Lie to Me: What Expression is This?
We often see different expressions in Lie to Me but don’t often get an explanation as to what expression it is, leaving the viewer to interpret the expression how they want.
This particular expression what seen in this past Monday’s episode of Lie to Me, “Bullet Bump” when the governor is questioned by Lightman. Many people think that this is an expression of shame- especially since the real-life examples shown afterward are of famous men who were unfaithful- Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards and Bill Clinton (all who were curiously politicians as well).
However, Dr. Matsumoto thinks this is an expression of control, where a person is trying to control their emotions and hide how they are truly feeling. Remember, there is no universal facial expression of shame, although judging by these images, it is easy to assume there is.
Here are some of the expressions for those that can’t watch the clip:
Lie to Me Season 2 Episode 17 “Bullet Bump”
This episode begins with a bang, literally, when a suspicious man in a denim jacket is arrested for an assassination attempt that goes wrong and kills an innocent woman.
The very beginning of the episode shows that learning how to detect dangerous faces, especially in a crowd, is an extremely useful and beneficial tool to have. Although Lightman states that there is no such face as an “assassin’s face”, Dr. Matsumoto and his team have collected data from various law enforcement agencies around the world to determine that there are faces the are consistent with pre-meditated assault and a loss of impulse control. However, in addition to these 2 faces of deadly intent, there may be additional dangerous faces that are not known. Therefore, Dr. Matsumoto and his team are constantly conducting research in this area.
Loker, Torres and Reynolds go to the jail where the suspect in the shooting is being held. After reading him for a few moments, Torres concludes that he’s telling the truth when he says he didn’t try to kill the governor. This plot twist then leads to Lightman and Foster questioning the governor’s campaign manager whom they deem suspicious.
As the plot thickens, Torres sees a subtle sign of surprise in the suspected gunman after showing him the murder weapon. Although it was great that she caught this subtle expression, Torres shouldn’t have automatically assumed that he was surprised because he didn’t know the weapon. He could have been surprised for a number of different reasons. The most important point about seeing a micro or subtle expression is that you don’t jump to a conclusion right away, but ask more questions because there’s more to the story than being told.
Lightman and Torres begin to dig a little deeper, questioning the governor’s wife. The campaign manager turns up dead and Emily, Lightman’s daughter, seems to have some feelings for Loker. By the end of the episode, Lightman and his crew find out that the governor’s wife was behind all the murders and he apologizes to Loker for punching him.
Overall not a bad episode but be careful of interpreting any micro or subtle expressions as an automatic sign of deception.
An Expression of “Surprise” by a Furry Friend
Its Monday and some of you may need some comic relief today.
For you, we’ve found this video of a furry friend making an “expression” of surprise.
Hope you enjoy!
Lie to Me Preview 7/26 “Bullet Bump”
Did we just see Lightman punch Loker in the stomach? This should be interesting…
Detecting True Lies: Police Officers’ Ability to Detect Suspects’ Lies
We recently came across this interesting article “Detecting True Lies: Police Officers’ Ability to Detect Suspects’ Lies” which was written by Samantha Mann, Aldert Vrij and Ray Bull of the University of Portsmouth Psychology Department.
Vrij, a professor of applied social psychology, has written over 350 articles and book chapters mainly on the topics of nonverbal and verbal cues to deception and lie detection.
The article, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology in 2004 investigated ninety-nine police officers and their ability to detect lies.
The study was unique in that it tested officers’ ability detect lies in a realistic setting during real police interviews with suspects, rather than in a laboratory where participants are brought in and instructed to lie.
Unlike other previous studies, Mann and her team found that the police officer’s “accuracy rates were higher than typically found in deception research and reached levels similar to those obtained by specialized lie detectors in previous research”.
In addition, their accuracy rates were “positively correlated with perceived experience in interviewing suspects and with mentioning cues to detecting deceit that relate to a suspect’s story”. In addition, as with many other studies, accuracy rates were negatively correlated with nonverbal cues such as gaze aversion and fidgeting.
Lie to Me Season 2 Episode 16 “Delinquent”
This week’s episode of Lie to Me was back to its usual ways with very little science and information as to how exactly Cal Lightman and his team can spot a liar.
The storyline itself was not horrible; we meet Ria Torres’ half-sister Ava and witness Foster’s more sensitive side after she is attacked by strangers in her own home. Cal’s interaction with his daughter seems to bring us a bit of nostalgia, as we all remember learning how to drive for the first time.
But overall the show seems as though its taking a more and more dramatic approach, with little science involved. Lie to Me now feels like other popular drama shows, such as CSI or Law and Order. Dramatic scenes with dead bodies showing up, illegal activity and unauthorized interrogations all in a day’s work for The Lightman Group.
Perhaps its hard to watch because we’re in the field. This is what we do every day here at Humintell and the reality of the situation is so far from what is portrayed in the show that its becoming more and more difficult to relate to. We can’t imagine kidnapping a delinquent from a local detention center or avoiding law enforcement’s help. Here at Humintell we do the complete opposite: we aid law enforcement, don’t perform our own interrogations or break the law.
Its true that the popularity of the show has exposed our whole world of nonverbal behavior and as a result, more people are becoming interested in the topic of microexpressions and detecting deception.
However, Lie to Me viewers should understand that the information portrayed in the show is strictly for drama’s sake and that very little of the information is rooted in actual science.
We can only hope that Lie to Me viewers don’t assume that everything they see on TV is real and that they do their research before thinking they can spot lies.
Lie to Me Preview 7/19 “Delinquent”
Tonight’s episode of Lie to Me seems to involve an intricate storyline involving Ria Torres and her sister, whom Ria calls a “delinquent”. Seems interesting enough…tune in tonight to watch microexpressions expert Dr. Cal Lightman and his team sniff out some more lies.
Lie to Me Season 2 Episode 15 “Teachers and Pupils”
In this week’s episode of Lie to Me, Dr. Cal Lightman and his team investigate the shooting of Officer Nick Hardy, who was gunned down after investigating a domestic disturbance call in an apartment building.
The injury left Hardy paralyzed and unable to move any part of his body, including the muscles in his face. Dr. Lightman is brought in by Agent Reynolds (Mekhi Pheifer) to read Hardy’s expressions, challenging him by asking if he could read a man “who can barely move his eyes”.
In short, the answer was yes.
Dr. Lightman observed Hardy’s pupillary responses to examine whether he was responding positively or negatively to a certain question.
While pupillary responses alone cannot be a sign of deceit, according to a article entitled “Cues to Deception” by Bella DePaulo, et al. it “could be regarded as supportive of the hypothesized importance of generalized arousal”. DePaulo also states that “we believe that it (pupillary response) is theoretically and empirically more precise and defensible to interpret these cues as indicative of particular attentional or information-processing activities or of specific affective experiences (e.g., Cacioppo,Petty, & Tassinary, 1989; Ekman et al., 1983; Neiss, 1988; Sparks & Greene, 1992)”.
DePaulo’s journal article which was published in the Psychological Bulletin in 2003, also lays out some interesting facts about liars vs truth tellers. Do people behave differently when they are lying compared with when they are telling the truth? The abstract of the study that investigated 1,338 estimates of 158 cues to deception states that “Results show that in some ways, liars are less forthcoming than truth tellers, and they tell less compelling tales. They also make a more negative impression and are more tense. Their stories include fewer ordinary imperfections and unusual contents. However, many behaviors showed no discernible links, or only weak links, to deceit”. A complete look at the article can be found here.
Given that Lie to Me is a drama and that many facts are either exaggerated or misrepresented, we feel the need to debunk information that may be falsely portrayed in the show. We hope that most viewers do not take what they may “learn” from one or several episodes and immediately start to apply it to real life situations. As with any other subject, its important and crucial to get factual information from credible sources before jumping to any conclusions.
Lie to Me: Viewers Impact
Many of us watch the hit show Lie to Me on Fox every Monday evening. Thanks to the gaining popularity of the show, more and more people have developed an interest in the topic of microexpressions and the world of nonverbal behavior.
Recently researchers at Michigan State University led by professor of communication, Timothy Levine, are putting Lie to Me viewer’s deception skills to the test in a new study entitled “The impact of Lie to Me on viewers’ actual ability to detect deception”.
The study which was published in the Journal of Communication Research, finds watching Lie to Me “increases suspicion of others but that is reduces one’s ability to detect deception”, according to an article written by Tom Jacobs of Miller-McCune.
Levine and his colleagues experiment involved 108 undergraduates at the university. Thirty-three of these individuals watched an episode of Lie to Me, another thirty-five watched a different crime drama called Numb3rs while the last third of the group did not watch either program. The group that did not watch either show served as the control group.
After they watched various episodes (or none at all), the participants saw a series of 12 taped interviews where half were telling the truth and the other half lied consistently. The participants were instructed to state whether they believed the person in the interview was being honest or deceptive.
Interestingly, according to the article written by Jacobs, the control group was the most accurate, correctly identifying the person as honest or dishonest 65.2 percent of the time. The Numb3rs group came in second, at 61.7 percent, while the Lie to Me group came in last at 59.5 percent.
The results of this show illustrated that Lie to Me viewers were “no better at distinguishing truths from lies but were more likely than control participants to misidentify honest interviewees as deceptive. Watching Lie to Me decreases truth bias thereby increasing suspicion of others while at the same time reducing deception detection ability” according to the study’s abstract.
It seems a larger sample size may be necessary in the future and we would be interested in reading the complete study. However, the show suggests what we have been suggesting all along: that viewers of Lie to Me shouldn’t accept all information that is presented on the show as accurate or think they know more about lie detection without getting formal training.
Lie to Me Preview 7/12 “Teacher and Pupils”
Preview tonight’s episode of Lie to Me, airing at 8/7central on FOX.
At the end of the preview an interesting question is posed to Dr. Lightman as to whether he could read someone that could barely move their eyes. This is a valid inquiry, as injury or impairment of any facial muscles could limit the amount of movement a person could have when expressing emotions.
Similarly, when individuals get botox injections, certain facial muscles are paralyzed therefore impeding the ability to express certain emotions. An interesting article was written recently which suggests that botox not only “may harm the expression of an emotion, but also its comprehension”.
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