To Detect a Lie, Don’t Think About It

January 16, 2014

Judgment Tip 
To Detect a Lie, Don’t Think About It
The Experiment : 
Research participants who did puzzles for 3 minutes after hearing a series of " true and false statements"  were about 6 times better than other people at figuring out which of the statements had been lies . 
Reason : 
The finding suggests that ' unconscious thinking (like the kind you do when you’re working a puzzle) ' gives people a chance to integrate the rich, complex information needed for accurate lie detection, and it supports a theory that deception judgments are largely driven by intuitions that may be inaccessible to the conscious mind . 

Research conducted by: A team led by Marc-André Reinhard of the University of Mannheim in Germany. 
SOURCE: Unconscious Processes Improve Lie Detection