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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday May 14 2022, @04:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the pants-on-fire dept.

A new method of lie detection shows that lie tellers who are made to multi-task while being interviewed are easier to spot:

It is well documented that lying during interviews takes up more cognitive energy than telling the truth. A new study by the University of Portsmouth found that investigators who used this finding to their advantage by asking a suspect to carry out an additional, secondary, task while being questioned were more likely to expose lie tellers. The extra brain power needed to concentrate on a secondary task (other than lying) was particularly challenging for lie tellers.

[...] "Our research has shown that truths and lies can sound equally plausible as long as lie tellers are given a good opportunity to think what to say. When the opportunity to think becomes less, truths often sound more plausible than lies. Lies sounded less plausible than truths in our experiment, particularly when the interviewees also had to carry out a secondary task and were told that this task was important."

[...] Professor Vrij said: "The pattern of results suggests that the introduction of secondary tasks in an interview could facilitate lie detection but such tasks need to be introduced carefully. It seems that a secondary task will only be effective if lie tellers do not neglect it. This can be achieved by either telling interviewees that the secondary task is important, as demonstrated in this experiment, or by introducing a secondary task that cannot be neglected (such as gripping an object, holding an object into the air, or driving a car simulator). Secondary tasks that do not fulfil these criteria are unlikely to facilitate lie detection."

So if you think your significant other is hiding something from you, grill them when they're driving a car.

Journal Reference:
Aldert Vrij et al., The Effects of a Secondary Task on True and False Opinion Statements [open], Int J Psychol Behav Anal, 8, 2022
DOI: 10.15344/2455-3867/2022/185


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Frosty Piss on Saturday May 14 2022, @05:49AM (9 children)

    by Frosty Piss (4971) on Saturday May 14 2022, @05:49AM (#1244911)

    It’s not a lie if *you* believe it.

    Preparing your “backstory” with small details and ennui are the key to competent lying. For example when I worked for the DoD, every few years I would have to do an *intensive* interview with some sorry sad random FBI guy, and occasionally sit for the massively debunked “lie detector” inquisition. But with proper preparation, all the lies (“Do you consume marijuana?”) roll off without so much as a secondary thought.

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  • (Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday May 14 2022, @08:39AM (5 children)

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 14 2022, @08:39AM (#1244935) Journal

    "Lie detectors" are ludicrous. They measure skin resistance. Nothing more.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @10:45AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @10:45AM (#1244946)

      So do those e-meters used by scientologists.

      They are also called psychogalvanometers.

      The simple ones are just a whetstone bridge circuit, where your resting resistance can be nulled out using potentiometers on the instruments panel.

      More sophisticated ones will also measure respiration. The ones I knew of, the respiration sensor was basically a variable inductance measuring the change of length of a " spring" around the torso.

      It's enough to scare the heebie jeebies out of laymen.

      I see it mostly as a psychological fear tool to make a liar think the machine is onto him, and he's just digging himself in deeper and deeper.

      But from how I saw how they (TLAs) used it, it seemed more to me to be a way of getting rid of people they did not like, by saying their machine was saying that the testee was a loser.

      That way, the loser testee wasn't supposed to know who did him in. The machine said he couldn't be trusted, hence clearance denied.

      The machine can be diddled to show anything the operator wants it to. The machine appears to often be used just to give justification for terminations or denial of clearances to work.

      Or, in the case of religions, to demonstrate the testee still has problems and needs further auditing, hence more fees. Again, a theater prop for getting someone else to trust them, because the machine will back up it's operator in the presence of the sucker who doesn't realize he's getting one helluva snow job.

      I will post AC for obvious reasons.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @01:39PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @01:39PM (#1244969)

        One of my favorite quotes that Richard Nixon supposedly said about lie detectors was something along the lines of "I don't know if they work, but I do know they scare the hell out of people." My understanding is that they cannot be used in court as proof of lying if someone fails a test (though the defense will let the court know if the defendant passed a test). They most certainly do test something, but whether it is lying they are testing is up to much debate. My observation of how they are used is not a nefarious as yours (I can't comment on their use with religions). I am fairly certain they aren't used as reasons to terminate people, at least in the government where you have certain rights to challenge the reasons for your termination. If a private company wants to use it as an excuse to fire someone, I don't know how that works, or whether they even need an excuse, but this would provide them cover.

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @04:48PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @04:48PM (#1244981)

        The simple ones are just a whetstone bridge circuit

        Won't that just keep the interviewee really sharp?

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @04:00PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @04:00PM (#1244978)

      >> "Lie detectors" are ludicrous. They measure skin resistance. Nothing more.

      That's because they're set up wrong in most cases. What you need to do is switch from 5 volts to 120 volts, and then attach them directly to the testicles. At that point, subject is likely to stop lying.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday May 14 2022, @03:09PM (2 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Saturday May 14 2022, @03:09PM (#1244974)

    It’s not a lie if *you* believe it.

    Or, alternately, do what many politicians and religious nutjobs do and just deny the existence of the concept of "truth". Then you can believe 6 impossible things before breakfast without any evidence whatsoever, because in your mind there is no objective reality to contradict you and everyone just says what they want to be true because it's advantageous to themselves.

    In this mindset, the concept of "science" is absolutely ludicrous: It's just people arguing, and you decide whether you believe your pastor or Neil deGrasse Tyson, you don't need to worry about evidence or observation or equations. Ditto for the concept of "law": You sit there and decide whether you think the defendant or the alleged victim is a good person, and decide to punish them or not based on that, regardless of whether they actually did the thing they were charged with.

    It's nothing new, either: Sophists have been teaching people to argue for literally any position with absolutely no regard for whether it accurately describes reality since at least the time of Socrates, because it makes those people sound like they're smart. And idiots have been believing people like that for a lot longer. Why do you think certain leaders are so insistent that people are never taught the skills needed to see through their bullshit?

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by stormwyrm on Saturday May 14 2022, @05:33PM (1 child)

      by stormwyrm (717) on Saturday May 14 2022, @05:33PM (#1244986) Journal

      Sad but true. I have heard some fools opine even outright that one man's truth is another man's conspiracy theory. So there is no truth or objective reality? And every time I find one of these people (depressingly common these days) I challenge them to demonstrate their belief by stepping out of my apartment window (I live on the 21st floor... yes, Alan Sokal, I am stealing that). After all, gravity has no truth, just like everything else, and you will walk on air when you step out the window if you believe hard enough, amirite? This usually results in silence.

      --
      Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @04:43AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 15 2022, @04:43AM (#1245054)

        > This usually results in silence

        What, no screams on the way down? What do you do before they "float" away, shove a sock down their throat?

        Do you have an undead woman living in your bathtub, too?