Lie to Me

[Guest]

Yeah, so I just ran into the tv show the other day. it's basically all about this guy who can detect lies by looking at their body language to tell what emotion they're feeling while talking. it looks like a great source of information for reading body language (but I have no idea how accurate this is, as it is a TV show) I've heard about the technique and thought it looked pretty legit.What do you guys think?...maybe it's useful in Pick-up?

[Guest]

i enjoy that show and have watched all the episodes on hulu. it is essentially the csi of expression reading. i think you can take some out of the show and roll with it, ie become more aware of your own posture and expressions as well as improve people reading skills perhaps; though i would not advocate calling anyone a liar in the direct fashion Dr. Lightman does when he assumes the role of judge jury and executioner.

[Guest]

The show is highly stylized to make it exciting. I suspect, without having done the research to back it bu, that many of his techniques and tactics are not as effective as the show portrays.

Further, the show works off of the basic assumption that everyone tells lies all the time. This assumption leads one to believe that people are inherently bad. This may or may not be true. I, however, prefer to work from the stance that people are inherently good.

There are some basic books on body language that you should check out that will show you the signs to look for, just don't be so quick to judge as seen on the show (and as magnum stated).

[Guest]

the most noticible inaccuracy are the involuntary emotion signals. they are extremely over dramatized so joe schmo can pick it up. they to villify human nature, but at the same time the show focuses on bad people and bad situations. you can learn from it, just be smart enough to take the tv out of it. so far, they've done enough research to be accurate enough for television (in principle.) you can get books that better detail all of it though...

[Guest]

I agree w/ smirks... they overplay some of the involuntary expressions but it's for tv... but overall seems pretty legit and i've enjoyed it :) with the theme of the show, it's only a matter of time until they get into the topic of seduction body language :) but yeah if you want to learn body language, probably best to research it rather than watch a weekly entertainment show :)

[Guest]

facial muscle research is very interesting though i have not been able to find much info online. my knowledge is currently limited to blinks rough overview, and i believe the book references another for more info, to bad i gave that away bc i would like to look into it more. researchers took the time to map out each individual facial expression and discovered that after a day of scowling like expressions they felt rather down. cliche but true, you feel better when you smile of sorts and there is a emotive muscular connection in the face. that being so i would be led to believe this also holds true to posture / all musle usage and feelings other than simply releasing endorphins from a workout

[Guest]

yeah, I can tell they exaggerate it (and of course I'd leave the asshole's persona out of it) but the thing I was thinking about is being able to tell a real smile from a false one to tell if she likes you or not if she's lying about her 300lbs MMA fighter Boyfriend. is she going to blow you out, if she wants you in her pants. if "no" means "no". it's hard to find a good source to study off of. I mean you can read books all day, but if you can't see it in real time then I don't see it being helpful.

[Guest]

..google microexpressions...

this is actually true and a scientific theory backed by research. like many of you have said, the show does over dramatize the emotions. another flaw is that the expressions are generalizations, which may or may not be true for every occurence..

then again, you have to be an expert with years of practice to be good enough to do it on a consistent basis...

in addition, your body already does this. your brain picks up signals and interprets it...ever heard of intuition? ever just had a bad "feeling" about someone? well, thats your brain picking up on those microexpressions...just listen to your gut...