they understand polygraphs aren’t that amazing. It finishes with the idea that government agencies are looking for new and better technology, so maybe someone can help them out.
The second link on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3PAW7zjgPw&NR=1&feature=fvwp talked about how to spot liars. The agent goes over different ways of reading people mannerisms and expressions to give clues to whether they are being truthful or not. In summation he really kind of didn’t prove anything to me. He said if a person looks up and to the left then they are lying, unless they are right handed. I don’t buy that crap for a second. He just went back and forth on clues to pick up on. It does not take into account if people are hyperactive, nervous, or just odd. Some people normally fidget or look in the corner of the room when they speak to people, so it just didn’t seem like he was the so called expert that he is or was.
When analyzing the links I more or less picked up on stuff I already had learned or had known. Yeah if a normal person who acting normal gets fidgety when I ask them if they committed the crime, chances are they probably did it. The facial expressions and weird movements are obviously true as long as the person doesn’t have ADHD, nervousness, paranoia, or is just different. The way to expertly read people seems exaggerated. Every one of us can read people and tell when someone is lying and the experts don’t really do a whole lot more of interpreting the other person than we would do. Also about the polygraph, I know that they aren’t that great and their efficiency does get really exaggerated especially on the Maury Povich Show! But in regards to whether they are true or not, I do believe there is some validity behind the test. There just needs to be more measures put into the polygraph to increase the external validity!

I decided to go with option two for my blog. The first link discussed the different facial features in lying and deception. This first link stated that observers or people in conversation with another person, will generally look at their face for clues of deceit. Because of this, people who engage in telling a lie generally try to control their facial movements and expressions in an attempt to coincide with the lie they are telling. Chapter 3 in our book noted the changes in pupil dilation, tension and thermal changes in the facial muscles, as well as changes in voice. The book discussed recent technological advances that now allow us to monitor these changes to have a more accurate reading on whether or not a suspect is being deceptive. I think this correlates with this link, because all of these changes deal with features of the face that people observe when another may be telling a lie.

Furthermore, because observers often look in the face of a presumable liar for clues of deception, and the liar her or himself is focused on controlling their facial expressions, psychologists suggest that the clues to deception might be more prevalent in bodily communication. Although body language and activity may not offer as many clues to detect deceit as facial expressions would, it is easier to notice abnormal body behavior, since the suspect is not focused on his or her body as much as their face. This link also briefly talked about Paul Ekman, a well known authority on lying, deception, and the face’s role in deceit. Ekman stated in this article that, “. . . it is very difficult, if not impossible, to tell whether some people are telling the truth or not, if they are skilled in deceptive interactions.” This is a pretty scary notion in itself by an expert in deceit and the faces of deception, because it coincides with what the book discussed in Chapter 3, where it mentioned that trained interrogators were actually worse than college students in a study where they were asked to view real interrogations and decide whether or not the suspect was lying. Although college students were better at guessing when the suspect was telling a lie, the trained interrogators were extremely overconfident of the deception detective work.

In addition, this link also discussed lie detection. This article also stated that, “Catching a liar requires a lot of cognitive processing, and one increases the chances of success if the person's behaviors can be viewed repeatedly in slow motion.” I thought this was very interesting, yet it also made a lot of sense. It is easier to break down the suspect’s features and expressions when viewed or listened to in a slower format. Furthermore, this article briefly talked about the use of the polygraph as a means of lie detection. However, this link stated that a polygraph does not actually detect lies, but indicates only if a person becomes physiologically aroused or heightened. The book also discussed the controversy of the polygraph machine due to this same fact. As I stated in my last blog on lie detection, an innocent person may be extremely stressed and have heightened physiological symptoms while taking a polygraph, not due to a guilty conscious or telling a lie, but from the stress of the situation or consequences at stake. However, the book also discussed more current and accurate ways of physically detecting lies through the fMRI process, taking a look at brain activity during truthful and deceptive responses by showing a video image of the brain during interrogation. Also, the book discussed the electroencephalogram or EEG process. This process is similar to the fMRI process in the sense that it allows the scientists and interrogators to actually, “see,” the brain; however, the EEG process is able to read these neural impulses continually, whereas the fMRI reads every 2 seconds.

The second link which showed the YouTube clip called, “FBI Agent Explains How To Spot Liars.” When viewing this clip, I noticed that a lot of what this retired FBI agent and polygraph examiner, Bill Brown, said did not resonate with what we learned in the book. For example, the ex-FBI agent stated that, “. . . the eyes are the windows into the soul.” He also said that when a person is telling a lie, they look to the right and when they are remembering something, they look to the left. He also said that this is backwards for left-handed people. Nothing we learned in the book would coincide with this. Instead the book discussed the overconfidence and inaccuracies detectives and interrogators hold due to their trainings saying that they are taught to focus on behavioral cues such as crossing legs, shifting and fidgeting, grooming gestures, and avoiding eye contact are all flawed indicators of deception. Interrogators are taught these cues because they are consistent with a well-known, liar’s stereotype; however, this stereotype is quite mistaken and misleading. However, we did learn about pupil dilation, tension and thermal changes in the face, as well as changes in the voice, and new technological advances used to measure and monitor those changes.

Lindsey Fails

The first wed site took me to a site called “The Face In Deception”. I said that deception is inevitable among humans. We usually think of deception as a way to intentionally hide embellish or alter actual facts. In the article it said that deception is not always bad. It’s bad when it hurts or has potential to harm a person. Everyone uses innocuous deception every day. Important aspects of deception are, managing the expressions of the face, disguising its features, and enhancing its attributes. Many people can’t see deception but many people don’t want to uncover deceit. The article also went on to tell about clues to seeing deception. The number one place to look when someone deceives you is the face. The face has a better connection to the process of communication and deception. Also, you can’t control all the aspects or your face like you can your arms, legs, and hands. The article then goes on to talk about how a person will never know if someone is lying to them or not the only analysis they can make about a person lying is through deception. Vocal behavior and tones also can go with the facial expressions in deception. A lot of cognitive processes goes into catching a liar. The last part of the article talks about how to become a good liar. They say the only way to become a good liar is through practice.
The second clip was a video clip of a news lady interviewing a retired FBI agent and a polygraph specialist who doesn’t need the machine to tell if someone is lying. So signs the man said to look for when someone is lying is to first look at their eyes. He said “The eyes are a window to the soul”. When you ask someone a question and they look up and to the right, which usually means they are making something up. If they look up and to the left, which usually means they are remembering something. This works opposite if the person is left handed. Shifty eyes can also mean dishonesty. Usually after someone tells a lie they will look right back at you to see your expression and whether or not you are “buying” the lie. If someone shows a comfortable body language and are not fidgeting with things or rubbing their neck, they are usually telling the truth. Another sign that someone is lying or uncomfortable is when they try and place something in between you and them. This may also include crossing their arms or turning in their chair.
In the book it talks about how all the visual clues that were in the video clip were wrong. The book says that being taught to look for these clues in figuring out if someone is lying can increase the confidence in lie detection skills, even though it does not increase the accuracy in telling truth from deception. The book talks about detectives that go through training to look for signs like eye contact, shifting in their seat, fidgeting, and vocal responses to questions got more wrong when guessing if someone is lying or telling the truth than a group of students who also guessed if the same person was lying or telling the truth. The book calls these cues liar’s stereotype.
I think that you can tell if someone you know very well is lying because there visual expressions change so some of the cues could be accurate but I think that if you are talking to someone new and they give some of these cues like fidgeting or eye movements might just indicate nervousness or shyness from talking to someone new.

I chose the section option for this assignment. On http://face-and-emotion.com/dataface/facets/deception.jsp,
They talked about lying and deception. The key concepts they chose were the face, clues to deception, how to be a better liar, and lie detection. This section is about the face,and about the expressions that we make and try to hide. We have to think about keeping the normal expressions hidden, so we don’t let others know we are being deceitful. It also talked about the reasons we may deceive such as for jobs, important reasons, or for the flat out reason for lying.
The next section on clues to deception talked about way a person makes them self-seem. There are times to look to the body for nonverbal clues, but the author notes it’s still very important to focus on that face. People may be fooling you with the body language and giving away the answer with their face, or vice versa. It’s important to know there are different scenarios to pay attention to. Some expressions can be genuine or fake. You really must read the person as a whole to figure that out.
The section about being a better liar just mentions why you might need to be for your career. They mention doctors seeming like there is hope when their patient is really just terminal. They also say that there really isn’t a way to be a better liar, but some people seem more born with the gift than others do. Finally this post ends with lie detection. They mention the reasons why lie detectors are important and the fact that they understand polygraphs aren’t that amazing. It finishes with the idea that government agencies are looking for new and better technology, so maybe someone can help them out.
Then second link was a video clip of an ex FBI agent who is a professional at detecting lies. He explains that the eyes are the window to the soul. When a person looks up and to the right that means they are thinking and telling the truth. When they look up and to the left they are most likely telling a lie and making something up. If they are sitting in a chair and in an uncomfortable posture such as crossing their arms, or tapping their fingers, this may be an indicator that they are lying. It may also be an indicator that they are lying if they run their fingers through their hair, rub the back of their neck, and check their watch.
Interestingly, the man being interviewed said that in left-handed people eye movements will be opposite of those that are right-handed. I found this to be false. One person can not classify someone as being a liar just by a particular way that their eyes move. After reading this, I actually did a little experiment with my roommate. I was asked a series of questions and I found myself to look to the left because it was more comfortable than looking to the right. I am right handed, and I was telling the truth. I also believe that a lot of the verbal cue beliefs were not accurate.
Yes, some people may cross their arms in defense when they feel comfortable that they are lying. I usually cross my arms when I am talking to someone because I think that it is awkward to just let them hang by my side. The book says that these behavioral cues are flawed indicators of deception. This is called a liar's stereotype.
I would have to say that the information that is given from these video's and link's are a little bit of truth, some false and exaggeration. From the sources I looked up, there were all sorts of different opinions on the matter of lie detection.
Even though verbal and non-verbal cues can be important in detecting a lie, there is always the possibility of a person being nervous in all instances. I think it would be good to have more research concerning lie detection. I also think that it would be beneficial to modify the polygraph test and take figgiting and not making direct eye contact as a means to say someones not being truthful.

The face and emotion link discusses deception, and specifically how “one can see through attempts to use the face to deceive.” It first mentions how the face is the most important thing to control when trying to deceive someone, and therefore it is the most focused on to control. The rest of the body is less important to control when trying to tell a lie, when compared to the face. Next, the site talks about Paul Ekman, who is a “well known authority on deception, lying, and the face’s role in deceit.” He mentions how people will often times try to hide or mask an expression with another behavior when telling a lie. He also mentions how some people are good at telling lies and some people are bad at it. Also, some people are good at pointing out lies, while others are more susceptible to them. There are many things that one can notice to detect a lie about someone, however those behaviors can be hard to recognize. Catching a liar takes a lot of skill. The site also mentions how there are guides to telling better lies, and some professions even such as doctors may take this guidance for various reasons. Finally, the site ends with a brief paragraph on the polygraph and how it works, where it’s used, and what it measures.

The video was extremely interesting as a retired FBI agent gave advice on how to spot a liar. For example, if someone is looking up and to the right, they are probably making up a lie. If it is up to the left, you are trying to remember something. And it is reverse for that of people who are left-handed. Liars have nervous “twitches” that they don’t cognitively recognize. There are also other nonverbal gestures that liars present such as arm-crossing, placing items between them and the other person, and slouching back in their chair. The agent also mentions that usually a liar combines multiple forms of these methods while telling a lie. They also mention the nervous system being a part of the lying process.

Both of these media sources do a good job of detecting deceit, especially the FBI video. I do not believe any of the information presented was altogether false. For example, the FBI agent mentions how the eyes are often the most important part in detecting a lie. This is conclusive with the C&K textbook we have in class, as there is a whole section about how eye movement and assessment is linked to detecting lies. The part about the gestures one preforms without cognition and the autonomic nervous system are especially true. This is especially shown in our textbook. Our textbook talks about the liars’ stereotype and hoe there are nervous gestures and “squirms” that people preform when telling a lie. The same thing is mentioned by the FBI agent. Minor aspects of each media source were also accurate. Additionally, the website accurately portrays the section about the polygraph. We learned about the polygraph in Chapter 3 of the text, and it too mentioned similar results and explanations of the polygraph, how it is used, and how it works.

The link talks a lot about deception. It talks about how deception can be a good thing, but in the case of a crime or something with legal issues, it is looked at so negatively. There are some clues to whether someone is being deceptive or not. It starts with when you are questioning someone, you look them in the eye. Some psychologists think that deception is more apparent in the body rather than the face. On the link, Paul Eckman talks about how different people have different ways of lying, and sometimes it may be even impossible to know if someone is lying. There is no one specific behavior that says someone is lying. Other clues have to be put together with other facts to get the basis that someone is lying. The link also talks about how difficult it may be for one to become a “better liar” there is no trick to it or no special way to become one, although some people seem to be born with this…  In reference to the lie detection test, the article states that it does not, however, detect lies, but at best, indicates only whether the person becomes physiologically aroused.
The video is an FBI agent asking people simple questions, he goes on to say that looking up and to the left is what happens when someone is making something up, or lying. They are visulally picturing something. Shifty eyes can also indicate dishonesty. Also depends on how comfortable they are, rather than nervous. If people sit tightly or arms crossed may be lying. Changing of voice or voice tone usually means a lie also. Good video.

Option 2
On the Data Face web link, deception is specified as being the falsifying, hiding, or embellishing of some information. It is noted that while this is generally perceived as something that is bad, it can be used for more positive purposes. No person can go through their life without practicing some form of deception. Because at times, being deceived can be costly, much effort has gone into being able to notice it. Because people pay more attention to the face, when looking for deceit, people use more effort in controlling their face instead of the rest of their body. We may see more by looking to the body when trying to decipher deceit or not. But not all emotions and thoughts can always be controlled by the face, so when observing, we will still need to pay attention to the face. However, behavior in the body may occur to help mask or hid deception on the face. In order to do a good job of analyzing whether someone is lying or not would then take time, because the best way to do it would be to repeatedly view their facial expressions, body language and voice characteristics, during a single conversation. There is just too much going on at once during a conversation to be able to take everything in at once and say “AH HA! You’re lying”. Some need to be able to conceal truth for logistical reasons, while others wish to do it for more mischievous reasons. There exist many books on lying and the behavioral and verbal aspects of it. However, in order to be a really good deceiver it is thought that you either have to have an innate ability, or practice it often. The internet article also touches a little on polygraph tests. It points out that the lie detector does not in fact detect lies, but measures physical arousal that may be attributed to trying to deceive. It notes that there is a split in psychologists opinions of the detectors abilities and that those who belief are often protecting a financial interest and their reputations. It speculates that the reason government agencies utilize the polygraph test is because it is cheap and at times as worked in the past.

The anchor new report on how to spot a liar, pointed to several specific things in facial and body behaviors as well as verbal changes that can be used to help detect deception. In its interview with retired FBI agent, Bill Brown, the eyes are called the “windows”. It people are looking up and to the right it is a sign that they are making something up, creating a visual image of what they are making up in their heads. If they look up and to the left the individual is remembering something. If you are left handed however, these "tells" will mean the opposite thing. Brown states that body language is important too. If the person seems comfortable they are probably telling the truth. However, if they fidget, tap their foot, rub their neck it is a sign that they are nervous. Also, if they put something between themselves and the individual they are in communication with they are creating a wall between you two, which could mean that they are trying to protect themselves from being detected. For example, they may cross their arms across their chest, maintain an object between you two, or lean away to create more space. Verbal changes can also be a signal that lying is occurring, according to Mr. Brown. Not only the tone, intonation, pitch, and rhythm of ones speech but also if they change the subject can be a telling sign. The anchor in this video, does say that Mr. Brown specified that you need to utilize a combination of these observation techniques when determining the truthfulness of someone. One in and of itself does not qualify the person as a liar.

One problem with both of these information sources is that they rely on behavioral ticks in the eyes, face, and body that have not necessarily been proven to be evidence of the occurrence of deception. Our textbook looks to more scientific measure of the physiological changes in its attempt to convey ways to possibly measure for deceit. The book clearly states that even with these measures, there is no distinctive set of physiological responses that are exclusively associated with lying. If we look at all the proposed ways to detect deceit in the article and the video, we could explain away the multiple other possibilities that are causing the behavior that supposedly signals a lie. Let’s look to some examples. Lets assume you on a blind date and the person keep looking up and to the right when they speak to you talk. You may assume they are lying, because you’ve read that it’s a sign. But perhaps they are left handed, which means supposedly means that they are remembering. Or perhaps they have arranged for a salsa band to serenade you and keep looking toward the kitchen for their approach. Yes, technically they would be hiding something, but that doesn’t mean that what they are discussing is a lie. Imagine that your speaking with your best friend of 12+ years. They may look incredibly comfortable in your presence but could be telling you a lie. Maybe that person rubbing their neck, is having incredibly neck pain issues. Perhaps the person you are interviewing for job is tapping their foot and shifting around in their chair, yes, because they are nervous, but not because they are lying, because they are introverted or dislike being the center of attention. Maybe the person with these behaviors has ADHD. There could be many explanations for the different behaviors people present as signals that lying is occurring. While at times they may be correct in making these identifications, people may also misuse them in their general lives.
The website containing information of deception seemed to be more objective than the video. It points out many behaviors need to be cognitively processed together, repeatedly to make any attempt at determining their meaning. Both sources look a bit to facial behaviors such as eye movement. The book recognizes that people judge others as more suspicious if they have “shifty eyes”, but this is not scientifically proven to be so. If we used measures such as eye movement memory assessment, we would measure more than just it’s movement, but also path, pupil dilation etc. These things could be useful but the research using them is done in labs, with people or devices that are routinely observing and analyzing the information gathered. Again, most measures utilize technology which measures changes that may not be detected by the natural eye. Overall, these ways of detection are fun, and make good entertainment storylines, but may not be the most efficient way to measure whether someone is lying or not.

For this assignment, I chose to do option #2. The first link took me to a website that talked about the face and the clues to deception and how to become a better liar. I think that this first webpage was very detailed in its description of deception and how it is used but at the same time, there were so many parts where I was just confused of what they were even saying because of some of the words that they were using to describe it. One thing that it said about deception is that it is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is usually widely condemned when it hurts people or has potential to harm people. I think that this could be true but not true at the same time because a lot of times we as humans use deception to play off or act as we are feeling another way than we really are or we do that towards someone else, like a friend so that we will not make them feel bad in certain situations. But if we were using deception to deceive people than it could be harmful in a way just because of the fact that we are using it to say other things about people or make people believe that we feel a certain way about a situation when we really don’t. It also talked about the clues of deception. It says that there are many non-verbal cues to know when somebody is using deception as well as clues in the facial expressions and clues just in the face in general. I can agree with what they’re saying here but again, it is very detailed and uses a lot of words that I am not aware of, but I still can get the main point of the paragraphs. I agree with all of this because I’ve learned that non-verbal communication is the most common form of communication and just from experience, I feel as if I could almost tell when people are lying, especially if I’ve known them for a while.

I think that the part about becoming a better liar is kind of funny because I don’t think becoming a better liar is a good thing. I also did not know that there were ways of becoming a better liar. The site says that if you want to become a better liar, there is no shortcut but instead there is a long learning process to it. I also read that they believe that some people are born with a natural ability to lie effectively or have gained the skill from lots of practice.

The second link took me to a clip of an FBI Agent explaining how to spot liars. He sat down with a bunch of individuals in which in the end, he considered them to all be honest people. In the video, the agent was not using a machine to identify liars. He asked them questions and looked at the way their eyes were looking when they were answering the questions and the moment they complete that lie, they look right back at him to see if he was buying what they are saying. Someone telling a lie might lean back in the chair, move their fingers, move their feet, look at their watch, stutter and not sit comfortably while they’re speaking. The agent says that liars would do a combination of those things but some people would do these things because they cannot help it. I agree with everything that this agent is saying in regards to being able to tell when people are lying, but sometimes, the right person really may be telling the truth but just may be so nervous that they don’t even know how to act. The agent is probably good at what he does for his job and I think those are all good clues of identifying a liar.

I chose to do the second option for today’s blog. The first link for the assignment is all about the clues to seeing deception. To start the article states that the face rather then the body is the best way to tell deceit. The face is more important than the nonverbal motions of the body. When a person is deceiving they must control the face so that it doesn’t betray the deceit that the person is trying to play. So when someone such as an investigator is trying to decided if a person is being deceitful they mainly look at the face of the subject, because it has the most connection with the action and communication involved with deceit. The page also states that there is no other better way become a better liar, that is if indeed you felt like you needed to learn how to be a better liar in the first place. The page also discusses the two defenses for the use of a polygraph. I think that it was interesting that showed a good reason on the flaws of using a polygraph. Such examples on the page where of people who worked in the CIA or FBI as parts of our national security who in turn leaked information. The page was very informative and interesting to me.

The you tube video was very interesting the retired FBI agent Bill Brown showed some good points of visual cues such as the movement of the eyes or direction in which a person looks can determine if a person is being deceitful or not. Obviously if a person can look you in the strait in the eyes then they can probably say they are not being deceitful. Bill Brown says that the eyes are the window to the soul, the eyes tell everything. Other nonverbal signals such as the way a person sits or how they move the arms or legs are other good cues to show if a person is lying. The range in octave tone when talking can indicate deceitfulness as well as the pronunciation of words. Many of these actions he says you can not control and are unintentional. I found the video insightful coming from a former FBI agent who had experience in the field.

I watched the first episode of Lie to Me and I found it quite interesting. It was a new take on criminal shows and has a little bit of truth to it. This particular episode was introducing Cal Lightman’s private agency that is hired by various branches of government to find the truth. In this episode, a 16 year old boy was on trial for murder and they brought in Doctor Lightman to make sure that he did it. The show went on to show how Lightman could detect signs of lying, grief, remorse, and happiness just by looking at the facial expressions and body movements of the people that he was asking questions. The show called them micro expressions. They went on to say that micro expressions are universal and that truth is written on our faces. This has some validity to it but not much. In the book there was a paragraph about how people could tell the difference in truth and a lie in 54% of the research cases. That isn’t a very high success rate and somehow Lightman can tell the difference every time. Just by this you can tell that it is fictional even if he did receive special training in the topic.
The part in the show that really caught my attention was the line or two on how the kid failed the polygraph. The district attorneys found this to be the last piece of evidence that they needed. But, in the book it stated that polygraph tests are not to be used in the judicial system and here it was a critical piece of evidence. Yet again, evidence that television shows are not produced to be factual, just to get high viewer ratings. During the episode Lightman said that polygraph tests don’t show guilt of commiting the crime, they show guilt in general. In this case the boy was feeling guilty for stalking the teacher and taking pictures of her on the night of the crime. He was a Jehovah’s Witness and this to him was a crime of the highest degree.
In this particular episode, lie detection was used to save a kid from life in prison but in real life it is used as a conviction tool. Police officers are trained to tell lies even though it really doesn’t do them any good and only makes them believe that they are “experts” at what they do.

I went with the first option for this assignment and watched an episode entitled “Life Is Priceless.” The episode begins with the aftermath of a building collapse in a blue collar down in which three workers are stuck in the rubble. Dr. Lightman is called in by FEMA in order to analyze who isn’t being completely honest about the incident in order to help locate the trapped miners and to find out who is responsible for the collapse. He first interrogates a worker who escaped the accident but pointed rescuers in the wrong direction as to where his injured co-workers were trapped. As Dr. Lightman and his partner, Dr. Foster, interrogate him they realize that he isn’t be honest with them based off of his eye movements. Next they show him a series of pictures of people showing different facial expressions and ask him to describe the emotion they are portraying. The only emotion he is able to correctly guess is shame. From this, they deduce that he is an opium addict as opium addicts often have a difficult time recognizing emotions other than shame in people’s faces. After they have this guy unhinged, he admits that he was lying about the worker’s location because he was afraid they would find out that he was using on the job if he told them where he saw that they were actually trapped. Eventually, they locate the construction workers and Dr. Lightman’s next task is to uncover who was responsible for the accident. They go through a series of suspects analyzing the body language of the people they talk to. Eventually, by noticing a shoulder twitch that the city engineer keeps exhibiting they come to the conclusion that he is holding out on some information. Dr. Lightman then measures the engineer’s pulse by shining a flashlight on his carotid artery and discovers that his heart is beating too fast and therefore must be lying. After being presented with these facts the engineer admits to them that he took a bribe and that there is likely a methane deposit under ground that caused the building to collapse. Despite this information, FEMA continues to drill for the rescuers and the methane explodes again. Two of the workers make it out alive but one is caught in the explosion. The project manager is blamed for making the bribe that the engineer accepted but Lightman discovers that he is innocent based off of the genuine surprise he shows when he is told of the methane deposit. As the police are arresting the foreman, Dr. Lightman notices that the mayor shows relief in her expression, indicating that she is relieved that someone else is taking the fall for her crimes. Lightman then confronts the mayor with this information and she confesses.

A second subplot in the episode involves a billionaire and his fiancé. The billionaire wants to know if she loves him for who he is or for his money. He also wants to know if she knew who he was before they met. He hires two of Dr. Lightman’s associates and together they go about interviewing the fiancé in a casual situation in which she does not suspect that they are analyzing her. During their casual conversation they notice that she uses exaggerated arm movements when telling the truth, the show refers to these movements as illustrators. When she is lying, however, she keeps her arms to her side and her body movements are subdued. These movements, or lack there of, are referred to as manipulators on the show. At the end of the conversation the team concludes, based off of these illustrators and manipulators that she indeed did know who he was when she met him but that she does also love him for who he is. The billionaire is left with the choice of accepting that part of her attraction to him is based on his money, but that she genuinely loves him as well.

It seemed to me that a lot of the techniques and deductions that Dr. Lightman was able to come up with were rather far fetched. However, there were a few techniques that he used that have some basis in actual science. For instance, when he measured the engineer’s blood pressure he was taking advantage of one of the same tests that the polygraph employs. The polygraph measures a number of physiological responses, but one of the principal responses it measures is the subject’s heart rate and blood pressure. In this episode, that was the only test that he performed that shared a fundamental link with what we read in chapter three. However, Dr. Lightman makes frequent use of measuring facial ticks and hand to face movements. I remember reading about the Monica Lewinski trials and that one of the major “tells” the President Clinton displayed was a tendency to touch his nose when he lied. This practice of deducing the truth of someone’s statements wasn’t backed up by our book, but I do believe there is some basis for it in based on other articles that I have read.
http://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/book_of_body_language/chap7.html

Some of the deductions that I found to be rather far fetched included the presentation of emotions through facial expressions that I described earlier, and the deduction from the suspect’s response that he must be on opiates. It would seem to me that there are a number of reason’s why someone might have a difficult time in being able to correctly analyze someone else’s facial expressions. Also, it seemed like a stretch to me when the team concluded that because the fiancé stopped moving her arms as much that she must be lying about something. It wouldn’t surprise me if there is some correlation between non-verbal communication and one’s honesty but I don’t’ think you can deduce causation from it. Overall, I thought this show was very entertaining but it seemed like they took some liberties in their portrayal of some of the physical signs of lying.

The first link that it takes you to is about lie detection and some ways that can help people detect if a person is lying or not, such things as looking at how their face reacts when they are speaking, it also gives some insight on the controversy of the polygraph test whether or not it is a good method to use. It also mentions how you could become a better liar or reasons to do so, but gives no insight on how this may be accomplished probably for good reason. The link to watch was about a retired FBI agent that was interviewing random subjects to see if they were telling the truth as he was asking them questions, but he was doing this without a polygraph machine, just using things that he had picked up from being an examiner for so many years.
The first section of the article was "The Face in Deception," clever title for that part of the article because it talks about people's facial expressions and how it is easy to decieve someone when you meet them for the first time because they really know nothing about you and it is hard for someone that isnt an expert to detect any abnormal behavior by a person. Obviously as we have learned this is slightly exaggerated, because if someone is up in your face, especially an interrogator, your facial expressions are most likely going to change as a reaction of being scared, or startled. The second part of the article was "The Clues to Deception," this section suggests that the face should be more looked at in trying to tell a liar more than the rest of the body such as arms, legs. I think that what Paul Ekman pointed out was true that when a person is lying they will try to mask emotions in their face but using different emotions than the ones that they are really feeling. He also said that there is no one feature or thing that can prove a person is lying you have to piece together the information. I think this is true because obviously you cant tell if a person is lying straight forward you have to use other outside information that you may know to make a judgment. In the third part of the article about how to become a better liar, I think it overstates the ability that people can have to become better liars, they make it seem like an academic process, something that can be learned over time by reading books about non-verbal behaviors. The last part of the article which was my favorite about polygraph machines, and how they dont actually detect lies, but suggests when a person becomes physiologically aroused, this was something that was suggest in our readings as well.
The second part of this was watching the video of a retired FBI agent interview people at a local news building to point out mannerisms of people that are lying. The first thing that he spoke about where people's eyes. He says that if a person is looking off to the left while they are talking then they are probably making up a lie, but if they are looking up to the right then they are trying to recall some fact that actually happened. However this works in the opposite way for people that are left handed, as one of the interviewees was. I cant make an absolute judgment on this because I have seen very little research on this, but at a first glance it would seem like this is a little to easy of a way to spot a liar. This is because I know from myself that I dont tend to look at people when I talk, even to family members I'll stare off into space or at something that is hanging on the wall regardless of where it is and I usually dont sit there and make it lies to my family. Next he discussed things like crossing of the legs, fidgety hands, checking the time and so on. I think he sounded a little to convinced that these ways were sure to tell if someone was lying or not. A lot of people in my family have very long legs, and most of us sit with our legs crossed or one on top of the other, its just natural for me to sit that way. However I think in some situations these are definitely possible indicators, but not as convinving as he made them seem, so he may have exaggerated this a bit. I do think however that a man that had been an FBI agent and a polygraphy administrator such as himself, that he probably grew used to things that he saw as he was administering the test, and used these to generally apply to his interview.

I watched the very first episode of Lie to Me, it was an interesting TV show that really made me think about the different ways people lie. In the show there was a teacher killed and the two main people were tasked with finding out a 16 year old boys innocence or not. The male doctor is a master on lie detection from body language. They also had a side task of investigating into a political leader and a sex scandal, the side not of this mission was just to add to the story line and they found out the leader was not having sex, instead he was helping his lost adopted daughter better her life. The main story line with the teacher and boy turned out that another student had a sexual relationship with the principal, when the teacher saw them together she tried getting the female student to report the relationship, in return the principal killed the teacher for interfering with the relationship, the boy was in no way involved except the night of the murder he was caught running away from the house, he stalked and took photos of the teacher.
I saw a lot about different ways of detecting lies in the show. Things like facial expressions and body language I knew could tell you a lot about a story being told. Some things made sense but did not ring 100% true like avoiding eye contact means your are telling truth most times not lying. Cool things that I learned and make sense were things like someone lies about a time line of events, ask them to tell you it backwards they cant always tell it to you, and listening to how someone will talk about a person when lying they tend to distance themselves from that person by saying stuff like "I did not have sexual relations with that women" and not using a name instead. Things like dilated eyes when arousal is occurring is true but being able to detect that on someone in a split second would be nearly impossible. I loved the show, but the things he is able to detect so fast would need a extremely well trained eye or else wouldn't be possible.

I chose option number 1 ad watched an episode of Lie To Me. I had never seen this show before although I’d always wanted to. I watched the Pilot episode since I had never seen it and it was actually pretty interesting. It starts out with the main character, who’s played by Tim Roth, interviewing a man about burning down some African American based churches. While interviewing him, he looked for any sort o facial expressions to make it seem like he’s lying. Turns out, there were a couple facial expressions which I will talk about in the next paragraph that were telling according to him. Anyways, there are two main stories being told in this episode.

First, a high school teacher was found murdered and a male student was arrested being seen fleeing the vicinity of her house where she was killed. He maintains his innocence and after Tim Roth’s character interviews him, he thinks the 16 year old kid is innocent. We come to find that it was his first year in a public school because his family are devout Jehova Witness’s. They find pictures in his room of the teacher who was murdered after searching his room. He had been taking photographs of her secretly. They then go to the school to interview people about this kid and along the way talk to the principal and a teenage girl who had been acting strange. It turns out that she was pregnant with the principle’s kid. The teacher who had been murdered found out about their relationship and was going to turn them in but before she could, the principle killed her. The 16 year old kid was then released and that ended that story arch.

The second main story arch is that of a Congressman who is being accused of visiting an escort service every Friday and this tarnishes his image pretty bad. They hook him up to a lie detector to see what is really happening. While hooked up, Tim Roth’s character is in another room watching the Congressman talk to see if he has any tells that he may be lying. He gives some pretty good tells that say he is, in fact, lying. Turns out he had been visiting this place every Friday because the daughter he gave up for adoption when he was college that he had been trying to find for years worked there and he just went there to talk to her and try to convince her to stop doing this job. He says he doesn’t want his job back because his daughter is getting really close to quitting and making something new of her life and this would make her be labeled as the Congressman’s trashy daughter. So in the end he ends up resigning from Congress.

There are many different ways the main character identifies that someone is lying and it starts right on the onset of the first scene. The man he is interviewing makes a scowl face when he tells him that CIA has found out where he plans to burn another church down and he sees this as a dead giveaway that the man’s lying. The thing is, is that Tim Roth’s character was just naming off a random church to get a reaction. Most of the strategies used in this show are to get facial tells and things like temperature of the hand to see if someone’s nervous. I think that the latter one is especially unreliable because I know that if the police or anyone was interviewing me about a major crime I’d be nervous and my hands would get sweaty. The book goes in depth on how facial expressions can be a very unreliable source to determine if someone is lying. One thing that the main character said did stand out to me. He said that it’s a myth that those who are lying look away from you. In fact, he says, liars will give direct eye contact more often than those telling the truth. I’m not sure how reliable that information is, I just found it to be very interesting.

Option Two

The first link that was given to us described the different parts of deception. The beginning of this link talked about the deception among humans and how it isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but can be when it hurts or possibly harms people. This idea goes along with what the book said about the evolutionary perspective, lying is adaptive. Many of us have come to accept this and each of us do lie, we just understand the difference between it being protective versus harmful. This link also goes on to discuss facial expressions when someone is trying to be deceitful and how it is important for them to manage when meeting with someone face-to-face. What is important to remember when given information on how to detect lies is that it is actually fairly hard to accomplish. The book also discussed how difficult it is to know if someone is lying or not because they could just be nervous or other factors may come into play. The one thing that was made clear is that it is important to look at the face of a person suspected of lying. Don’t pay so much attention to the arms or the legs, but watch the facial expressions. When trying to lie, it is much harder to control the face. Although body movement can be helpful in giving nonverbal cues, looking at the face is going to give much more information. However, I would have to agree that all together it is hard to tell whether someone is lying or not. Some people are just natural liars, at least I think so; they can be so believable and not even blink an eye. They can be so skilled at being so deceitful and like what was mentioned before; it could be because they have had a lot of practice. Even the book mentions that, “behavioral cues interrogators are taught to focus on are flawed indicators of deception.” The link says, “there is not specific behavior of the face that says “I’m lying.”” These alone prove that we may not always find the answers we are looking for and some people can slip through. The polygraph machine is something that was also brought up and many of us think it is successful, is highly debatable. My view on the polygraph is that it shouldn’t be heavily relied on because of other situational factors that may occur. Throughout this link I found a lot of the ideas to be false ones. The idea of finding a liar through just looking at someone’s face isn’t realistic. I know when I am put in a situation and it is intense I fidget a lot too because I’m nervous. Even if I haven’t done anything wrong, the idea that I am being questioned is scary and I panic. The only thing I found to stand true was the idea that we can’t know for sure if someone is lying. There are many factors that need to be evaluated before someone is suspected of being deceitful. I do think some liars are easier to spot than others; it’s the ones that are good at lying that are hard to detect.

The second link we were given was of a former FBI agent and polygraph examiner, Bill Brown. According to Bill, he is able to detect if someone is lying just by studying their nonverbal cues and paying attention to their facial expressions along with listening to what they say and how they say it. He also mentions, “the eyes are a window to the soul, you can see right through them.” I call bluff. There are many times when people ask me a question and just making eye contact when I’m trying to think of what it is to say and how to say it doesn’t mean I’m making up a lie, I just think it’s awkward to stair. People tend to look around when they are talking or even move around, especially if you are standing in a position for a long time or sitting in the same position for a long time, it’s common to want to adjust your position. Also, when talking to someone who may seem intimidating makes it harder to look directly at them and it can cause a person to get nervous and act according to that behavior. Bill seems really sure about his skills and I would have to say that I believe his strategies he represents being false. Just because someone is adjusting or trying to get comfortable, it doesn’t mean they are liars. He also mentioned someone changing their tone. Well, if a person is offended and being accused of something they didn’t do, it’s a little hard to not let their emotions get the best of them. I don’t think anyone has super human powers to detect liars; the book did mention Wonder Woman who is a superhero in comic books that used a lasso that served as a lie detector. The problem is, that isn’t realistic. I think that it is good that people are trying to find ways to detect lying; however, I don’t think there is a guaranteed method.

Option Two

The first link is a website that talks about facial expressions that are clues of deception. The site gives you clues to know if a person is lying to you through facial expressions as well as body language. It is noted that the rest of the body, besides the face, is not as closely scrutinized by the person monitoring and is not monitored as much by the deceiver, which suggests to psychologists that the clues for deception might be more apparent in the body than the face. I think that the emphasis they put on catching a liar by facial movement is exaggerated. When put into stressful situations, people can mimic the same behavior as someone who is lying, even if they are telling the truth. There are some basic physiological factors that occur when people are lying. There is no foolproof method however, of determining whether these physiological changes are due to the person lying or because of something else, such as nerves. The article also mentioned that there are people who are good at controlling their facial features and body language when they lie, which makes it harder to detect whether certain people are lying or telling the truth. I think that this article exaggerates the usefulness of using facial features because it makes it seem like professionals are better at lie detection than anyone else because they are trained. According to our textbook, training is not a good measure of how good of a lie detector someone is. It simply gives more confidence. The website also said that someone who is trained in die detection would be able to make an objective decision, and the textbook says that trained people could more easily fall for confirmation bias.

The second link was a video that specified on how to tell if someone is lying based on his or her eye movement. An ex FBI agent claimed that when a person is lying, they look up to the left. If a person is telling the truth, they look up to the right. If the person is left-handed the opposite is true. I don’t think this is correct at all. When people are speaking to others for long periods of time, especially strangers or people with authority, they don’t like to hold eye contact for long periods of time. The video also talked about people’s mannerisms indicating whether they are lying or not. Crossing legs, fidgeting, checking the time, etc. were said to be sure ways to know if someone was lying. I agree that these could be potential indicators, but not 100% mannerisms of someone who is lying. In the textbook it is mentioned that when in an interview or interrogation, most people tend to be nervous, whether innocent or guilty. This can count for the reasons people’s eyes would shift or they would fidget.

The first link is an article on deception and the use of the face to deceive. Deception is not always a bad thing and is considered an aspect of life. Many people make efforts to uncover deceit but end up not being very successful. Observers tend to look at the face of a deceiver rather than their body. This is because the face is easier to control when deceiving someone; however, it is hard to control all aspects of the face. This leaves room for the possible detection of clues in regards to the face. In addition, the body plays an important role in nonverbal communication, but it cannot reveal as much about deception as the face can. Deceptive techniques include masking an expression with another behavior, suppressing an expression, and faking an expression. Deceptive behaviors are difficult to see and occur very rapidly. Thus, it is important to keep track of how facial behaviors correspond with other qualities since they may betray the lie when put together with a certain facial behavior. Catching a liar takes a lot of cognitive processing. In addition, there is no easy way to become a better liar. The government puts a lot of faith in the polygraph even though it is easy to beat. Thus, the controversy over the polygraph continues.

I did not think the first link was very scientific or greatly informative. Much of what it said seemed to just be common sense. I did not agree that the body does not reveal as much about deception as the face. I would think that since the body is not monitored as much by the deceiver that it would be more revealing. I agreed, though, that the polygraph test does not detect lies but rather it detects what physiologically arouses the person. This definitely coincides with what our textbook said. The fact that the polygraph is not a reliable form of lie detection was indicated in both the article and our textbook.

The second link is a video clip on an ex-FBI agent who tells how to spot a liar. According to him, when someone looks up and to the right before they answer, that means that they are lying. If a left-handed person does this, however, then they are telling the truth. When someone looks up and to the left, then they are remembering something. Shifty eyes may also indicate dishonesty. People who are lying do not sit comfortably and calmly. They tend to rub their neck, tap their fingers, or look at their watch. These all indicate nervousness. Liars may also put something between you and them to create a kind of barrier. They may also lean back in their chair, sit sideways, cross their arms, or have their hands clasped in their lap. Another indication of lying is when their voice changes while they are speaking. A combination of these indicators may occur. Some indicators cannot be controlled because they are affected by the autonomic nervous system.

According to our textbook, the cues that interrogators are trained to look for are flawed indicators of deception. The cues the ex-FBI agent described are considered part of what is known as the “liar’s stereotype”. For example, the stereotype includes fidgeting, shifting, and grooming gestures. This whole video clip shows that training interrogators on how to differentiate the truth from deception does not improve their ability to detect lies. It does help them to be more confident in their judgments, which is not very helpful. This was something that our textbook stressed quite a bit about.

I chose option 1 and in option 1 I went to view the series of lie to me, and i viewed a few episodes but I chose the white lie song episode because this message seamed so under the radar when viewed but it had absolutely more meaning then I think viewers actually listened for or paid attention too, because I even had to watch it twice myself. But a lot of great advice and really good messages are sometimes put in a way for you to take heave to, but not necessarily lame termed.
There is a song called A White Lie and I thought this song was a very good song, and a nice song for kids to learn also... these are the lyrics....
I say I'm 10 when I'm 9 and half.
My Uncle Tells a joke and I try to laugh
In gym I fake a headache, but I want to quit
I say I love the sweater that my Grandma knit.
But that was...
A white lie
(Sing as echo in "Lie To Me" episode the children sing this part) White Lie
That's a white lie
(Sing as echo) white lie
That's the kind you want to tell
(Children sing too) A white lie
So your mom won't have to yell
A white lie
(sing echo) White Lie
Everybody does it cause it feels alright and it's more polite
But a lies still a lie, even when it's white
I pretend I'm asleep when my dad walk's in
I said I ate my chicken, but I just ate the skin
You speak and say your lie and when your mouth says not
Your pants are on fire, but their not too hot
When it's a...
White Lie
(sing echo) White Lie
It's the kind you want to tell
A white lie
So your dad won't have to yell
A white lie
(sing echo) white lie
Everybody does it, cause it feels alright and it's more polite
but a lie's still a lie, even when it's white
While it might be hard, to say what's true,
would you want a white lie told to you

I chose this episode in particular because you cant imagine how many outright lies that are being told in day to day life, let alone a white lie something that is often more respectively told, well looked upon as not as bad.
I believe the gist of this song is that there are far more things that are common to mislead someone about or stretch the truth a little about, but very serious matters aren’t it. That if your in some small spat that you think wont get any better and you need to get out of hit, its more recommended that you tell a little white lie instead of a flat out lie that you'd have to make up more to cover up the original. I also believe that exaggeration is a bit of a white lie also, and that know harm is done when exaggerating.
But the biggest lesson out of the song is really not to lie at all. Because even though you may have meant well and tried to do your best to not hurt someone, or when trying to get yourself out of trouble it can only lead to a worse turnout. That even though you may get by with the first or second white lie the third could be the worst, and hail the most consequences. But also that know matter the situation, you don’t want anybody lying to you know matter the seriousness nor the limited ability to hurt, lying isn’t a great trait to administer to anyone at anytime.
In this episode ever part of the song was true, and that the words were all true there wasn’t any exaggeration to. from the smallest of not eating your chicken just the skin to faking a headache in gym so you wouldn’t have to participate, isn’t right to tell.
unwelcoming/.../lie-to-me/.../lie-to-me-white-lie-song-from-12-14-10