Neuroscientists are now applying a 21st-century tool to an age-old question: how can you tell when someone is lying? Relying on recently published research, two start-up companies have proposed to use a sophisticated brain-imaging technique, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to detect deception. The new approach promises significantly greater accuracy than the conventional polygraph...

We name an indecomposable symmetrizable generalized Cartan matrix A and the corresponding Kac–Moody Lie algebra g(A) of the arithmetic type if for any β ∈ Q with (β|β) < 0 there exist n(β) ∈ N and an imaginary root α ∈ ∆ such that n(β)β ≡ α mod Ker (.|.) on Q. Here Q is the root lattice. This generalizes ”symmetrizable hyperbolic” type of Kac and Moody. We show that generalized Cartan matrices ...

A reliable lie-detection method would be extremely useful in many situations but especially forensic contexts. This review describes and evaluates the range of methods that have been studied. Humans are barely able to pick up lies on basis nonverbal cues; they do so more successfully with systematic methodologies analyze verbal cues physiological neuroscientific methods. However, rates at which...

Lie detection procedures typically aim at determining the guilt or innocence of a single suspect. The Concealed Information Test (CIT), for example, has been shown to be highly successful in detecting the presence or absence of crime-related information in a suspect's memory. Many of today's security threats, however, do not come from individuals, but from organized groups such as criminal orga...

Neuroscientists frequently use a certain statistical reasoning to establish the existence of distinct neuronal processes in the brain. We show that this reasoning is flawed and that the large corresponding literature needs reconsideration. We illustrate the fallacy with a recent study that received an enormous press coverage because it concluded that humans detect deceit better if they use unco...

The present study investigates how easily it can be detected whether a child is being truthful or not in a game situation, and it explores the cue validity of bodily movements for such type of classification. To achieve this, we introduce an innovative methodology - the combination of perception studies (in which eye-tracking technology is being used) and automated movement analysis. Film fragm...

Proponents of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) claim that certain eye-movements are reliable indicators of lying. According to this notion, a person looking up to their right suggests a lie whereas looking up to their left is indicative of truth telling. Despite widespread belief in this claim, no previous research has examined its validity. In Study 1 the eye movements of participants who we...

This experimental study assesses whether familiarity with an interviewee’s communicative style improves an interviewers’ ability to detect deception. In the experimental treatment, interviewers observed interviewees as they told truths and white lies over the course of ten weeks. During this period, the accuracy of detecting white lies increased from sixty-one percent to eighty-one percent, sug...

Since time immemorial, lying has been a part of everyday life. For this reason, it has become a subject of interest in several disciplines, including psychology. The purpose of this article is to provide a general overview of the literature and thinking to date about the evolution of lie detection techniques. The first part explores ancient methods recorded circa 1000 B.C. (e.g., God's judgment...