Do you think this man is a truth teller or a liar? Why?
11 thoughts on “Truth Teller or Liar?”
To me, it is really hard to tell whether he is lying or not. But I’d say he is lying, because it seemed to me that he showed some traces of fear (e.g. at 01:18) and later on, although he says “I swear”, he is shaking his head as if saying “no”. There is one more moment where I think he shows some subtle micro-expression, namely at 01:40-41, but I cannot say what kind of micro-expression it is exactly.
So, all in all, I think he is lying.
Although I agree with Olga on the difficulty to tell between truth and lie here, I do not share the analysis.
I don’t think we can state if he is innocent or guilty just by this video.
First, around 0:20 we can see that he is proud and happy being the center of attention. He clearly enjoys the situation, until a certain limit.
He keeps shaking his head from right to left, as we usually do to say “no”. But he does that as a reflex: he is shaking his head whatever the question is. It goes with his gum and hat, it is a “style” he adopted while talking.
The “fear” noticed at 1:18 is, to me irrelevant to the precise accusation. It might be a sigh that he is annoyed by the thought of people thinking of him badly or just him thinking of a previous crime (non related to this one). He could also flash a fear of being on TV: he tries to appear relaxed but this could be a sign that he is not (and that would not be a proof of him being a liar: most of us are afraid of being on TV).
At 1:40, when he swears being non-guilty, he is scared. But again, we can speculate on the reasons while he could be scared (not being believed? scared of serious consequences for his “joke”?)
There are several more examples, but my point is that this man could be lying, or telling the truth. We cannot judge him according to a video, especially when we don’t know if he was prepared or not. Finding the truth would require an interview with Tony, and after a few basic questions start investigating on his alibi for example. Many ways are here possible…
I see what Alexandre wants to say, and frankly speaking, I agree with him on many points. What I absolutely disagree with, however, is that at 01:40 the man is scared. If anything, I’d say that he shows signs of anger. Which on the second thought might mean that he is telling the truth after all and is annoyed at the fact that he has to prove his innocence over and over again. But since I’ve already chose the “lie”-version, I’ll stick to it. But I’m very much looking forward to the answer from Humintell:)
I’m finding it very difficult to tell as he shows a lot of illustrators and very few manipulators but at the end when the bloke asks is that photo you and he says one million per cent not me he shook his head signifying that he doesn’t really believe. So I don’t really know
Thank you Olga for the 1:40 remark: after re-watching the video I do agree with the anger, I may have commented a little bit quickly on that one!
Thank you for reminding me that the observation of micro-expression is a hard work and often need many views to be sure!
I also agree on the speculation for this possible anger, and it is another sign for me towards the conclusion: we need more materials to make a decision!
He is lying because from 0:10 to 0:16 he can’t focus… his eyes turn right and left and right….
There is some false “no” head shake. Where he want to say no, but the first movement say yes from high do down before going to shake from left to right and rigth to left. Some see it?
So I found the video on youtube which makes it easier to spot things as it’s in a better quality and you can play the video in slow-motion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCGhQHQOC94
I’m pretty sure he’s a liar, can’t put my finger on the exact point but there are too many inconsistencies in his body language and every time he denies what he’s done (or not done) there’s no eye contact and he’s looking down, but otherwise, he’s making eye contact normally and also he doesn’t appear the kind of person that can’t hold eye contact because of lack of confidence or whatever, also he seems to get pretty nervous when the reporter asks him directly whether this picture of the guy trashing this muni bus was not him, he suddenly starts chewing on his gum really intensely… Well, I’m no expert and I’ve just started learning about body language, so I might be completely wrong, but in my humble opinion, this guy is lying
@Afonso Marques: he keeps doing that for every question, this can not be considered as a sign of deception.
@Chris: yes, agreed, but he also does that for every question: I believe it’s just a reflex that some people have while talking.
@Luca: but some liars make more eye contact while they lie, to make sure we beleive their lies.
We have to be very careful with that kind of video: we do not know anything about this man’s history and how the video was shot.
The temptation leads to look for any detail that would prove a man guilty: we see what we want to see.
This man could be innocent.
To me, it is really hard to tell whether he is lying or not. But I’d say he is lying, because it seemed to me that he showed some traces of fear (e.g. at 01:18) and later on, although he says “I swear”, he is shaking his head as if saying “no”. There is one more moment where I think he shows some subtle micro-expression, namely at 01:40-41, but I cannot say what kind of micro-expression it is exactly.
So, all in all, I think he is lying.
Although I agree with Olga on the difficulty to tell between truth and lie here, I do not share the analysis.
I don’t think we can state if he is innocent or guilty just by this video.
First, around 0:20 we can see that he is proud and happy being the center of attention. He clearly enjoys the situation, until a certain limit.
He keeps shaking his head from right to left, as we usually do to say “no”. But he does that as a reflex: he is shaking his head whatever the question is. It goes with his gum and hat, it is a “style” he adopted while talking.
The “fear” noticed at 1:18 is, to me irrelevant to the precise accusation. It might be a sigh that he is annoyed by the thought of people thinking of him badly or just him thinking of a previous crime (non related to this one). He could also flash a fear of being on TV: he tries to appear relaxed but this could be a sign that he is not (and that would not be a proof of him being a liar: most of us are afraid of being on TV).
At 1:40, when he swears being non-guilty, he is scared. But again, we can speculate on the reasons while he could be scared (not being believed? scared of serious consequences for his “joke”?)
There are several more examples, but my point is that this man could be lying, or telling the truth. We cannot judge him according to a video, especially when we don’t know if he was prepared or not. Finding the truth would require an interview with Tony, and after a few basic questions start investigating on his alibi for example. Many ways are here possible…
I see what Alexandre wants to say, and frankly speaking, I agree with him on many points. What I absolutely disagree with, however, is that at 01:40 the man is scared. If anything, I’d say that he shows signs of anger. Which on the second thought might mean that he is telling the truth after all and is annoyed at the fact that he has to prove his innocence over and over again. But since I’ve already chose the “lie”-version, I’ll stick to it. But I’m very much looking forward to the answer from Humintell:)
I’m finding it very difficult to tell as he shows a lot of illustrators and very few manipulators but at the end when the bloke asks is that photo you and he says one million per cent not me he shook his head signifying that he doesn’t really believe. So I don’t really know
Thank you Olga for the 1:40 remark: after re-watching the video I do agree with the anger, I may have commented a little bit quickly on that one!
Thank you for reminding me that the observation of micro-expression is a hard work and often need many views to be sure!
I also agree on the speculation for this possible anger, and it is another sign for me towards the conclusion: we need more materials to make a decision!
He is lying because from 0:10 to 0:16 he can’t focus… his eyes turn right and left and right….
There is some false “no” head shake. Where he want to say no, but the first movement say yes from high do down before going to shake from left to right and rigth to left. Some see it?
So I found the video on youtube which makes it easier to spot things as it’s in a better quality and you can play the video in slow-motion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCGhQHQOC94
I’m pretty sure he’s a liar, can’t put my finger on the exact point but there are too many inconsistencies in his body language and every time he denies what he’s done (or not done) there’s no eye contact and he’s looking down, but otherwise, he’s making eye contact normally and also he doesn’t appear the kind of person that can’t hold eye contact because of lack of confidence or whatever, also he seems to get pretty nervous when the reporter asks him directly whether this picture of the guy trashing this muni bus was not him, he suddenly starts chewing on his gum really intensely… Well, I’m no expert and I’ve just started learning about body language, so I might be completely wrong, but in my humble opinion, this guy is lying
@Afonso Marques: he keeps doing that for every question, this can not be considered as a sign of deception.
@Chris: yes, agreed, but he also does that for every question: I believe it’s just a reflex that some people have while talking.
@Luca: but some liars make more eye contact while they lie, to make sure we beleive their lies.
We have to be very careful with that kind of video: we do not know anything about this man’s history and how the video was shot.
The temptation leads to look for any detail that would prove a man guilty: we see what we want to see.
This man could be innocent.
Dupers delight he’s a liar.