Tuesday, November 03, 2015
Surprising wisdom
Via RCS, a typical-looking article on detecting lies from behavior.
As I read through the stupid Game-Theory details of the "study", I was thinking this is absurd. You simply can't expect to pick up truth from anyone's story or face. All perception is distorted, all memories and narratives are assembled to fit existing patterns. Ignore stories, pay attention to actions and facts.
I had seen this process in last year's jury experience. The plaintiffs and defendant and witnesses were all drunk at the time of the incident, and all had jumbled and dim memories. The defendant had been thoroughly coached by his lawyer, which made his story more reliably false than the plaintiffs. Each juror started out trying to sort the verbal stories; each juror reached the same conclusion at different times, throwing all the stories in the trash and assembling facts from the innate personalities of the people involved and the structure** of the place where the incident happened.
Then I read farther into the article:
"We often think of nonverbal behaviour when we think of deception," continued Dr Street. "But it would be better to focus on the content of the tale people are selling us, and asking if it is consistent with other facts we know."Yes, by god. Rare wisdom from an academic! = = = = = ** Footnote: And I do mean structure. The case finally and literally hinged on two questions: Which way did the restroom door open? And was it labeled clearly? Both questions were answered by photographs, not by stories. Inward + Yes = Guilty. ¶ 5:23 AM
