Story about going to Palestine. How to get through security without lying?

Transcription

1 LYING THE SIN WE ALL COMMIT Alfred Snider University of Vermont 10 December 2014 Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana These are the notes used by the lecturer. Story about going to Palestine. How to get through security without lying? One of the main ethics of good communication is honesty. Without it communication tends to be polluted. Most people lie every day study, 1.65 substantive lies a day. But many think that is low. People are bad at detecting lies, but they think that are pretty good at it. About as accurate as flipping a coin.

2 Deception is an example of persuasion trying to persuade someone that something is true that is not true. Robert Travers feels that the reason human brains developed is the complexity of our social relations, and very little is more complex than the process of lying as we negotiate this complex social landscape. We needed bigger brains to lie more effectively. WHY DO PEOPLE LIE There can be sound reasons to lie. Common reasons for deception include: 1. Lie to benefit someone else. 2. Lie to get someone to affiliate with them. 3. Lie to avoid giving private details. 4. Lie to avoid a conflict. 5. Lie to impress others. 6. Lie to protect yourself. 7. Lie to benefit yourself. 8. Lie to harm someone else. KINDS OF LIES - 1. Distortion or equivocation. Bill Clinton & Monica Lewnsky. I did not have sex with that woman. He defined sex differently. Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is. Barbara Bush 2. Omission or concealment. Ronald Reagan about Iran/Contra affair, I do not recall. 3. Falsification. Nixon on Watergate, I am not a crook. POLITICAL LIES Politifact.com and Factcheck.org examine political statements and evaluates different parts of them. True-mostly true-partly true-mostly untrue-pants on fire. Song lyric - Liar liar pants on fire, your nose is longer than a telephone wire. Nose remark is from the old Italian story of Pinnochio (1883), a puppet whose creator wanted him to come alive and the puppet did. Every time he lied his nose grew longer.

3 BEHAVIORS WHILE LYING The assumption here is that people behave somewhat differently when lying, so knowing these differences can help us detect lies. Behaviors that may indicate lying: 1. Liars mae shorter statements. 2. Liars provide fewer details. 3. Liars press their lips together more. 4. Lies tend to be a bit less plausible. 5. Liars are evasive and appear more distant. 6. Liars are often rated as sonding less certain. 7. Liars tend to raise their chins more. 8. Liars repeat themselves more. 9. Liars are less coopertive in discussing the things they lie about. 10. Lies tend to have more negative statements than truths. 11. Facial exprssions are more pleasant if people are telling the truth. 12. Liars appear to be more nervous. 13. Liars tnd to spak in a higher pitch. 14. Eye pupils dilate while lying. Four factor model Zuckerman 1. People are more aroused or anxious when telling lies. This is the idea behind the polygraph, or lie detector. Not 100% accurate, and some people conceal their anxiety better than others. 2. People do not want to get caught lying, so they try to control their behaviors when lying. We try to control, but we cannot control all, and sometimes some of the signals leak out. 3. Deception triggers guilt, as our society teaches us that lying is wrong. Guilt may be signalled. 4. Lying requires more thinking than truth telling. With the truth, you just let it come out, with a lie you have to think very carefully about the construction of the untrue message. The extra work might be sensed. Interpersonal deception theory - Burgoon Liars and their listeners both are active in the transaction.

4 1. Liars strategically create messages with certain characteristics: manipulate the message to dissociate themselves from it, convey uncertainty or vagueness to avoid detection, or withhold information, control their other behaviors, manage their image (smiling or nodding). 2. They cannot control all of their behaviors, and so some cues to lying can and do leak out, such as blinks, pupil dilation, vocal nervousness, speech errors, leg and body movements, shorter responses. Presidential debate with Bush, Clinton & Ross Perot. Blinking evidence. SUCCESSFUL DECEPTION Machiavellian personalities. Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (May 3, 1469 June 21, 1527). This kind of personality is not interested in interpersonal relationships, manipulates others for selfish purposes and has little sense of social morality. They tend to be much more effective at deception because they are harder to detect, but reveal themselves through time. High social skills make it easier to lie effectively. If you are good at matching your communication to the situation, if you are good at communicating basic emotions, people who are expressive and socially tactful and excellent actors you can lie more effectively. Males are more successful at lying than females. Men tend to control their nonverbal behavior better. But, they are only a little better at it than women Prepared lies are more successful than spontaneous lies. They can better prepare and control their behaviors that might signal a lie. Very highly motivated lie is more successful. More motivated liars were more successful in a study of a mock crime people stole money or not as part of the experiment, then they had to lie about it. If they were successful they got to keep the $50; those who were offered $10 were less successful.

5 Successful liars look people in the eye. Most people believe this is a sign of truth telling, but it is not. Liars know to look you in the eye. This is the leading mistake that people make. WHY CAN T PEOPLE DETECT LYING VERY WELL? Some people are wizards. Mauren O Sullivan rested 13,000 people and found 31 people who were wizards. Hose who have had brain injuries and have lost their ability t interpret speech can still detect lies effectively by focusing on non-verbal signals. Control groups was 50-50, but brain ijured people studied succeded 73% of the time. Why do people fail as lie detectors? 1. Inaccurate stereotypes 2. Focus on content instead of how it is presented. 3. Truth or lie bias 4. Unfamiliarity with the liar. 5. Being suspicious hurts detection CONCLUSION: In the long run, lying is a bad strategy. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. Abraham Lincoln In any case, lying almost always is a road to failure. Don t do it. Unless you really want to get into Palestine.