Common Methods of Lie Detection And Their Effectiveness
As Ayn Rand one said, “People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked… The man who lies to the world, is the world’s slave form then on… There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction and a white lie is the blackest of all.” Lying is one of the biggest epidemics to not only strike our nation but also our world. Man has lied since the dawn of sin, from the deceptive excuses for devouring the fruit of evil all the way up to problems our century faces. Almost every person, if not every person to walk this earth has preformed this devilish task at least once.
The question is not if one lies or how one lies but rather how to determine when one is lying. This is done through establishing a baseline and then comparing an individual answers to the established baseline. Asking the individual a serious of questions that are implied and that you know will be answered truthfully forms a baseline. They baseline acts as a guideline to how the individual normally responds to questions whenever they are telling the truth. Whenever reactions differ from the baseline you can assume that an emotional change has happened, this differ in reaction is what is normally attributed to deception or lying. The six most common ways of establishing this baseline are through facial analysis, reaction time, statement content analysis, brain imaging, thermal imaging, and through a polygraph test.
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(Aldert Vrij)
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Richard Gunderman asks the question, "Isn 't there something inherently wrong with lying, and “in his article” Is Lying Bad for Us?" Similarly, Stephanie Ericsson states, "Sure I lie, but it doesn 't hurt anything. Or does it?" in her essay, "The Ways We Lie.” Both Gunderman and Ericsson hold strong opinions in regards to lying and they appeal to their audience by incorporating personal experiences as well as references to answer the questions that so many long to confirm.
Although it is considered wrong to tell lies, it seems that literature has offered us situations where telling lies isn’t necessarily bad. Of course, lying often has a tragic outcome, but not always for the person or people who told the lie or lies. Oftentimes, these unfortunate outcomes are directed at the person about whom the lie was told. Furthermore, these stories have explained that dishonesty can result in success for both the liar and the target. Maybe we have been teaching the wrong values to our children.
One of the last types of ways investigators are coached to detect deception is in the behavioral attitudes of a person being interviewed such as being unconcerned or over anxious (Kassin, 2005). The success rate of looking for these cues are very successful in telling if an individual is being deceitful and has surpassed any laboratory tests conducted on the subject. The laboratory test however did reveal some interesting facts. The research showed that people who had training and experience did not score better than the control group who received no training. In fact all individuals scored at the chance level with the people who had training scored just above chance or at the chance level. To check if special training in the detection of deception was more accurate a study ...
In “The Ways We Lie”, Ericsson describes the different types of lies: white lie, facades, ignoring
Newring, K. B., & O'Donohue, W. (2008). False confessions and influenced witnesses. Applied Psychology In Criminal Justice, 4(1), 81-107.
American writer and speaker, Dorothy Allison, once said “things come apart so easily when they have been held together by lies” (Allison). One of the first lessons that kids are taught is to be honest and always tell the truth. Being honest is not always easy, but the result of lying is much worse then telling the truth. In Animal Farm, George Orwell demonstrates how lies and deceit will ruin society if everyone always believes what the leader says, people lie to themself, and if laws are changed to benefit the group in power.
When initially asked about the morality of lying, it is easy for one to condemn it for being wrong or even corrupt. However, those asked are generally guilty of the crime on a daily basis. Lying is, unfortunately, a normal aspect of everyday life. In the essay “The Ways We Lie,” author Stephanie Ericsson makes note of the most common types of lies along with their consequences. By ordering the categories from least to most severe, she expresses the idea that lies enshroud our daily lives to the extent that we can no longer between fact and fiction. To fully bring this argument into perspective, Ericsson utilizes metaphor, rhetorical questions, and allusion.
In society, some people are looked at as liars or “bullshitters,” as stated in the article, “Is Lying Bad for Us?” Honesty is not always the best policy, and in certain situations, liars are best not to tell the truth when protecting the innocent, or protecting oneself. Because of this, lying should be looked at as a standard in society and something that people recognize in every day life.
In “The Ways We Lie,” by Stephanie Ericsson, she defines various types of lying and uses quotations at the beginning of each description as a rhetorical strategy. Throughout the reading she uses similar references or discussion points at the beginning and ending of each paragraph. Most believe lying is wrong, however, I believe lying is acceptable in some situations and not others when Stephanie Ericsson is asked, “how was your day.” In “The Ways We Lie,” she lies to protect her husband’s feelings, therefore, I think people lie because they are afraid of the consequences that come with telling the truth.
The polygraph test, introduced nearly a century ago, has been widely used in the detection of deception and for some time, has been considered by law enforcement representatives, an exceptionally valid testing apparatus. The media and law enforcement representatives describe the various methods of detecting deception to be extremely valid and reliable in detecting deceptive cues, although the various research done through field studies and controlled experiments demonstrate significant error rates amongst the various testing procedures used. Physiological responses of an individual may vary from person to person. No matter how small the error rate may be, there is always a chance that environmental conditions as well as physiological conditions induced by the individual or the interpreter can have an effect on the interpretational conclusion of what were considered to be deceptive cues. These influential factors may illustrate a small positive or negative error rate, but when the conclusion is applied to a conviction, it can possibly establish or distinguish false results to be accurate or inconclusive.
McLaughlin, Sabrina. "Liar, liar! Do polygraphs tell the truth?" Curent Science, a Weekly Reader puplication 5 Dec. 2003: 10+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 20 November 2013.
A popular way on many crime dramas to determine if a suspect is lying or telling the truth is by hooking them up to a polygraph machine. In a matter of a minute the police are able to determine if the suspect is lying and guilty or, on the rare occasion, telling the truth and innocent. But, one has to wonder, is it really that simple? Polygraphs measure four main factors that are thought to change when a lie is told and more importantly, it is assumed that these changes indicate deception. The four main factors are blood pressure, heart beat, perspiration, and breathing and these are recorded by using simple devices. It is important to note from the beginning that those who question the reliability of polygraphs do not doubt the reliability of the measurements, but the ability of the measurements to indicate and/or prove deception. Even though doubt exists as to the reliability, polygraphs are used not only in law enforcement settings, but also in intelligence agencies, in the maintaining security of industry, and for public safety and service around the world. Despite its prevalence, there are many groups that call into question the effectiveness, reliability, and fairness of polygraph testing. This paper will explore this question by first looking into the history of polygraphs including court rulings and how polygraph tests are done, then current use, and finally looking at sources of bias and error in the test and the process.
Feeling comes into play when lying. A good liar will know how their feelings should be brought in. when something is tough the occasional tear will appear. If they are not so good they will often be caught because of them trying to force feelings out.
Since the earlier speaker,our team colleague spoke about the lying topic,part of this program is also to research and interview some people by which we can get some results in order to know what do they really think in generally about the lies.
Deception is an under-researched and often contentious subject in the world of psychology, with most emphasis being placed on deception detection. Most researchers use the terms “deception” and “lying” interchangeably. Some find it comparable to “manipulation.” Deception has been defined as “an agent act[ing] or speak[ing] so as to induce a false belief in a target or victim” (Hyman, 1989). It is a tactic used to achieve personal gain or an advantage over another.