Shakita Jarrett
Blog 4
Many people believe they can detect deception of others through nonverbal
cues because of the popular misconceptions that lying individuals exhibit
behaviors different from truth tellers. However, nonverbal cues are not useful
when detecting deception because those cues vary by person. For example,
evading eye contact while talking to someone does not indicate someone is
lying, avoiding eye contact could mean the individual is gathering their
thoughts or just looking around. In the article “How to tell if someone is lying”, the author stated that accuracy
of people detecting deception is by chance meaning its low, because people fail
to realize that detecting lies is hard since lying is done spontaneously by
people every-day. The article provided reasons why detecting lies is hard such
as, people prefer hearing the white lie rather than the truth because it hurts.
These concepts relate to class material because we discussed how people are
overconfident about their ability to detect deception because they buy into the
common misconceptions about deception through the leakage of nonverbal cues. Also, research states that there is no
single cue associated with lying. During our class discussion, students
mentioned the common misconceptions about deception including lack of eye
contact and cognitively complex meaning
the person has a delayed response. I concurred because I believed that lacking
eye contact was the main signal that someone is lying until learning that
avoiding eye contact is not always a bad thing. For example, in some cultures
looking someone in the eye for a long period of time could be frowned upon in
certain countries, so avoiding contact is normal. Moreover, I think lying
serves a purpose in relationships and in everyday life. To begin, in
relationships people have relationship-focused
motives for lying to their partner to avoid conflict and possible end to a
relationships. For example, a boyfriend could tell his
girlfriend that he went out for drinks with his friends but actually had drinks
and dinner with his ex. That lie will protect the partner from being hurt and
any conflict that may rise because having dinner with an ex in any relationship
will cause havoc and one partner wanting answers. Secondly, the type of deceptions
that are committed spontaneously are the ones that are easy and not hurtful to
others. A type of deception that could be used spontaneously is equivocation meaning the person avoid
the truth by not answering the question. This form of deception can occur when
a friend gets a new hairstyle or has on an outfit and instead of telling the
person how your dislike of the hairstyle or outfit, you can respond with
“what’s for lunch” or another statement avoiding the question. I can identify
with equivocation because I use this method of detection with friends and
family to avoid that awkwardness of disliking something and potentially hurting
ones feelings. Overall, there is no conclusive evidence that nonverbal cues
detect deception because those cues vary by person and the accuracy of people
detecting lies are low.
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