Can you really tell if a kid is lying? | Kang Lee
Introduction and Honesty of Children
In this section, the speaker introduces the topic of children lying and shares some common beliefs about children and lying.
- Children are often believed to start lying only after entering elementary school.
- It is commonly thought that children are poor liars and adults can easily detect their lies.
- There is a belief that if children lie at a young age, they may become pathological liars for life.
Story from Mr. Richard Messina
The speaker shares a story from Mr. Richard Messina, an elementary school principal, to illustrate common beliefs about children and lying.
- Mr. Messina receives a phone call from someone claiming to be Johnny's father, saying that Johnny won't come to school because he's sick.
- When Mr. Messina asks who he is speaking to, the caller responds with "I am my father," leading to laughter.
Misconceptions About Children and Lying
The speaker explains that the three common beliefs mentioned earlier are incorrect.
- Contrary to belief, children start telling lies as young as two years old.
- Research shows that at two years old, 30% of children lie while 70% tell the truth about their transgressions.
- By three years old, 50% lie and 50% tell the truth, while by four years old, over 80% of children lie.
- Most children continue to lie after four years old.
Importance of Theory of Mind and Self-Control in Lying
The speaker discusses two key ingredients necessary for good lying: theory of mind and self-control.
- Theory of mind refers to the ability to understand that different people have different knowledge about a situation.
- Self-control involves controlling speech, facial expressions, and body language to tell a convincing lie.
- Children with more advanced theory of mind and self-control abilities tend to lie earlier and become more sophisticated liars.
Lying as a Typical Part of Development
The speaker emphasizes that lying is a normal part of development in children.
- Lying is a typical part of development, and some children start lying as young as two years old.
- Advanced theory of mind and self-control abilities are also important for functioning well in society.
- Deficits in these abilities are associated with developmental problems like ADHD and autism.
Younger Children and Lying
The speaker explores why some young children lie while others do not.
- Good lying requires theory of mind and self-control.
- Theory of mind allows children to understand what others know or don't know, enabling them to lie effectively.
- Children with more advanced theory of mind and self-control abilities tend to be early liars.
Can Adults Detect Children's Lies?
The speaker challenges the belief that adults can easily detect children's lies.
- Two videos are shown where children respond to the question "Did you peek?"
- The audience is asked to determine which child is lying.
- Many people incorrectly identify the truth-telling child as the liar, highlighting the difficulty in detecting children's lies.
Conclusion
The speaker concludes by mentioning playing similar games with adults from various backgrounds.
- Similar experiments have been conducted with adults from different walks of life regarding their ability to detect lies.
New Section
In this section, the speaker discusses the ability of different groups of people to detect children's lies.
Can Different Groups Detect Children's Lies?
- Undergrads and law school students: Cannot detect children's lies. Performance is around chance.
- Social workers and child-protection lawyers: Cannot detect children's lies.
- Judges, customs officers, and police officers: Cannot detect children's lies.
- Parents: Cannot detect other children's lies or their own children's lies.
New Section
The speaker explains why detecting children's lies is difficult.
Why Are Children's Lies Difficult to Detect?
- When children lie, their facial expression is typically neutral, hiding emotions such as fear, guilt, shame, and liar's delight. These emotions are either fleeting or hidden from view.
- Hidden emotions make it challenging for adults to accurately detect children's lies.
New Section
The speaker introduces a new technology called "transdermal optical imaging" that can reveal hidden emotions associated with lying.
Transdermal Optical Imaging
- Facial blood flow changes subtly when experiencing different emotions.
- Transdermal optical imaging uses a regular video camera to record facial blood flow changes.
- Image processing technology extracts transdermal images of facial blood flow changes.
- By analyzing these images, hidden emotions associated with lying can be revealed noninvasively and remotely.
- Accuracy of detecting lies using this technology is about 85 percent, which is better than chance level.
New Section
The speaker discusses the discovery of the "Pinocchio effect" and potential applications of transdermal optical imaging technology.
The Pinocchio Effect and Applications
- The Pinocchio effect refers to facial blood flow changes when people lie: decreased blood flow on the cheeks and increased blood flow on the nose.
- Transdermal optical imaging technology can have various applications:
- Education: Helping teachers identify students experiencing high anxiety to provide support.
- Healthcare: Monitoring remote individuals' heart rate, stress level, mood, and pain. Potential for assessing risks for heart attack or hypertension in the future.
- Politics: Detecting politicians' heart rate, mood, stress, and potential lies during debates using TV footage.
- Marketing research: Assessing people's emotional response to consumer products.
- Dating: Determining if someone genuinely likes another person based on their facial expressions.
New Section
The speaker emphasizes that transdermal optical imaging technology is still in its early stages of development with many unknown future applications.
Future Possibilities
- Transdermal optical imaging technology is continuously evolving.
- Many new applications may arise in the future that are currently unknown.