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[personal profile] charliesmum
The show 'Lie to Me' is streamable via Netflix, so I was watching it yesterday and I am hooked. I vaguely thought I'd like it anyway - it falls into that 'uber-clever observer of human nature' category that I enjoy, but I was pleased at how much I really like the show.

The writing is good - the pilot, which is always hard because you have to establish the characters, the relationships, and the point of the show, but they managed to do it without too much info dumping.

Also, as a fangirl of Richard Wiseman I enjoyed the whole 'how to tell from body language that people are lying' thing, as he has a whole section in his Quirkology book about that. Thanks to that book I actually knew some of the stuff they mentioned on the show regarding how to tell when someone is lying, so I think the science is pretty sound on the show overall.

One thing they mentioned on the show was that liars can't tell the story backwards. If you say 'I was at the gym, then I went home, had some dinner, watched television, and went to bed' and you are telling the truth, you can say, bed, television, dinner, gym, but if you were lying, you'd not be able to do it. At least not smoothly. I hope that's actually true, 'cause it's kind of neat.

And now, since it is 4 billion degrees outside and Charlie is with my parents all week, I'm sort of planning on going home, getting comfy, and watching as many episodes as I can so I can catch up. Because it is being that kind of a day.

on 2010-07-07 07:08 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] sixth-light.livejournal.com
I think the science is pretty sound on the show overall.

I hate to tell you, but it ain't. There is no reliable way to tell from someone's body language that they're lying. Some people have "tells", but not everyone does, and they're not always the same, and many people are simply very good liars.

Like voice stress analysis, it *sounds* really convincing, but no-one has ever shown that the experts in this technique can ID liars reliably enough for it to be really useful - and it has to be very very significantly better than chance to be useful in an investigation. Something like a 70 or 80% hit rate isn't enough, even though it sounds high; out of 100 people, if twenty of them are lying, you will statistically miss six of the liars and *think twenty-four of the truth-tellers are lying*. If you're talking about something like terrorism screening, when you might have ten thousand people and two terrorists...

Which is not to say that body language provides no clues to when people are lying. But if you've never met someone, or they're a practiced liar, or there is no contextual information to tell you that they might be/are lying, then the chances you'll call it - even if you're an expert - are still not much better than chance (and, remember, everyone has a 50/50 chance of being right!)

on 2010-07-07 07:12 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] charliesmum.livejournal.com
One interesting thing that they did mention on the show, and was something Richard Wiseman mentioned in his book was how that you can't 'fake' an eye crinkle. If you smile for real, the skin around your eyes will crinkle, and that's not something, apparently, people could fake.

What I meant about the 'science' is that the principal is sort of sound, even if the main characters get it more right then they ever would in real life. Moreso than, say, the medicine on House is. :)

on 2010-07-08 08:48 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] christinareborn.livejournal.com
What especially bothers me about that idea of using body language as a sign of truth-telling is that, to a certain extent, it's culture-dependent, as well as being based on the neurotypical majority. Someone from another culture, or who's in someway neurologically atypical, for example, autistic, will be misread.

on 2010-07-09 12:05 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] charliesmum.livejournal.com
They've mentioned that in the show actually. The whole 'micro-expression' science, which I really want to read up on now, is more about universal cues. We all widen our eyes when we're surprised, cry when we're sad, scream when we're scared, etc. That's what they look for, not necessarily the big tells.




on 2010-07-07 08:43 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] placeboweek.livejournal.com
Ah, I love "Lie to Me"! Steven and I watched the first season, and we can't wait for the second season to be available on DVD. Tim Roth really makes the show, in my opinion.

on 2010-07-07 11:24 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_geekie_/
I've caught a few episodes of Lie to Me on TV. It's pretty good.

I'm currently watching through every episode of Dead Like Me, since there's not much more I can do since Olivia is going through a growth spurt and doesn't want to stop nursing under any circumstances. Have you seen that one? I highly recommend it.

on 2010-07-08 02:29 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] drakonlily.livejournal.com
oh watch leverage! You'll like it

on 2010-07-08 11:32 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] charliesmum.livejournal.com
Oh, I love Leverage! I love a good con man story.

on 2010-07-10 07:33 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] pookledo.livejournal.com
"lie to me" is one of my favourites :)

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