Sunday, August 9, 2009

60 Minutes

Yeah, I know it's mostly rubbish now, but I'm interested in the piece about body language readers watching video of people and telling whether they're lying or not... and how they know.

Unmasking the Truth
Reporter: Liz Hayes
Producer: Stephen Rice

Let's be honest, we've all told a lie or two. Usually they're pretty harmless and not very convincing. But there are bare-faced liars, people who try to get away with murder, quite literally.

You've seen them on the news, tearfully pleading for help in finding a missing loved one. And all the time, they know their husband, wife, even their own child, is already dead.

Now though, a new type of crime fighter is moving in to unmask these killers and their crocodile tears.

They're human lie detectors, who can pick up the smallest twitch, the slightest irregularity. One false move and you're gone. (transcript)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

"They're human lie detectors, who can pick up the smallest twitch"

I'm not sure about picking up the smallest twitch, but I always could detect lies and bullshit.

Took me a long time to learn to hide this ability.

Michael

kae said...

Hi Michael

I just think that this segment will be interesting... body language has been something that has interested me, I'm not an expert or anything, just interested.

Did your ability get you into trouble? I'd imagine it would help you in making decisions personally, though...

Anonymous said...

not into trouble, as such but how would you feel if knew what an idiot your interviewer was, and it showed on your face?

That was the hardest part, to put a smiling face to all the bullshit I heard, now, I can match it with the best of the car salesmen, not yet up to politician's standard but!

kae said...

Hmm. Yeah, but they wouldn't know unless you told them.

I don't know if you watched it, but the bloke who watched their tics and lip curls, rather than the other one who just did it listening to what they said and did, said that he had to be careful with the ability because really, it was "stealing", stealing information that people didn't want others to know (that they are lying!).

Anonymous said...

Yes I did watch it, my "ability" is different, I can sense in an instant, *well mostly, what sort of a person I'm dealing with.

Never let me down yet.

* some people are good at hiding their thoughts and feelings, but not for ever!

kae said...

So, is Kev lying


or is he just a dweeb?

kae said...

Oh, you don't have to answer that question!

Anonymous said...

I know kae,
but I have to meet them personally, although with the Dweeb it's not necessary.

I met some of the Howard ministers and the man himself.

I did not like most of his policies re. social engineering like the guns, and illegals, he should have left the guns alone, and been a lot harder on the latter, but overall he came across as many see him, a man of conviction like it or not.

I would not go any further, he was a polly after all.

kae said...

Eeew, wouldn't want to meet the dweeb personally.

You'd need a shovel anyway...

Fair enough about not going any further, too.

That's interesting.

Stevo said...

Hi Kae

Not too sure what sort of crap 60 Minutes had up there tonight, apart from what I'm reading here. You and I have bullshit detectors and they usually serve us well. But can we really tell everyone who is telling a porkie, or a lie? I don't think so. Society gets along on trust. Sometimes that trust is broken. Where my bullshit detector comes in Kae is where it is too good to be true. That's personal & business wise. With politicians, it's most of the time because they do not directly answer the questions from the journalists. But remember some of the questions are loaded and shouldn't be answered in a yes/no fashion.

I've read some governments want to use MRI scans to detect lies. Where's the science behind it? Or looking at peoples facial ticks. Some people will get caught out. And the others? If we're talking about law enforcement where lies really mean something, let the law enforcement bodies do what they always do, get evidence.

Cheers ... Stevo

ps: going out on a limb because I haven't watched the show ... haven't in a long time ....

kae said...

Hi Stevo
I think it's possible to be an expert in reading people's facial tics and body language.
Both the experts looked at film of Schapelle, one said she told the truth - he was the one who listened to what they said, he said what she was saying (and thinking at the time), was backed up with hand actions and that's hard to make up and also he said that she was saying what she thought, and liars can't tell you what they were thinking.

The other expert said he was undecided on Schapelle. This expert explained earlier that two of the murderers who lied, one of them was lifting his top lip as he was disgusted with what he'd done (the man who murdered his wife and toddler with a speargun and dumped them on the tip), when asked if he'd killed them he replied "I did not harm my wife and daughter". The give away was he said he didn't harm them... becuase in his eyes he didn't harm them, he shot them with a speargun. The young fellow who murdered his family also did the snarly lip thing. He was disgusted with what he'd done. The third murder who killed his pregnant wife was slightly lifting his shoulder when talking on camera asking for information or for his wife to contact someone - he was also shaking his head when he said that, and this too was a giveaway - he knew that she wouldn't contact anyone, she's dead. He knew that noone would have seen them, they were dead.

It was very interesting, Stevo.

kae said...

Oops
I found the discussion of Shapelle's video interesting. I can understand why one could not make a decision, or would not!

After the explanation of the "I did not harm my wife and child" thing if you lie by omission "It wasn't my drugs", it was X's, or Z must have put it there... well, it's still a lie, but I suppose hard for the human detector to suss.