There is no telltale sign that reliably shows someone is a liar, although investigators have long used physical indications of arousal such as sweating and changes in heart rate
© iStockPhoto / Michel de Nijs
Key Concepts
- There is no telltale sign that reliably shows someone is a liar, although investigators have long used physical indications of arousal such as sweating and changes in heart rate.
- More recently, researchers have probed the brain for a neural signature of a fib. They found that lying activates brain regions involved in suppressing information and in resolving conflicts—such as that between the impulse to describe reality and the wish to contradict it.
- The use of brain imaging combined with physiological measures, along with a clever questioning strategy, could lead to an improved method for detecting lies.
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2009 Issue- Perspectives Providing Psychotherapy for the Poor
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A young man steals across the hallway, slips through a door and scans the room. He opens a drawer, snatches a wristwatch inside and puts it in his pocket. Then he hurries out the door.
Sixty more people perform the same drill, half of them filching a watch and the others, a ring. Psychiatrist F. Andrew Kozel, now at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and his colleagues promised to give a bonus payment to anyone who could conceal the deed from the scientists, who planned to look into their brains for signs of a cover-up.
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