‘Lie to Me* ‘ is an Fox tv series that my wife and I stumbled upon on Sky 1 and its now considered an essential viewing– CPD. Well CPD for me but perhaps not for her, she is an accountant. Well maybe for her? The show focuses on the efforts of Dr. Cal Lightman (Tim Roth) and his colleagues at ‘The Lightman Group’ as they assist investigations, establishing the truth through applied psychology: interpreting body language and microexpressions. Fox refers to Dr Cal Lightman as a deception expert, not unlike many pastrol leaders. The series intro does a real good job of summarising the theme.
Essential CPD in that I have learnt a lot about deception and lets face it, student are prone to the odd fib here and there (3 every 10 minutes of conversation apparently). So what did I get from the series;
Our aim is not merely to discover the truth but to understand why they lied,’ Dr Cal Lightman. Its not a direct quote, but close enough.
That premediated liars plan their lies chronologically, but are then often unable to recall those same lies in reverse. A theory I will test out at some point this term.
The series has made me more aware of how / what we do when we know the response given to us is a lie. Many times, Dr Cal Lightman simply moves onto the next question, afterall there is knowledge in knowing the answer was a lie, why dwell on it. Other times he does nothing. Similar reason I assume, in the knowledge that the interviewee lied. I expect most times a student lies to me, I address the lie, perhaps a moral perspective and often these deteriorates the situation. The ‘White Lie ‘ song presents itself as a good discussion resources for tutorial. ‘Is it ok to lie?
Finally, that much on the success of the character of Dr Cal Lightman is he ability to sequence his, predominantly closed questions, expertly and promptly.
It is important to look as it is to listen and to some times listen really hard to what/how is being said.
Regardless, enjoy the series.