Thinking Critically about How and Why We Lie
Do you understand why you tell lies?
By Joshlin Sheridan, Marketing —
When you picture what a liar looks like, what do you imagine? Do you see a fidgety, sweating criminal under oath? Do you imagine a smooth-talking liar running his mouth at work? Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, professor of business psychology at University College London and Columbia University, has offered some valuable insights as to why and how we lie.
Nature of liars
According to Charmorro-Premuzic’s article, Americans tell an average of almost two lies per day. However, it is suspected that 20 % of people tell 80% of the lies. Those that lie most often tend to have similar characteristics. These liars either don’t consider their lies as unethical, or they lie just to get a kick out of it.
However, the remaining 80% of people who aren’t frequent liars tend to lie because they are feeling pressured and are driven by insecurities.
Nature of lies
It’s important to remember that not all lies are immoral; some lies are told to save face or to be polite. For example, you could tell your mother-in-law that you agree blue is a lovely color on her, even if you don’t actually agree.
There is another key aspect to understanding lies: they take a high level of working memory capacity. Liars must be able to creatively come up with excuses and keep track of their stories. This requires a good memory and high emotional intelligence.
Tapping into the Eyes
Because of the increased cognitive load associated with telling lies, technology can now tell if you are lying based on the movement and dilation of your pupils. EyeDetect® is an Ocular-motor test that tracks the movement of the eyes and yields fast and accurate results.
