PSYC 3600 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Lie Detection, Confirmation Bias, Stereotype Threat
29 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Even in the earliest legal systems, there were techniques for detecting lies. Legal professionals must rely on their own eyes, ears, and intuitions to catch liars: sometimes investigators resort to machine-assisted lie detection devices, such as polygraphs, to uncover deception. Deception is an essential lubricant of social interaction. From an evolutionary perspective, lying is adaptive. It serves a useful function that promotes survival. Our facility at bending the truth is what enables relatively harmonious group interaction. The (cid:862)machiavellian i(cid:374)tellige(cid:374)(cid:272)e h(cid:455)pothesis(cid:863) holds that a g(cid:396)eat leap fo(cid:396)(cid:449)a(cid:396)d i(cid:374) hu(cid:373)a(cid:374) i(cid:374)tellige(cid:374)(cid:272)e was triggered by the need for humans to develop the essential social skills of manipulation. The dominant judicial attitude appears to be that assessing credibility is a fairly (cid:862)st(cid:396)aightfo(cid:396)(cid:449)a(cid:396)d (cid:373)atte(cid:396). (cid:863) People can do better than chance in distinguishing truth from lies, but not by much. The overall accuracy rate is about 54%: when liars have time to plan out and rehearse their lies, their lies are slightly harder to detect.
