Tag: lies

  • Reliable Lie Detection Cues

    We mistakenly attribute fidgeting, stuttering and avoidance of eye contact as outward signals of mendacity, suggests recent research into lie detection, showing that these are some of the least accurate ways to predict whether or not someone is lying. Instead, the most reliable way to tell if someone is lying is by listening carefully: Professor…

  • Unconscious Plagiarism

    Cryptomnesia, according to Wikipedia, is “a memory bias whereby a person falsely recalls generating a thought, an idea, a song, or a joke, when the thought was actually generated by someone else”. Newsweek has an article discussing this phenomenon; including what appear to be genuine cases of cryptomnesia and the novel tests being conducted by…

  • Moral Psychology and Innate Lying/Honesty

    We have based our society on the assumption that deciding to lie or to tell the truth is within our conscious control. But […] this assumption may be flawed and […] honesty may instead be the result of controlling a desire to lie (a conscious process) or of not feeling the temptation to lie in…

  • Economic Experts: Insightful, Biased

    Be wary of advice and forecasts from economic ‘experts’, says economist Zachary Karabell—not because they are trying to sell their services or because they are lying, but because they truly believe their (unintentionally) skewed opinions. Being wrong in the past is not much of a liability as long as one is right in the present.…

  • Alibi Club

    Alibi clubs are loose collections of people willing to help each other out with alibis for every occasion: skipping work for the day, travelling to another country with your mistress, or getting out of a blind date. Your imagination—and morality—is your only barrier. There is nothing new about making excuses or telling fibs. But the…

  • Lies I’ve Told

    I’ve been a long-time fan of Raul Gutierrez’ blog, and he’s just posted another beautiful item: Lies I’ve Told My 3 Year Old Recently: If you are very very quiet you can hear the clouds rub against the sky. We are all held together by invisible threads. Books get lonely too. Sadness can be eaten.…