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