A quick word first
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Special note about this article
Earlier this week I published another article on this topic, “The Sad Truth about Lie Detection.” If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I suggest you give it a look first before going further here. It explains why lie detection is much more challenging than some people seem to think. (That explains why I said “a bit” in the title here.) Fine, of course, if you prefer to go right ahead with this one.
Test your skills
Years ago there was a TV game show, Friend or Foe? where contestants had decide f whether to lie or be truthful. Here are the rules:
Two teammates (strangers) would jointly earn money answering some multiple-choice questions.
Then they would reach under a podium and secretly choose to be a Friend or a Foe when distributing the winnings.
If both players chose Friend, they’d split the cash equally, 50/50.
If instead, both of them picked Foe, neither player would get anything.
But if one of them chose Foe and the other picked Friend, the Foe would get the whole pot, leaving the Friend empty-handed.
Here’s the important part. Before pushing their secret Friend or Foe buttons, the two players each would have a chance to make a statement about what they were going to do. Everyone on the show (Friends and Foes alike) wanted to convince the other party that they would be a Friend and share the money.
The cooperative people hoped to induce reciprocity. The competitive ones wanted to dupe the other person and scoop up all the cash. Take a moment to think about which button you’d push and, and what you’d tell your counterpart before pushing your button.
Okay, now you’re about to watch and hear a pair of contestants, Greg and Devan, state their intentions. Have a pen and paper handy. Note whether you think both are lying, both are being truthful, or one is lying (which one?) and the other is not. How confident are you about your assessment—a little or a lot? Finally, note what you heard or saw that led you to your judgment.
The clip runs 55 seconds. Click HERE to launch the video in a separate tab. When it concludes, just return to this email.
After you’ve jotted down your notes, check out what Greg and Devan did when it was time to push their secret Friend or Foe buttons. This clip takes 29 seconds. Click HERE to launch this video. (As with the first clip, when it’s done, just return this email.)
Analysis
So, how did you do?
Don’t be disappointed if you didn’t get either one right. Learning to be more observant is a useful takeaway. Likewise, is recognizing the risk of jumping to conclusions.
If you happened to get both correctly, beware of becoming over-confident. It could have been plain luck. (If you had just guessed without even seeing the clip, you would have had a 25 percent chance of being right about both players.)
That said, there are two quite different kinds of cues that stand out with Greg and Devan. With Devan, it was what she said. With Greg, it was how he said it.
Here’s Devan’ statement:
“So, well my dad’s a minister and I’m a daddy’s girl and unfortunately I told him I’m going to be on this show and he’ll be very disappointed if I vote Foe and display greed, so I’m hoping you’ll be partners with me and we can both walk away happy.
In my classes over the years, I’ve had more than 2,000 people analyze this clip. Half of them get it wrong by thinking that Devan will be a Friend and share the money. But there’s one word that in her statement that strikes me as a give-away. Did you hear it when she spoke, or just now spot it when you saw it in writing?
The word is “unfortunately.” Think about that.
Devan expresses regret that she told her father she’d be on the show. That implies that if she hadn’t done so, she’d be fine with lying. Also, dig a little deeper. Note that she doesn’t say, “I promise to vote Friend.” Instead, it’s the vaguer hope that they “both walk away happy.” If I were in Greg’s shoes, I’d want to hear a firmer commitment.
When it was his turn, he didn’t make an explicit promise either. He simply told her:
“I had a lot of fun playing with you and I think you rule, and I think you deserve part of the money. So, I hope you don’t go home with all of it.”
Even without a guarantee, though, the heart of his message was truthful. Of the many people who’ve seen the clip, more than 80 percent get him right. But I don’t think it was his words alone. Rather it how what he was saying was perfectly aligned with what his face was expressing from start to finish.
He is full of flattery at the outset (“I think you rule”). And he seems warm and genuine when he says that Devan deserves part of the money.
But then his facial expression changes dramatically when he adds, “So, I hope you don’t go home with all of it.”
It’s as if it suddenly dawns on him that Devan may turn out to be a Foe. This lasts a tenth of a second at the most. If you have very sharp eyes, maybe you caught his fear when you viewed the clip. Even if you weren’t consciously aware of it, for many viewers, it solidifies a positive impression of Greg and his good intentions.
Try again?
Right now, if you’d like a second test of your lie detection skills, check out this hilarious—and instructive—clip from the British version of Friend or Foe? Also, see if you can figure out Nick’s surprising strategy. Click HERE. Looking forward to seeing your comments!
Housekeeping
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Hi Michael -- Always good to hear from you, though you and I read Greg differently. I think he has a bit of a crush on Devan ("you rule"). Then she pops his balloon by being Foe-ish. At least he's a good sport and can laugh about it. What to you reckon the odds are that Devan's father is a minister? I'd put them at about zero. Cheers, Mike
if i were Greg, i did the same and can not tell that Devan tell lie. it's still hard for me to tell someone lies to me while most of the time I trust friends and family. And in reality, I was hurt over time. How can I be smarter?