We can tell when you're lying

When trying to lie your way through any situation, keep a tight rein on your zygo maticus major and your orbicularis oculi. They will give you away faster than a snitch--or so says social psychologist Mark Frank, whose research on human facial expressions in situations of high-stakes deception debunks myths that have permeated police and security training for decades. His work has come to be recognized by security officials in the U.S. and abroad as a useful tool in the identification and interrogation of terrorist suspects.

By applying computer technology to the emotion-driven nature of nonverbal communication, Frank, a professor of communication in the School of Informatics at the University at Buffalo (N.Y.), has devised methods to recognize and read the conscious and unconscious behavioral cues that suggest deceit.

"It can be applied to the training of security checkpoint personnel to help them identify and decode 'hot spots,' the subtle conversational cues and fleeting flashes of expression that betray buried emotions or suggest lines of additional inquiry," he says.

Subjects' tics, furrows, smirks, frowns, smiles, and wrinkles--as they emerge in assorted combinations--offer surprisingly accurate windows to the emotions. "Fleeting facial expressions are expressed by minute and unconscious movements of facial muscles like the frontalis, corregator, and risorius," Frank explains. "These micro-movements, when provoked by underlying emotions, are almost impossible for us to control."

Frank has identified and isolated specific and sometimes involuntary movements of the 44 human facial muscles linked to fear, distrust, distress, and other emotions related to deception. Then he developed computer programs that automatically make it possible to identify every facial expression--including those tied to deceit--shown by subjects in taped interviews. Before this automation was developed, it took up to three hours of playing, rewinding, and replaying videotapes to analyze a single minute of blinks and twitches.

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COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning