can you spot a liar?

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http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014 ... .html?_r=3

5/10

I don't think this really translates to real-life situations, though. Firstly, I'm normally not looking so hard to tell whether everyone is lying. Secondly, in deciding whether someone is lying you have to consider the base rate (prior probability): how likely is anyone to lie in this context? When answering such mundane questions people really have no reason to lie, so a priori I'd assume they're telling the truth in real life. That doesn't apply in this experiment, though.

I missed every liar :/

But, I definitely agree that this does not seem to match real-world experiences for the reasons FMX described.

I got 7 out of ten.

I have leaned a lot about body language from this board.

8/10

I have learned from painful experience, to analyze every word a person says to me and be on the lookout for inconsistencies. Even if I don't catch a red flag in the moment, I'll catch it later when I'm replaying the conversation in my head.

Liars always trip themselves up, they can't remember how to tell the same story twice without contradiction something they said before and they don't usually notice they've made a mistake. Of course, if you call them out on it. they'll just claim you heard them wrong, or that they never said what they said the first time. They count on people not paying attention and having poor memories.

Normally I'm poor at spotting them but there was this one case.........................

When I was at university I lived in a houseshare with five other students. The idea was that we bought the house as a wreck, did it up during the three years it took to do our degrees, and then sold it at the end using the profits to pay our tuition fees. Well, we got to the point where we needed to replace the windows with new double-glazed units and one local company sent round a little Indian guy.

This sales guy sat there and told some of the biggest whoppers I've ever heard. According to him his company's windows were used in Buckingham Palace, Richard Branson's yacht and a host of other significant sites. The BS light above his head was shining so brightly that it was difficult to miss

They didn't get the contract, surprise surprise.

8/10

I incorrectly guessed "liar" on two of the truth tellers because I'm a pretty paranoid guy. I've come a long way when it comes to reading expressions and body language, but I still have quite a way to go.

Always here being "in all cases where you know they were lying", which are only the cases where they tripped themselves up.

5/10

Whats funny I correctly got the first 3, then lost next 5, and then answered correctly the last 2. The 5 wrongs in row made me laugh.

But still, I was guessing most of the time. I can say I was sure only when I saw the first girl. She was moving way too much for my taste. The rest I was only like 60% sure.

7/10

7/10
I could actually tell the first girl was lying without even watching the video.