Lie to Me

A few months ago I found myself hooked on the television show Lie to Me – a crime drama that aired from 2009-2011. The show follows Dr. Cal Lightman, a behavioral psychologist who is able to tell whether or not someone is lying by analyzing their body language and, most importantly, their “microexpressions” – the name for the quick and involuntary facial expressions we make when we’re feeling certain emotions.

Lightman’s fascination with microexpressions began while watching a video tape taken during his mother’s final therapy session, the session before she committed suicide. His mother had been institutionalized for depression and in the video she appeared to be very happy. She told her therapist that all she wanted was to see her children again. The therapist was convinced by her deceit and right after leaving the hospital she committed suicide.

After viewing this videotape hundreds of times, Lightman had the idea to watch it in slow motion, which revealed the numerous microexpressions of agony on his mother’s face while she lied about being happy. Lightman opened his own business in which he and his colleagues consult on many different situations ranging from FBI cases to personal cases.

In one episode, a man confesses to murdering a teacher at his daughter’s school, but Lightman doesn’t believe him. To prove the man is lying, Lightman shows the man a picture of the crime scene and a look of shock  flashes across the man’s face. It was later discovered that the man was lying to protect his teenage daughter – the real murderer.

People found this show fascinating because it asked a fundamental question: can we really tell if people are lying just by carefully watching their faces and analyzing their reactions to different situations? I was curious to find out if there was actually a real scientific basis behind this show and microexpressions, so I did what anyone does these days when they want information – I went straight to Google. (Don’t worry; I took my research to more scholarly sources afterwards.)

It turns out that Dr. Lightman’s fictional character is based heavily on Dr. Paul Ekman, a psychologist who has spent the last few decades studying nonverbal behavior. Ekman co-discovered microexpressions while watching a videotape of a suicidal woman (not his mother, though), and was a consultant for the show.

Facial expressions are universal – everyone projects different emotions in the same way. Happy people smile. Surprised people raise their eyebrows and widen their eyes. Angry people scrunch up their face and eyebrows.

 

So why do we exhibit these involuntary microexpressions? In one of Ekman’s articles, he explains that the answer lies in the nerves that innervate our facial muscles, known as the facial nucleus. There are about 40 muscles in the human face, but not all of them can be controlled voluntarily. Emotions that we feel under varying circumstances can send signals to our facial muscles (via the facial nucleus) causing them to either contract or relax, thereby changing our expression.

So, what do these microexpressions look like and how can we tell if someone is lying?

• Eyebrows give a lot away. Oblique eyebrows are a reliable sign of sadness because they are very hard to fake. Raised eyebrows are a tell-tale sign of surprise. Eyebrows drawn down and together indicate anger.
• Contempt can be given away by a raised corner of the lip
• A shrug of the shoulder can indicate lying
• Despite popular belief, a person who looks away is not necessarily lying – people often look away while they are thinking or carefully considering something. It is more probable that they are lying if they never break eye contact.
• Often times, a liar will unknowingly shake their head no while saying ‘yes’ or nod their head yes while saying ‘no’.

With this newfound knowledge I wanted to put my skills to the test, so I started watching Youtube videos of presidential interviews to see if I could spot any of these signs of lying.

This video is one of the more light-hearted interviews I found  (so hopefully this will not become some big political debate).

About 27 seconds in, Obama makes the statement, “I’m doing great” but he also is slightly shaking his head no. So, maybe there’s trouble in paradise?

While telling Steve about his Christmas shopping, from about 0:50-1:20, Obama frequently looks away which clues us into the fact that he is telling the truth.

A look of surprise seems to flash across Steve’s face at about 5:15 when Obama is talking about his relationship with his wife.

So, there you have it. That’s the best I could come up with from this video. I challenge you to look through videos and carefully analyze friends and family to see what you can come up with.

 

Disclaimer: There is not one single demeanor that is completely trustworthy to tell when someone is lying. So be careful when accusing someone of lying based solely on the things you have learned in this blog post.