¿Quieres detectar a un mentiroso? La ciencia dice que les hagas preguntas como esta

Dí la verdad. ¿Con qué frecuencia crees que la gente miente? Encontrará todas las respuestas posibles a esta pregunta:

  • Un estudio de un tiempo atrás en el Revista de Psicología Social Básica y Aplicada insinuó que la mentira podría ser común, con el 60 por ciento de las personas admitiendo haber mentido después de una sola conversación de 10 minutos.
  • No, dice el experto en engaños Timothy Levine de la Universidad de Alabama, Birmingham, cuyo trabajo es más reciente: es mucho más raro. Más como Una o dos veces al día de media.
  • Pero la autora Pamela Meyer, que escribió un libro sobre la mentira y dio una charla TED súper popular sobre el temalo ve diferente, sugiriendo que la mayoría de las personas reciben entre 10 y 200 mentiras todos los días.

Para ser honesto, no tengo idea de quién tiene razón. De todos modos, ¿no sería útil saber con mayor certeza que alguien está diciendo la verdad?

Aquí es donde entra en juego la ciencia.

Escrito recientemente en la revista revisada por pares, Revista Internacional de Psicología y Análisis del ComportamientoAldert Vrij, profesor de psicología social aplicada en la Universidad de Portsmouth en Inglaterra, reveló un nuevo estudio que sugiere que un simple truco puede facilitar la detección de mentirosos.

Tiene que ver con encontrar formas de aumentar su carga cognitiva para que una mentira se vuelva más difícil de sostener. Más específicamente, el trabajo de Vrij y sus colegas propone hacer que las personas desvíen parte de su atención a otro concepto o tarea importante, al mismo tiempo que se les pregunta sobre cualquier cosa sobre la que creas que están mintiendo.

El estudio involucró a 164 voluntarios a quienes se les pidió que describieran (verazmente) sus posiciones sobre “varios temas sociales que han estado en las noticias”, como se describe en una sinopsis de la universidad.

Luego, los voluntarios se dividieron en dos grupos: una cohorte que diría la verdad si un grupo separado de entrevistadores les preguntaba sobre sus sentimientos, y una segunda cohorte a la que se le dijo que mintiera de la manera más convincente posible.

A partir de ahí, los voluntarios se dividieron en tres subgrupos:

  • Se pidió a un grupo de voluntarios que memorizaran y recuperaran el número de matrícula de un coche, que es una tarea mental secundaria.
  • A un segundo grupo de voluntarios también se les pidió que recordaran el registro, pero además se les dijo que este detalle era extremadamente importante y que serían penalizados si no lo recordaban correctamente.
  • El último grupo de voluntarios no mencionó en absoluto el registro del automóvil.

¿El resultado? Los voluntarios a quienes se les había indicado que mintieran y que pertenecían al segundo grupo (aquellos que pidieron recordar registrarse y también dijeron que era importante que lo hicieran) tenían muchas menos probabilidades de engañar a los entrevistadores del estudio que aquellos en cualquiera de los dos grupos. primer o tercer grupo.

“Nuestra investigación ha demostrado que las verdades y las mentiras pueden sonar igualmente plausibles siempre y cuando los que cuentan las mentiras tengan una buena oportunidad para pensar qué decir”, dijo Vrij después. “Cuando hay menos oportunidad para la reflexión, las verdades a menudo suenan más plausibles que las mentiras”.

Vrij no es la primera persona en sugerir que la distracción mental podría dificultar que las personas mantengan abiertos los detalles de una mentira. Pero creo que los detalles aquí hacen que el estudio sea particularmente interesante, y especialmente cuando uno confía en poder identificar a los que dicen la verdad en el mundo de los negocios.

En resumen, creo que se trata más de un enfoque estratégico del dilema que de uno táctico más limitado.

Por ejemplo, v olviendo a la muy popular TED Talk que mencionamos al principio, de Meyer, quien tiene más de 31 millones de visitas

. Los secretos de detección de mentirosos que describe giran en gran medida en torno a “narrativas” lingüísticas y conductuales, como:

  • Negaciones no acordadas (lenguaje inesperadamente formal, como el ejemplo que da de Bill Clinton diciendo: “No he tenido una relación sexual con esta mujer, señorita Lewinsky”), o
  • Lenguaje de distanciamiento como “Para decirte la verdad…” o “Con toda honestidad…”
  • Lenguaje corporal sospechoso. Por ejemplo, dice, es más probable que los mentirosos se congelen el torso y tengan tendencia a forzar el contacto visual.

“Los mentirosos cambiarán su velocidad de parpadeo”, continúa Meyer, y “apuntarán sus pies hacia una salida… [and] tome objetos de barrera y colóquelos entre usted y la persona que lo entrevista”.

Tan fascinante como suena todo esto, ¿sabes a lo que me refiero cuando suena más táctico que estratégico?

Incluso si todas estas “indicios” estuvieran correlacionadas con mentiras, los buscadores de la verdad y los mentirosos serios podrían quedar atrapados en una especie de carrera armamentista, en la que los mejores mentirosos descubrirían los “indicios” y luego aprenderían a no mostrarlos.

Con un enfoque más estratégico como el estudio de Portsmouth, no está buscando comportamientos específicos; en cambio, está sacando del juego a los menos veraces entre nosotros al agregar componentes que les dificultan obtener historias falsas. justo en primer lugar.

Ahora Vrig y sus colegas se dan cuenta de que el escenario exacto que estudiaron tiene limitaciones. Seguramente sería un poco extraño si estuviera tratando de abrir una entrevista de trabajo o una negociación comercial pidiéndole a alguien que memorice un número de placa.

Pero podría agregar otras complejidades y distracciones mentales. Algunas ideas:

  • Tal vez haya algo en la idea de que la gente haga negocios en el campo de golf; El juego en sí podría actuar como un esfuerzo mental adicional en el estudio de Portsmouth.
  • O Vrij sugiere introducir una tarea como “conducir un automóvil”. Continúa hasta el día de hoy que quiere decir un “simulador”; pero ¿por qué no tratar de discutir una posible posición con alguien mientras le pides que te lleve a alguna parte?
  • O tal vez es tan fácil presionar para obtener más detalles en una negociación cuando sabe que la otra parte tiene una fecha límite u otro trabajo importante que hacer al mismo tiempo.

Mientras escribo en mi libro electrónico gratuito, Neurociencia: 13 formas de entender y entrenar tu cerebro para la vidaNo hay nada más fascinante que el cerebro humano y la forma inesperada en que funciona.

Y si un pequeño truco es aumentar la carga cognitiva para que la mentira sea menos efectiva, ¿por qué no intentarlo? Sinceramente, me encantaría saber cómo funciona para usted.

Las opiniones expresadas aquí por los columnistas de Heaven32 son propias y no de Heaven32.

on average. \t
  • But author Pamela Meyer, who wrote a book about lying and gave a super-popular TED Talk on the subject, looks at it the other way, suggesting that most people are on the receiving end of between 10 and and 200 lies every single day.
  • \n Truth to tell, I have no idea who is right. Regardless, wouldn't it would be useful to know with more certainty whether someone is telling the truth? \n This is where science comes in. \n Writing recently in the peer-reviewed journal, International Journal of Psychology & Behavior Analysis, Aldert Vrij, a professor of applied social psychology at the University of Portsmouth in England, revealed a new study that suggests a simple trick can make it easier to expose liars. \n It has to do with finding ways to increase their cognitive load, so that maintaining a lie becomes more difficult. More specifically, Vrij and his colleagues' work suggests getting people to focus part of their attention on another important concept or task--while you simultaneously question them about whatever you think they might be lying about. \n The study involved 164 volunteers who were asked to describe (truthfully) their positions on \"various societal topics that were in the news,\" as a university summary described it. \n Then, the volunteers were divided into two groups: a cohort that would tell the truth when inquired about their feelings by a separate group of interviewers, and a second cohort that was told to lie as convincingly as possible. \n From there, the volunteers were further divided into three subgroups: \n
      \t
    • One group of volunteers was asked to remember and recall a car registration number--representing a secondary mental task.
    • \t
    • A second group of volunteers was also asked to recall the registration, but they were additionally told that this detail was extremely important, and that they would be penalized if they could not remember it correctly.
    • \t
    • The final group of volunteers had no mention of the car registration at all.
    \n The result? Volunteers who had been instructed to lie, and who were in the second group -- the ones who asked to remember the registration and also told that it was important that they do so -- were much less likely to be able to deceive the study interviewers than those in either the first or the third groups. \n \"Our research has shown that truths and lies can sound equally plausible as long as lie tellers are given a good opportunity to think what to say,\" Vrij said aHeaven32erward. \"When the opportunity to think becomes less, truths oHeaven32en sound more plausible than lies.\" \n Vrij is not the first person to suggest that mental distraction might make it harder for people to keep the details of a lie straight. But I think the specifics here make the study especially interesting--and especially if you rely on being able to identify truth-tellers in business. \n In short, I think it's about a strategic approach to the dilemma, rather than a more limited tactical one. \n For example, let's go back to the extremely popular TED Talk we mentioned at the outset by Meyer, which has more than 31 million views. The secrets to revealing liars that she describes are largely about linguistic and behavioral \"tells,\" such as: \n
      \t
    • Non-contracted denials (unexpectedly formal language, like the example she gives of Bill Clinton saying, \"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky\"), or
    • \t
    • Distancing language, like, \"To tell you the truth...\" or \"In all honesty...\"
    • \t
    • Suspicious body language. For example, she says, liars supposedly freeze their upper bodies more oHeaven32en, and can tend to force eye contact.
    \n \"Liars will shiHeaven32 their blink rate,\" Meyer goes on to say, and \"point their feet toward an exit ... [and] will take barrier objects and put them between themselves and the person that is interviewing them.\" \n As intriguing as it all sounds, do you see what I mean about it sounding tactical, rather than strategic? \n Even if all of these \"tells\" did correlate with lying, truth-seekers and serious liars might wind up in a sort of arm's race, with the best liars discovering the \"tells\" and then learning not to exhibit them. \n With a more strategic approach, like the Portsmouth study, you're not looking so much for specific behaviors--but instead throwing the less-truthful among us off their game, by adding components that make it harder for them to keep false stories straight in the first place. \n Now, Vrig and his colleagues recognize that there are limits to the exact scenario they studied. Certainly, things would get a bit odd if you tried to open a job interview or a business negotiation by asking someone to memorize a car registration number. \n But you could add other complexities and mental distractions. A few ideas: \n
      \t
    • Perhaps there's something to the idea of people making deals on the golf course; the game itself might function as the extra mental effort in the Portsmouth study.
    • \t
    • Or else, Vrij suggests introducing a task like \"driving a car.\" He goes on to day that he means a \"simulator;\" but why not try to arrange to discuss a potential position with someone while you asked them to drive you somewhere?
    • \t
    • Or else, maybe it's as easy as pushing for more details in a negotiation when you know that the other side has a deadline or another important task at the same time.
    \n As I write in my free ebook, Neuroscience: 13 Ways to Understand and Train Your Brain for Life, there's nothing more fascinating than the human brain, and the unexpected ways in which it works. \n And if a little trick like increasing cognitive load so that lying becomes less effective, they why not give it a try? Honestly, I'd love to hear how it works for you. 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