Dont Lie To Me

Published: Feb. 16, 2016, 2 p.m.

b"Today we travel to a future without lies. What would it be like if we all wore accurate lie detectors around all the time?\\n\\xa0\\n\\xa0In this episode we talk about when children learn to lie, the different social functions of lying, and what might happen if we couldn\\u2019t ever fib. How would negotiations be different? How would we make small talk? Could we create art or music? All that and more in this week\\u2019s future.\\xa0\\n\\xa0\\n\\xa0This week\\u2019s show features four experts in the different facets of deception. Patti Wood is an expert in detecting non-verbal cues. She told me about her work, and the ways she uses body language to try and tell if someone is lying. Maria Konnikova is a journalist and the author of a book called The Confidence Game, all about con artists and people who are really good at lying. She says that while many of the people her book is about would have been thwarted, there would be serious downsides to not being able to lie to one another. Michael Lewis has studied lying and childhood development for over fifty years, and he says that children learn really early on that lying is something they should be doing. And Andrea Kupfer Schneider is a professor of ethics and dispute resolution at Marquette University Law School. She says that without the ability to lie, negotiations would actually be way better.\\xa0\\n\\xa0\\n\\xa0Right now there are tons of different technologies and methods that try to detect lying, which range from imperfect to totally bogus. According to the American Psychological Association polygraph tests, the lie detector setup you see in movies and TV all the time, don\\u2019t accurately tell if someone is lying. There\\u2019s also a device called a voice stress analyzer \\u2014 what it does is listen to your voice and try to detect signs of stress, which suggests that you might not be telling the truth. But according to a study done by the National Institute of Justice, voice stress analyzers are often no better than chance at detecting lies. Of course, that hasn\\u2019t stopped some places from using them surreptitiously during phone interviews.\\xa0\\n\\xa0\\n\\xa0There are also all kinds of drugs that attempt to make people tell the truth. These are staples of movies and television shows, but like most things they don't work as well as they do on TV.\\n\\xa0\\n\\xa0If you\\u2019re interested in the history of lie detectors, check out this book by Ken Alder, which explores not just who invented the polygraph, but the long history of our obsession with finding a biological connection to \\u201cthe truth.\\u201d And if you\\u2019re interested in a movie about a world without lies, try The Invention of Lying.\\xa0\\n\\xa0\\n\\xa0Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth, and is part of the Boing Boing podcast family. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Broke for Free. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky.\\xa0\\n\\xa0\\n\\xa0This week\\u2019s future voices were provided by Sarah Werner, Brent Rose, Kirstin Butler, Pablo Meier, Eddie Guimont, Guillermo Herrera, Justin Cameron and Jess Zimmerman, who also suggested this future to us, so thanks Jess! If you want to be a voice in the future you can do that, it\\u2019s one of the rewards we have for becoming a Patron of the show on Patreon.\\xa0\\n\\xa0\\n\\xa0If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you\\u2019ve spotted one of the little references I\\u2019ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you\\u2019re right, I\\u2019ll send you something cool.\\xa0\\n\\xa0\\n\\xa0And, as always, if you like the show please head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help.\\n\\xa0\\n\\xa0See you next week for a new future!\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices"