Lie Detector Leads to Execution of Innocent Man

Chiang Kuo-ching, a Taiwanese airman was executed in 1997 for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl. Military investigators tortured a confession out of Chiang after he failed to pass a lie detector “test.” Since then, DNA evidence and a palm-print have incriminated a different person.

Clenching your butt at the wrong time will cause you to appear guilty on a polygraph. It's time to throw this system out with the water dousers.

An Interesting Lie Detection Method

Forget expensive fMRI-based lie detection or iffy polygraph tests, give your suspect a pencil and paper and get them to draw what happened - a new study suggests their artistic efforts will betray whether they are telling the truth or not.

TV mindreader let off jury duty - because court officials feared he may wreck trial

Drew McAdam's act includes reading thoughts, duplicating drawings done in secret and bending cutlery Uri Geller-style.

He turned up at court after being called to sit on a case.

But the 54-yearold was sent home after officials recognised him as the human lie detector on Five's Trisha chatshow.

A court source said: "Could you imagine being the accused and turning up to find yourself facing The Interrogator?

Lie Detectors seem to work in Cartoon-land

Although it's questionable as to whether lie detectors actually detect lies, or just record varying levels of stress, they clearly work on the Simpsons. In a future post, I'll put together a few links on how to pass the lie detector, whether you are telling the truth or not.

Until then, you can see generally how they work on youtube.

Dr. David Matsumoto explains Microexpressions

Lie detection has always fringed somewhere between science and outright hooha. Regardless of opinion, where the theories begin to generate reproducible outcomes is quite interesting.  Dr. Matsumoto demonstrates how the brain is a bit slower than the initial response mechanisms. You put on a look of disdain while nodding "yes" to a question, then your conscious mind says "Oh wait, I meant to lie here", forcing you to catch up with a more appropriate expression. These brief lapses of disguise are known as microexpressions.

Learning to spot these sudden shifts in facial expressions has been catching on as a new public security trend, and is now even taught to airport personnel.   More on this in future posts.