Ekman, Paul - Why Dont We Catch Liars英文学习资料.pdfVIP

Social Research, Vol. 63, No. 3, 801-817 (Fall 1996) Paul Ekman’s research is supported by a Research Scientist Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH06092). Why Don’t We Catch Liars? Paul Ekman Our research (Ekman and O’Sullivan, 1990; Frank and Ekman, forthcoming; Ekman, Frank, and O’Sullivan, forthcoming) suggests that most people cannot tell from demeanor whether someone is lying or telling the truth. Such poor performance is not because lies are told flawlessly. Most liars make mistakes which could be detected but usually are missed. Both perpetrating a lie and detecting a lie, in most people, seem to be poorly developed skills. In this article, I consider six explanations for why most of us do not catch liars from demeanor. I will first explain how I distinguish lying from other forms of deceit, and then discuss the evidence which suggests that people are such poor lie catchers. The intent of the liar is one of the two criteria I (Ekman, [1985] 1992) use to distinguish lies from other kinds of deception. The liar deliberately chooses to mislead the target. Liars may actually tell the truth, but that is not their intent. And truthful people may provide false information—bad advice from a stock broker—but that is not their intent. The~ liar has a choice; the liar could chose not to lie. We are all tempted to lie, but we do not always do so. Lying is not irresistible; it is, by my definition, a conscious, considered choice. I do recognize that lying can become a habit and then performed with little consideration, but, at least initially, all such habits began as considered choices about whether or not to do so. Presumably, a pathological liar is compelled to lie and by my definition, therefore, is not a liar. The second criterion for distinguishing lies from other deceptions is