hey everyone and welcome to top tank today we're going to learn about the pinocchio effect and how
to spot a liar now let's begin have you ever heard of pinocchio that's the puppet who comes to life
well most of us encountered pinocchio for the first time in disney's animated movie
their rendition of pinocchio was released in the 1940s but the character is over
60 years older the playful puppet was created by an italian author named carlo colotti pilate's
1883 novel the adventures of pinocchio describes an obnoxious puppet who likes to bend the truth
he's not nearly as charming as the character in disney's retelling but both versions of pinocchio
share the same crazy quirk when pinocchio lies his nose gets longer now pinocchio's nose may
seem ridiculous but there's a kernel of truth buried inside this old fairy tale
pinocchio's nose describes a unique phenomenon when people bend the truth kaladi would say they
add to their true nose a paper mache nose in real life our noses don't grow longer but your
nose does change when you lie in 2012 a study from the university of granada discovered a
phenomenon they dubbed the pinocchio effect now the pinocchio effect goes something like this
let's say you're meeting your friend for lunch you arrive at the restaurant right on time but
your friend is nowhere to be seen 30 minutes later they walk into the restaurant and act like nothing
happened so you asked them we were supposed to meet 30 minutes ago why are you so late they
don't want to tell you the real reason why they were so late so what do they do they make up an
excuse they say uh sorry i was stuck in traffic but how do you know if they're telling the truth
or lying to your face when a person lies their body temperature changes they experience a sudden
rise in temperature around their nose researchers have measured this stark change in temperature
with thermographic cameras they found that sudden temperature increases around the nose are reliable
predictors of deceptive behavior in other words you can use temperature like a lie detector
if the temperature of someone's nose changes well it's probably a lie if not it's most likely the
truth but that's not really useful to you is it you don't have access to thermographic cameras
all the time lies are the most common in social settings like group events and the workplace
in those environments it's impossible to notice something as small as a change in temperature
these things are much too tiny to see with your naked eye so how do you use the pinocchio effect
to spot a liar in action if you don't happen to have a thermographic camera what should
you look for the importance of the pinocchio effect isn't the temperature change itself
while heat around the nose is a sign of lying you should keep your eyes peeled for something else
think about what happens when you feel embarrassed your body gets restless and your body language
changes you start touching or hiding your face you try to comfort yourself with self-soothing
gestures you're doing these things to reduce your climbing body temperature to soothe your nerves
and to relax your brain embarrassment is just one example of the way temperature affects physical
body language lying works the same way when a liar experiences a stark change in nasal temperature
you can't see the extra heat but you can see the way they react to that change
in temperature like embarrassment facial touching is a common unconscious reaction to rushes of
heat in the neck and face you place your hands on your face to settle or sue that part of your body
in this case a liar will place their hands on or around their nose when they lie they may
scratch the bridge of their nose they may rub the insides of their eyes they may hold their
nose between their fingers somehow someway their hands will make contact with their face and you'll
know exactly why changes in body temperature can also cause general discomfort imagine a rush of
heat shooting into your arm or your leg that heat would make you feel itchy and restless and that
discomfort would show on your face so when someone is bending the truth their expression becomes
visibly uncomfortable their mental state is responding to their physical state and vice versa
changes in one create changes in the other if that wasn't true the pinocchio effect
just wouldn't exist lying bothers you so your body responds with a change in temperature
that change in temperature bothers you too so your brain responds with visible discomfort
your cheeks turn red when you're embarrassed for the same reason if you're not embarrassed
your cheeks won't turn red in the same way if you're not lying your temperature won't change
so how reliable are these physical signals what other signs of deception can we identify to sniff
out the liars in our lives in 2012 a study by harvard university asked the very same question
this study addresses an unfortunate truth which most of us have come to accept people lie and
they lie often some people lie to get what they want others lie to spare themselves trouble
or make themselves look better you hear these lies in business relationships and friendships
sometimes their body language will give them away but you can control your body language for example
you can stop yourself from touching your face if that happens how do you know when someone's lying
in this harvard experiment researchers examined deceptive behaviors with a game called the
ultimatum game the premise is simple one player called the allocator is given a sum of money
the allocator must choose how to split that sum of money with a second player called the receiver the
allocator can split the money evenly or they can try to take more money for themselves but here's
the twist the receiver can always reject their offer in which case both parties walk away with
nothing since our harvard experiment is targeting lying behaviors they added a second twist to the
ultimatum game not all of the allocators received the same amount of money each allocator was given
either thirty dollars or five dollars to split with their receiver but the receiver was not told
how much money their allocator received before the allocator decided how to split up the money
the receiver was given two minutes to grill the allocator with questions during that time the
allocator could spill the beans they could tell the receiver how much money they were given and
then split the money evenly or they could lie they could say they received five dollars when
they actually received thirty dollars and in that case the allocator would keep most of the money
for themselves so what do you think people did did allocators lie to keep more money for themselves
when researchers tallied up the results they found that 70 percent of the allocators told the truth
most of them confessed the true value of their sum and split the money fairly but if 70 of the
people told the truth that means 30 percent of the people tried to lie some allocators pulled it off
some didn't but all of their lies gave researchers a valuable glimpse into the language of deception
this harvard experiment revealed a new kind of pinocchio effect let's think back to our wooden
puppet when he lies his nose grows longer right will harvard university notice something similar
just like pinocchio's elongated nose our sentences get longer and longer when we lie but why do our
sentences grow when we're being dishonest they get longer because we're trying harder we know that
we're lying so we make a bigger effort to convince other people we're telling the truth according to
harvard university deceptive people use a greater number of words and far more third-person pronouns
when people tell the truth the opposite happens our sentences like pinocchio's nose stay short
and sweet you know you're being truthful and you have confidence in the things you say
that confidence lowers your word count and encourages the use of first-person pronouns
there's another way your speech changes when you lie in general lying is much harder than telling
the truth the truth can carry an emotional burden it may require vulnerability or discomfort but
speaking the truth is much easier for your brain lying on the other hand requires much more brain
power you have to create something believable you have to monitor your body language and vocal tones
you overthink every tiny thing and that places a heavy burden on your brain naturally that
burden influences the way you speak our harvard experiment found a huge increase in one category
when we lie that category is profanity we overuse profanity because we have less space in our brains
you stop minding your manners because you're paying too much attention to the lies coming
out of your mouth we also rely on profanity to add drama and emphasis we assume that curse words
make our speech more convincing but it's actually just the opposite the more swear words you use the
more deceptive you appear the pinocchio effect for physical cues and changes in language demonstrates
to us a consistent truth about humanity we are not built to lie it makes us itchy hot and
uncomfortable by changing our body temperature it changes our speech and overburdens our brains just
like pinocchio and his growing nose subtle changes give away lies and acts of deception people try to
cover them up but the signs are always there they're sneakier than a puppet's nose growing
twice its normal size but if you look closely you can recognize a liar anywhere anytime hey thank
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