Everyone's a Liar

First things first, huge news. My blog has caught the attention of Fuse (ok... so maybe I sent some stuff to the editor, on the advice of @Emma Erikson) but the point is they've loved it and they've offered me a 650 word column every issue! 


So, here you all are, witnesses to a little blog thats about to be published in a real magazine! First article will be in the September issue, its free, so grab and issue and show everyone! 


Moving on however... An article on New Scientist caught my attention today and prompted the topic of today's blog. Lies.


"I'll tell you about lies. There are white lies and black lies, and many shades of grey lies...Everyone is a liar". 


So why and how do we do Lie and is there a science to lying?


Lets start with some stats shall we?


-The average person lies at least once a day, and is lied to up to 200 times.
-The average person student lies twice a day, and in 46% of conversations with their parents (I thought you'd all like that one!). 
-1 in 5 social interactions involves a lie. 
-Twice as many lies are told to benefit the liar, rather than another individual 


These rates aren't as strange as it might appear, think about how many of your social interactions each day involve deception, even in its mildest forms.
When the person  at the super market check-out asks after your well-being, how many people do you think give a genuine answer? "Thanks for asking, actually, I've had a terrible day, I drunk myself stupid last night, threw up on a doctors shoes this morning and had to skip work, hence why I'm buying mi.-georing and orange juice yet again, instead of anything that could be considered real food".


While humans aren't the only primate to exhibit behavior that can be seen as lying, we do seem to have refined lying to a somewhat ridiculous level. From attracting a "mate" and other self-gain, to preservation of dignity and seeming altruism, lying has become an integral part of life as we know it, despite it almost universal condemnation as a threat to the moral fabric of society. 


Children, it would seem, develop the ability to lie around the same time they begin to gain self-awareness, with the use of self-pronouns and self-recognition ushering in minor acts of deception. Research suggests that intelligence is often indicative of lying ability in children, with some children able to lie by the age of just 3. Furthermore, the average four year old lies every two hours. This seems quite paradoxical at first given that abstract thought may not be achieved by children till the early adolescence. Then again honesty and morality are very abstract concepts. Deception however is not.  


But is this Machiavellian streak learned or perhaps more worrying... innate? No one, it seems has a answer for this highly contested issue. But in leu of an answer here's a little something on detecting lies...


Voluntary and involuntary muscles are controlled by two distinctly separate parts of the brain, understanding this fact is key when it comes to spotting a lie, because while the same muscles are involved in a fake smile and the real thing, minor differences exist because different mechanisms are controlling them. There is a significant amount of research for instance to support the idea of "smiling with your eyes", it appears that only when a smile is real, do the muscles around our eyes contract. 


In total there are currently around 17,000 recognized facial expressions and your unconscious recognizes in a way your conscious mind can not hope to achieve, so rule number one is trust your intuition. 


Speech patterns are also generally a good place to start, while there is no universal indicator here, liars will generally use more negative words than people telling the truth, it is also not uncommon (in case of a unplanned lie) for the liar to repeat the question in an outraged tone, rather than actually answering, planned lies also tend to be accompanied by exaggerated tones or overly flat tones. 


When it comes to body language, this varies greatly depending on whether the lie is spontaneous or pre-planned, so we'll look at them separately, and then together.  


Pre-planned:
-Less blinking
-Too much eye contact


Spontaneous:
-More blinking 
-Not enough eye contact


Both:
-Covering disgust with a smile, it is difficult not the pucker the nose
-Conversely masking sadness is given aware by a raised brow
-Less gestures
-Pupils dilate
-Fidgeting with hair and clothes 


It is important to remember that many of these behaviors are simply indicative of stress or anxiety, and therefore may not simply occur when someone is lying. 


To finish off, I am not by any means condoning lying,but I personally do believe that many moral grey areas exist and that non-self serving lies might have a place in some situations. But bare in mind that the research says (unless you are a sociopath and pathological liar), lying makes us uncomfortable, it leaves us in a state of lasting unrest and fear, causing rumination and intrusive memories... so think before speak. 


This is Z, signing out.