One of the best ways to catch someone in a lie is to try and distract them while they're not telling you the whole truth, a new study reveals.
It seems that the extra cognitive effort required to construct a lie and do something else at the same time means the falsehood doesn't stand up quite so well.There are some caveats though – for example, the secondary task needs to be seen as important by the lying person or they'll be able to prioritize the lie over whatever else it is that they're supposed to be doing.
"Our research has shown that truths and lies can sound equally plausible as long as lie tellers are given a good opportunity to think what to say,""When the opportunity to think becomes less, truths often sound more plausible than lies." Here's how the experiment worked: 164 volunteers gave their opinions on societal topics in the news, then split up into two groups for mock interviews. They were instructed to either tell the truth about their views or lie about them.Those two groups were further subdivided into three.
"The most diagnostic differences between truth tellers and lie tellers occurred in plausibility, immediacy, directness, and clarity," write the researchers in theirThe results matched what the researchers were expecting, though the differences between the groups weren't huge. Telling lies involves making up details, trying to not get caught out by those fictitious details, and keeping the falsehoods sounding as truthful as possible. All this can require a lot of brainpower.
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