Lie to Me…Really?

Paul Dallas, M.D.

Disclosures

• Listed in syllabus

• Stocks in some companies

• Not relevant to this talk

• Getting less conflicted

Case

• 38 yo male with abd pain and fever

• Tender abd with mass; CT with abd abscess

• Admitted to heroin addiction

• Tearfully committed to quitting

• Certainly he was not truthful

• Wife’s tearful confession/story

Can we detect lying?

• We can sense it

• “Don’t trust him. Don’t know why.”

• “That person has shifty eyes.”

• Can we learn it?

• Can we teach it?

• Can we use it in medicine?

Can we really detect lying?

• Microexpressions

• Word choice/content

• Neuro-ophtholinguistics

• Primary representational systems

Microexpressions

• Paul Eckman, David Matsumoto, starting in mid 70’s

• Cultural similarities in facial expression

• Not taught but innate in humans

• Governed by emotions

• Training for law enforcement, TSA, defense

• 2 million dollar grants just to study

Microexpressions

• Those facial expressions lasting less than a second

• Give clues to person’s emotional state

• Emotional leakage(incontinence?)

• Not well controlled by individuals

• Recognizing micro requires recognizing standard expressions

Seven Basic Emotions

• Fear

• Disgust

• Contempt

• Anger

• Sadness

• Surprise

• Happiness

Seven Basic Emotions

• Need to know on what features of the face to concentrate

• Need to want to recognize them-own emotions play a role (“So mad, I can’t see straight.”)

• Women are better at recognizing them

• People can be trained-much experience with this now. Knowing anatomy helps

Fear

Disgust

Contempt

Anger

Sadness

Surprise

Happiness

Smiles

Smiles

• Facial Action Coding System(FACS), Eckman and Friesen

• Eyes: lateral brow edges dip down, eye coverfold dips, lateral wrinkles

• Zygomaticus major pulls lateral edges of lips upward. Not risorious- lateral

Risorius

Zygomaticus Major

Smiles

Nasalis Transversus

Nasalis Transverus

• Disgust• Contempt• Lust-frontalis, z. major• Rejection• Threat• Anger• Displeasure

Nasalis Transversus

Is this person lying?

Content of Speech

“The cruelest lies are often told in silence.” Robert Louis Stevenson

Content of Speech

• Emotion commotion: delayed, stays longer, fades quickly (surprise)

• Timing, words followed by emotion-”I am so angry with you right now.”

• Hand movements don’t coincide with statements. May not point in the direction of speakers attention

• Contradiction/consistency of gestures/speech

Content of Speech

• Using your own words to make the point: R.A.: “Have you ever sold your drugs?” I would never sell drugs.”

• Contractions: 60% chance of falsehood: “It wasn’t me.” vs “It was not me.”

• Give enough rope to hang-made up stories go on and on with silence

• Delay from yes/no to explanation-need to think up a lie perhaps

Content of Speech

• Avoidance of words conveying attachment/ownership: that car vs my car, that woman.

• Lack of syllable prolongation: of courrse, nooo• Vocal inflections absent• Statements should not sound like questions• Beware the preamble; make no mistake, I

wanna make it perfectly clear.

Is this person lying?

Neuroophtholinguistics

• Model for correlating the brain, the eyes and language

• John Grinder, Richard Bander, Robert Dilts• Used in psychotherapy, sales, law• Eye accessing cues are a part of this theory• Some reproducible scientific basis• Internally consistent in a person. Need to figure

out baseline

Eye Accessing Cues

Eye Accessing CuesEyes up and right: non-dominant hemisphere visualization

(remembered imagery)Eyes up and left: dominant hemisphere visualization

(constructed fantasy)Eyes lateral right: non-dominant hemisphere auditory

(remembered sounds)Eyes lateral left: dominant hemisphere auditory processing

(constructed sounds)Eyes down and right: internal dialogue (self-talk)Eyes down and left: feelings, both tactile and visceral

(kinesthetic)Eyes straight, defocused, or dilated: quick access to

information, usually visual.

Visual Remembered

• Think of the color of your car.

• Who were the first five people you saw this morning?

• What did you have for breakfast?

Visual Constructed

• Imagine the top half of a white toy poodle and the bottom half of a green hippopotamus in one animal.

• Imagine being 10 feet above us looking down on this room.

Auditory Remembered

• Think of one of your favorite songs.

• Think of the sound of your car’s engine.

Auditory Constructed

• Imagine the sound of your mother’s voice changing into the sound of a steam engine whistle.

• Imagine the sounds of the intensive care unit changing into the sound of a peaceful flowing stream of water.

Kinesthetic

• Imagine the feeling of petting a furry cat.

• When was the last time you felt really wet?

• Imagine feeling very angry.

• Imagine feeling very sad.

Internal Dialogue

• Listen to the sound of your own voice.

• In what situations do you talk to yourself the most?

• What type of things do you say to yourself most often?

Auditory Remembered

Visual Remembered

Kinesthetic

Case 1

• What happened at the meeting yesterday?

• Several eye movements later.

• “It went ok.”

Eye Motions

1 3

2 4

Assessment

• He was visualizing people there. Where people were sitting

• He remembered someone saying something• He was displeased, angry, disappointed (other

emotion) with the discussion• He discussed with himself what was appropriate

to say to me

Case 2

• “ Jill, are you excited about your marriage to Jack in several weeks?”

• “ Yes, I love Jack…I really do.”

Eye motions

1 2

3

Preferred sensory modality

• The sensory modality a person uses most when thinking

• Uses words to describe it; “I hear what you’re saying. I see what you mean. I get it. I smell a rat.”

• What is something that is really important to you? Think of it now.

Primary Kinesthetic

Primary Self Talk

Primary Self Talk

• I believe.. I am disappointed… We should discuss this

Eye Accessing Cues

• Expected subconsciously-shifty eyes

• Bad actors-wrong cues; good actors-right ones

• Psychotic pts-do they really “remember” their visual hallucinations?

• Have to look- Be aware (EPIC)

Applications in Medicine

• Patient history- emotion where none should be

• Patient compliance

• Diversion of meds

• Medical education-what did the gram stain show?

Limitations/Ethics

Limits interaction with friends

Emotional intuitiveness-helpful

Emotional hacking-not helpful

Much science still to explore

Much more television to watch

Further Reading

• Telling Lies; clues to deceit in the marketplace, politics and marriage. Paul Eckman

• Emotions Revealed. Paul Eckman• Never Be Lied to Again. David Lieberman• The Structure of Magic. Bandler and Grinder• Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson.

Bandler, Erickson and Delozier• Neurolinguistic Programming. Dilts, Grinder,

Bandler and DeLozier

Questions?