Dr. Lawrence Ian Reed is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology at NYU, where he studies facial expressions of emotion and why we so visibly express our private motivational and emotional states. I chatted with Dr. Reed ahead of his talk tomorrow night (White Lies, Tall Tales and Whoppers) on why we’re so bad at detecting lies, if there are any benefits to lying, and why we try to hide our actual feelings…
Why are we so bad at spotting deception? Why haven’t we evolved to get better at it?
There are selective advantages for successfully deceiving others and there are selective advantages for detecting deceptions in others. So, it’s a bit of an arms race. We are getting better at deceiving, but at the same time, we are getting better at detecting deception.
Do you believe computers (current or future technology) can surpass humans as lie detectors?
Yeah, I think that computers could very well be better at detecting deception than humans. Humans aren’t very good and computers can see things that the naked eye cannot.
Most of the lies we tell are “white lies,” meant to improve our social interactions. What other non-obvious benefits are there to lying?
Many will disagree, but I find it difficult to think of any instance in which a lie, even a white lie, might be beneficial. For example, if someone asks “Do I look fat in this dress?” you could lie and say “no”. However, if you do, you might ultimately be doing a disservice to you and the other person. They might wear that dress more often and in situations that they want to look their absolute best. And, by lying, you risk losing credibility with them in the future (like the boy who cried wolf). I think it’d be better to say something along the lines of “I think the other dress is more flattering.” That could be my bias in always wanting to know the truth, though. I’d want to wear the dress that makes me look as good as I can.
In a 2017 analysis of about 50 studies, researchers found that only a minority of people’s faces reflected their actual feelings. To what extent do you believe this is a conscious effort, as opposed to an involuntary effect? Why are we so afraid to express our true feelings?
I don’t buy it. I’ll admit, though, that there is a huge debate among those of us who study facial expressions of emotion involving the coherence between feelings and expression. The face is a dual-processing system. It’s capable of producing both spontaneous expressions (those that result from feeling states) and deliberate expressions (those that are voluntary). My reading of the literature is that many can easily create a facial expression when they aren’t feeling the corresponding emotion, but that it’s much harder for people to stop an expression from happening when they are feeling an emotion. We’ve all been in a situation in which we tried, in vain, to hold in our laughter or tears. That’s for a very good reason. And, if the facial expressions that are characteristic of specific emotions could be readily and easily faked, they would not longer be characteristic of those specific emotions. Anything that can be easily faked would lose its value (e.g. money or a Ph.d.).
What’s the coolest spot for people watching in New York?
Washington Square Park, because of the mix of people!
Meet Dr. Reed tomorrow night, Tuesday, October 29th, for a talk on White Lies, Tall Tales and Whoppers at Subject in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Details here.