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Show: NewsStand: CNN & TIME
Time: 22:00 pm ET
Date: September 6, 1998 |
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GREENFIELD: The critic had some harsh words for the president: "There's no such thing as truth when it comes to him; he just says whatever sounds good, and worries about it later." The president in question was George Bush; the critic -- Bill Clinton, speaking a few days before he was elected president in 1992.
Well, if it's any consolation to the president, most of us aren't always sticklers for the truth. And, as we reported last July, most of us are just plain terrible at detecting lies others tell us. Here is correspondent Larry LaMotte, honestly.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LAMOTTE (voice-over): Moses went to Mount Sinai. No lie. He received God's commandments. Among them: don't lie. Thousands of years later, we all lie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I try to stay away from the lies, just, you know, to get myself out of trouble, or whatever. I swear, I swear, honest. Boy scout honor, and I wasn't a boy scout, I just lied. I don't know why I did that.
LAMOTTE (on camera): Why we lie, how we lie, and when we lie are questions psychologists are trying to answer. Their research can help us understand some of the he said/she said in Washington. And their findings explain why lying is so much a part of all our lives; we'd be lost if we were always forced to tell the truth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "Liar Liar")
JIM CARREY, ACTOR: I can't lie!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAMOTTE (voice-over): Pop culture's view of the price we would pay...
CARREY: No.
LAMOTTE: ... is captured in Jim Carrey's performance as a lying lawyer turned honest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, ACTRESS: Is it good for you?
CARREY: I've had better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAMOTTE: Most of us aren't brutally honest, according to professor Bella DePaulo.
BELLA DEPAOLO, PROFESSOR: Almost everyone lies every day.
LAMOTTE: In a ground breaking study, she recruited students at the University of Virginia, and residents of surrounding Charlottesville, to keep diaries: documenting all their social interactions for a week.
(on camera): What do they lie about?
DEPAOLO: They lie about everything.
(LAUGHTER) LAMOTTE: On average, they lied in one out of every four conversations. Some were altruistic lies to protect another's feelings. "That dress is beautiful." But twice as many were self-centered, self-serving lies such as...
DEPAOLO: "I led a girl to believe that I was a model with a New York agency. I told them my father was an ambassador."
Here's another one: "I don't lie."
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told her I loved her when I really didn't.
LAMOTTE: Men, she found, were the worst.
DEPAOLO: They were eight times more likely to tell the kinds of lies that made them look good, than the kinds of lies that spared someone else's feelings.
LAMOTTE: But some people are more convincing than others.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, From NBC/Mark Goodson Prod.)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your name, please?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Sergeant George Harris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAMOTTE: The program "To Tell the Truth" showcased those with special skills.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Sergeant George Harris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAMOTTE: Skills that develop early on. At a pre-school near Colgate University...
UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: Would you like some more of that one? ... Professor Carrie Keating demonstrated for us her experiment on deception. Five year olds were asked to drink unsweetened Kool-Aid mixed with salt. What does that one taste like?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I don't like it.
UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: Is it yucky?
LAMOTTE: The kids were then asked to pretend the bitter drink tasted good.
UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: What was good about it?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I like the taste.
UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: The color is lovely, isn't it?
LAMOTTE: The interviews were videotaped for judges to rate who was telling the truth. Some kids were better at deception -- Why?
KEATING: The children who could sample that bitter-tasting drink and look us straight in the eye and tell us that it tasted sweet. Did you like your drink? You did? What did you like about it?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: The color.
KEATING: Those were the very same children who had emerged as leaders among their peers.
LAMOTTE: Part of what makes a leader appear honest or dishonest is his or her face.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: These allegations are false.
KEATING: So we were able make the president look more honest.
LAMOTTE: Take President Clinton. Professor Keating did.
KEATING: We're going to move -- copy it.
LAMOTTE: In an experiment, she altered his face.
KEATING: Let's put it at 115.
LAMOTTE: Using a computer, she made his eyes 15 percent bigger...
KEATING: And now what we want to do it copy that eye.
LAMOTTE: ... and pasted them on a copy of his photograph.
KEATING: Right where it should be.
LAMOTTE: His lips, too.
KEATING: Oh, that's not the right spot.
LAMOTTE: Fifteen percent larger.
KEATING: Big eyes and a babyish facial appearance seem to inspire trust in us. Just like we trust children.
LAMOTTE: When a group of voters was shown the original and the altered photos, the baby face was consistently rated higher for honesty, even by Republicans. (on camera): Even though they were subtle changes?
KEATING: Even though they never recognized that a change was made.
LAMOTTE (voice-over): So, how can we tell when someone is pulling our chain? Pinocchio's nose was a dead giveaway. But how often do you talk to a fairy tale puppet in a Disney movie? That's where professor Paul Eckman of the University of California comes in. He's a human lie detector who analyzes what he calls "micro-expressions," subtle body language that occurs when the body subconsciously rejects our lies.
PAUL ECKMAN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: Did you take that money from me?
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: No, I did not.
LAMOTTE: This student, part of a study, plays a deception game set up by Dr. Eckman. Watch his shoulders as he tries to make the professor believe he did not take $50.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: Well, my thoughts were just, there's a simple decision to be made and, you know, and it made it even simpler for me.
ECKMAN: His shoulders: he's done a little part of a shrug. He hasn't done a full shrug. And the reason why it's important is because it doesn't fit with what he's saying. If he was saying, "Well, I wasn't sure what to do," then it wouldn't be a sign of lying. How much money was in there?
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: Fifty dollars.
LAMOTTE: Another student, also in the study, plays the Eckman game. Watch his lips for a slight shrug that's out of sync with his words.
ECKMAN: Did you take that money from me?
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: No.
LAMOTTE: There it was. It's fast. Watch it again.
ECKMAN: Did you take that money from me?
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: No.
LAMOTTE: In another Eckman experiment, subjects could lie or tell the truth about their opinions on capital punishment. This one lied, and gave himself away with his slow blinking.
ECKMAN: There's normal blinking. See how fast it is? Now is this your true opinion?
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: Yes.
LAMOTTE: Here it goes. Long blink.
ECKMAN: My hunch is it's happening. It's kind of a magic: "I really don't want to see what I'm having to deal with."
LAMOTTE: Eckman teaches his technique at many law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and CIA. But the method is not fool- proof, especially when it comes to people who are, to put it politely, natural performers: an estimated four percent of the population.
ECKMAN: They don't necessarily lie any more than anyone else. It's just that when they do, they're seamless.
LAMOTTE: A dubious distinction. But perhaps we should honor their achievements rather than condemn them as sinners. Ninth Commandment notwithstanding, they do bring something to the table.
ECKMAN: They make great actors, great salesmen, great politicians.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GREENFIELD: Some of Dr. Eckman's research may be of particular interest to the White House. He found that most people underestimate how hard it is to maintain a lie. They also underestimate the likelihood of getting caught, and the cost of getting caught. |
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