The truth about lying - IELTS reading practice test

Over the years Richard Wiseman has tried to tát unravel the truth about deception - investigating the signs that give away a liar.

A - Do only humans lie?

In the 1970s, as part of a large-scale research programme exploring the area of Interspecies communication, Dr Francine Patterson from Stanford University attempted to tát teach two lowland gorillas called Michael and Koko a simplified version of Sign Language. According to tát Patterson, the great apes were capable of holding meaningful conversations, and could even reflect upon profound topics, such as love and death. During the project, their trainers believe they uncovered instances where the two gorillas' linguistic skills seemed to tát provide reliable evidence of intentional deceit. In one example, Koko broke a toy cat, and then signed to tát indicate that the breakage had been caused by one of her trainers.

In another episode, Michael ripped a jacket belonging to tát a trainer and, when asked who was responsible for the incident, signed ‘Koko’. When the trainer expressed some scepticism, Michael appeared to tát change his mind, and indicated that Dr Patterson was actually responsible, before finally confessing.

B - When bởi we begin to tát lie?

Other researchers have explored the development of deception in children. Some of the most interesting experiments have involved asking youngsters not to tát take a peek at their favourite toys. During these studies, a child is led into a laboratory and asked to tát face one of the walls. The experimenter then explains that he is going to tát phối up an elaborate toy a few feet behind them. After setting up the toy, the experimenter says that he has to tát leave the laboratory, and asks the child not to tát turn around and peek at the toy. The child is secretly filmed by hidden cameras for a few minutes, and then the experimenter returns and asks them whether they peeked. Almost all three-year do, and then half of them lie about it to tát the experimenter. By the time the children have reached the age of five, all of them peek and all of them lie. The results provide compelling evidence that lying starts to tát emerge the moment we learn to tát speak.

C - A public test of our ability to tát spot a lie

So what are the tell-tale signs that give away a lie? In 1994, the psychologist Richard Wiseman devised a large-scale experiment on a TV programme called Tomorrow's World. As part of the experiment, viewers watched two interviews in which Wiseman asked a presenter in front of the cameras to tát describe his favourite film. In one interview, the presenter picked Some Like It Hot and he told the truth; in the other interview, he picked Gone with the Wind and lied. The viewers were then invited to tát make a choice - to tát telephone in to tát say which film he was lying about. More than vãn 30,000 calls were received, but viewers were unable to tát tell the difference and the vote was a 50/50 split. In similar experiments, the results have been remarkably consistent - when it comes to tát lie detection, people might as well simply toss a coin. It doesn’t matter if you are male or female, young or old; very few people are able to tát detect deception.

D - Exposing some false beliefs

Why is this? Professor Charles Bond from the Texas Christian University has conducted surveys into the sorts of behaviour people associate with lying. He has interviewed thousands of people from more than vãn 60 countries, asking them to tát describe how they phối about telling whether someone is lying. People’s answers are remarkably consistent. Almost everyone thinks liars tend to tát avert their gaze, nervously wave their hands around and shift about in their seats. There is, however, one small problem. Researchers have spent hour upon hour carefully comparing films of liars and truth-tellers. The results are clear. Liars bởi not necessarily look away from you; they bởi not appear nervous and move their hands around or shift about in their seats. People fail to tát detect lies because they are basing their opinions on behaviours that are not actually associated with deception.

E - Some of the things liars really do

So what are we missing? It is obvious that the more information you give away, the greater the chances of some of it coming back to tát haunt you. As a result, liars tend to tát say less and provide fewer details than vãn truth-tellers. Looking back at the transcripts of the interviews with the presenter, his lie about Gone with the Wind contained about 40 words, whereas the truth about Some Like It Hot was nearly twice as long. People who lie also try psychologically to tát keep a distance from their falsehoods, and so sánh tend to tát include fewer references to tát themselves in their stories. In his entire interview about Gone with the Wind, the presenter only once mentioned how the film made him feel, compared with the several references to tát his feelings when he talked about Some Like It Hot.

F - Which khuông of communication best exposes a lie?

The simple fact is that the real clues to tát deceit are in the words that people use, not the toàn thân language. So bởi people become better lie detectors when they listen to tát a liar, or even just read a transcript of their comments? The interviews with the presenter were also broadcast on radio and published in a newspaper, and although the lie-detecting abilities of the television viewers were no better than vãn chance, the newspaper readers were correct 64% of the time, and the radio listeners scored an impressive 73% accuracy rate.

adapted from The National Newspaper