Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Lie to me

I tend to watch TV in the evenings in here while I’m connected to the baby and contraction monitors. I find it’s easier to keep still and get my hour-long sentence over with. Last night I stumbled upon the show “Lie to Me.” I’d never heard of it before, and it was mediocre at best, but the premise of the show caught my interest, and has got me thinking…

The basis of the series is that this guy, Dr. something-or-other, is an expert in detecting lies. He’s a regular human lie detector, although he doesn’t use blood pressure or heart rate to uncover people’s lies; instead he uses facial expression, and tone of voice, and body gestures to sniff the liars out.

And because, like seemingly all popular nighttime dramatic series, there is a murder victim and therefore a crime to be solved, he often has to first find the person who is lying. Last night he found liars at both a funeral and in a high school journalism class by watching everyone closely for some revealing expression or movement, often after he’d asked some leading question.

I found it to be quite revealing. People do act in certain ways when they are lying, and also when they’re feeling certain types of emotions. We know this inherently and react to others’ social clues all the time, albeit unconsciously.

But wouldn’t it be cool to be an expert? To always know when someone was feeding you a line of crap by the raise of an eyebrow or droop of their lip? Just think how much more fun buying a car, or hiring a plumber, or meeting your best friend’s new boyfriend, or shopping with a girlfriend would be. This skill would be especially handy while raising adolescents, I think, although who knows, maybe ignorance is bliss.....

5 comments:

  1. Lie detector in Central PAJuly 7, 2009 at 1:04 PM

    I'm in the midst of adolescent children, both mine and others, and this technique would save me a lot of time and trouble.
    I do think parents have this inherent ability, but some choose not to use it. The "ignorance is bliss" theory.
    I saw part of the show once and thought it a clever idea. I, for one, have always had a 6th sense about people, be it lies or general personality defects. Wish I could pinpoint the reasons why my radar goes up, but I can't, so I usually keep my thoughts to myself. Occasionally, I write the thoughts down so i have evidence when it turns out I'm right.
    The Bush years were tremendously prophetic :)

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  2. Hmmm. You know, I've been in the market for a new career, and I think this may just be the ticket. An expert, who always knows when someone is feeding me a line of crap. I really think I'd be good at it, and I'm going to start gathing all the trappings of being a bastard-catching lie expert. Soon.

    Ellie

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  3. I have one child who is really good at lying, and one who is completely incapable of it. Can you guess which is which?

    I think I like the guy who is in that show, but I've never seen it.

    Congrats on 32 weeks, girlfriend!!

    Jacquie

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  4. Yes, Jacquie. Yes I can. Guess which is which. The one who drives the golf cart like a crazy person is the one who can lie like a rug.

    Ellie

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