Last Sunday there was a fascinating article on lying in the WPost (not to be confused with the not so fascinating lying in an op-ed column). It was prompted by the new series "Lie to Me" based on the professional work of Paul Ekman. Sounds like a fun series, but I think I may check out his books first. The article draws on his work as well as several other field experts.
The main argument of the article is that we're bad at detecting lies. Only about 1% of people are truth wizards and great at doing it. They have to be able to live with uncertainty. Even those good at spotting lies tend only to be capable of doing it in a professional capacity. We theoretically could get good at detecting lies in our personal life, but it would mean abandoning trust and it's not really worth it.
So, for the fun stuff, here's the unconscious tells:
- Smiling often means you're hiding your emotions.
- Emblems, e.g. giving a thumbs up, can be useful but only if you can notice it mid-gesture and not the final results.
- Illustrations, e.g. talking with your hands, tends to decrease when you're lying as you're more actively controlling your gestures.
- Manipulations, e.g. biting your nails, are not a good way of detecting lies but are widely thought to be the most obvious tells.
- Leaning forward, nodding, speaking at the same speed and volume as the person you're talking too tends to inspire trust.
There's more including neuroscience. It's worth reading the whole thing.
I think I may study some of these articles before I try fooling with social mechanics for RPGs. Realism is an unattainable and ultimately unwise goal. However, social mechanics should at least evoke how these things actually work. Alternately, one can make a system based on evoking how they tend to work in film and such. However, I do believe in learning via gaming, so may as well get it right.
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