Spotting the Fibber

This article by Jessieca Siegel at Knowable Magazine highlights that most of the reasons people think they can generally spot someone telling a lie are probably not nearly as accurate as they think they are.

Some conventional wisdom holds that a calm person is clearly lying, while other holds that a person showing extra emotion is obviously not telling a true story. In fact, psychologists found only a weak relationship between two supposed "tells" -- fidgeting and a higher pitch to the voice -- and actual lying.

So work began on some more reliable techniques, some of which may have already occurred to people as just common sense. In an interrogation, for example, withheld knowledge and silence on the part of the questioner can lead to a deceptive person to keep talking in order to fill the silence. Eventually, they may say something which the questioner knows is untrue. Although my interactions with people requesting help from our church or multi-church helping group are not technically interrogations, my experience matches this. The more elaborate the story, the more likely it is to be utter horse crap. No, person trying to scam for a gas voucher, you do not have to drive to another town to get a prescription for your sister's sick kid and all you need is $5 more to fill your tank because someone's already given you $10 and your sister's car broke down just yesterday and you know, for $20 she could probably get her husband to buy the fanbelt the car needs. The only truth in what you have said is that you want a gas voucher, and everything else is a lie. Moreover, it is a stupid lie and one that would require me to be stupid to believe.

That example's an exaggeration, but I did once have someone asking for a filled tank in a 1990s-era pickup because they had to "go to North Dakota to get the kids." The person asking couldn't produce a driver's license, meaning I didn't have to ask, "Well, what are you going to do when you run out of gas in Nebraska, because that's as far as that truck is likely to get on a full tank?" and hear yet more crap.

Personally, I have found that reasonably good indicators of statements which are lies or at the very least untrue are these:

1. The statement is made by someone whose name is preceded by letters such as "Rep.," "Sen.," or "Pres."

2. The statement is made by someone whose paychecks bear the name of a branch of a federal, state, county or local government.

3. The statement is found on Twitter.

Unfortunately other supposedly universal signs, such as rapidly lengthening noses or spontaneously combusting trousers, did not even appear to occur during the studied experiments no matter how big a whopper was being laid down.