Academic

Easterbrook Discovers Effective Lie Detector Test

By Dan Filler

A major scientific finding has just surfaced in the Seventh Circuit.  In a new immigration opinion involving an asylum seeker, Judge Frank Easterbrook took a bold step into the land of pop psychology and endorsed a particular methodology of lie detection.   Like any good investigator, he first demolished other supposed methods of detecting deceit - demeanor, mannerisms, heavy sweating.  Then, citing what he apparently views sees as a definitive text on the issue - Richard Wisemans's Quirkology: How We Discover The Big Truths in Small Things, Basic Books, 2007 (and an extra value on Amazon,   when you follow their suggestion to buy it with Blind Spots: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things) - Easterbrook pronounces the definitive method to ferret out liars:

So what gives the liar away? Wiseman?s book recounts what is known about this subject. The major clue, apart from factual gaffes and inconsistencies that amount to confessions, is the amount of detail. ?When it comes to lying, the more information you give away, the greater are the chances that some of it will come back to haunt you. As a result, liars tend to say less, and to provide fewer details?.  Id. at 59. Truth-tellers have normal amounts of memory failure. But ?[w]hen it comes to relatively unimportant information, [liars] seem to develop super-powered memories and often recall the smallest of details. In contrast, truthtellers know that they have forgotten certain details and are happy to admit it.

Yeah, well, maybe.   In any case, at least a lawyer will know how to coach her clients the next time they have a case coming up in the Seventh Circuit!

H/T: Howard Bashman.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on April 25, 2008 (boomark / email).