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| Cover of Lying |
Yes, there are physiological signs of lying, but it's NOT that easy to spot, and if you manage to look sincere enough, you can fool most people, even cops, and even experience cops.
To tell a lie, you need to know both truth and lie, and how to separate the two. Most cops are good at telling who's telling the truth, but they are HORRIBLE at telling liars who are telling a lie but look very sincere.
Scientists tested a lot of people by having multiple groups with these variations:
- Sincere looking people telling the truth
- Sincere looking people telling a lie
- In-sincere looking people telling the truth
- In-sincere looking people telling a lie
Most people have little problem pinpointing sincere people telling the truth, and in-sincere people telling a lie. Even amateurs can do it with over 70% accuracy. Professional government agents can do it with over 90% accuracy.
However, EVERYBODY have problem pinpointing sincere people telling a lie, or in-sincere people telling the truth. Most people score less than 40% (that's LESS than random chance), and government agents scored even worse... In fact, the MORE experience you have, the worse you score.
The worst case: sincere-looking folks telling a lie... only 14% very experienced government agents (dozen years or more experience) can spot lies here. They are fooled 86% of the time.
So yes, people *can* and will lie... and if they look sincere enough, you *will* believe them.
So consider this question: if you are told something (or another), should you believe? There are basically three possibilities:
1) S/he is telling the truth
2) S/he is telling the truth... as s/he knows it (it could still be untrue)
3) S/he is telling a lie, but looks very sincere doing so
Don't always judge by your own eyes on how "sincere" someone is. It *could* be a disguise, or they were mislead.
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