We are exposed to dishonesty everyday. A study done by Michigan State University found that the average American will lie 3 times in a 10 minute conversation. With such prevalence of dishonesty in our daily lives learning to detect a lie is an essential skill.
There are two commons ways of detecting a lie. Human detection – an observer looking for physical signs of lying, or machine detection such as with a polygraph. Rob Talech is a partner at Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers. He explains why he thinks polygraphs are currently inadmissible in Canadian courts.
“People and society have a real discomfort with machines being able to determine truth. And dispute the increased accuracy with these devices, there is a real discomfort with using them”
Polygraphs measure physiological indicators such as heart rate, skin temperature, and perspiration which can be used to indicate when someone is lying. However, there are many reasons someone may be experience these signs of stress besides dishonesty. The most accurate human lie detection on the other hand relies on micro-expressions to detect dishonesty.
Using a polygraph in daily life may be a little difficult to manage but having some knowledge of micro-expressions could help anyone discern truth in normal interactions.
