How do you spot a liar? Scientists say it’s trickier than you might think : Short Wave
Early inspiration for the polygraph machine came from the creator of Wonder Woman, William Marston. Marston thought there was a link between vital signs and emotions, and that a machine might show that.
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Early inspiration for the polygraph machine came from the creator of Wonder Woman, William Marston. Marston thought there was a link between vital signs and emotions, and that a machine might show that.
allanswart/Getty Images
For over a century, people have been inventing technology to catch a liar in the act.
The polygraph was wildly popular in the mid-20th century, until science and federal law cracked down. Then, there was an era of Micro Expression Training. Now, there’s talk of using AI to analyze the human voice.
But does any of this even work? What are the inherent risks to relying on a single cue for detecting a lie, and how does that allow bias to creep into judgements of guilt and innocence?
NPR Short Wave hosts Emily Kwong and Regina G. Barber investigate how deception research has changed, why it matters in investigative interviews and why the only surefire form of lie detection may, in fact, be fact-checking.
Throughout the episode, we hear from the following researchers:
We also cover the following deception and lie detection research:
- Luke, T. J. (2019). Lessons From Pinocchio: Cues to Deception May Be Highly Exaggerated. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(4), 646-671. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619838258
- Vrij A, Granhag PA, Ashkenazi T, Ganis G, Leal S, Fisher RP. Verbal Lie Detection: Its Past, Present and Future. Brain Sciences. 2022; 12(12):1644. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12121644
- DePaulo, B. M., Lindsay, J. J., Malone, B. E., Muhlenbruck, L., Charlton, K., & Cooper, H. (2003). Cues to deception. Psychological Bulletin, 129(1), 74–118. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.1.74
- Truth-Default Theory (TDT) – a webpage compiling the research of Timothy R. Levine on the TDT of human communication
Got another human behavior you want us to investigate, using science? Email us at [email protected] — we’d love to hear from you!
Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
Today’s episode was produced by Hannah Chinn. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. Kwesi Lee was the audio engineer.
