Telling Lies

Hello everyone! Today is the 9th day of my pleasure reading marathon. I can say it’s been a pleasure to read my book and I believe it’ll stay this way.

So, after finishing the chapter “Why Lies Fail” where Paul Ekman explains different reasons to it, I gradually came to my favorite topic that is “Detecting Deceit From Words, Voice and Body”. I genuinely relish every paragraph with all the examples that the author states, especially I really appreciated his reference to Freud’s work and the fact that Paul Ekman even wrote about Freud’s example from his personal life. It concerned Freud’s theory that slips of the tongue actually reveal internal psychological conflict.

Moreover, after referring to the scene from his life, Ekman stated the quote which made me reflect about many things in life and remember whether I noticed slips of the tongue before:

“the suppression of the speaker’s intention to say something is the indispensable condition for the occurrence of a slip of the tongue [italics in original]”

Furthermore, I noticed how the author summarizes the main ideas and arguments about certain topics of the chapter in the end of the theme. I find it really helpful in terms of repeating the information and actually not getting lost among all of the facts and ideas that he writes about.

Also, the themes of “the voice” and “the body” are actually my favorite, because the experiments that he did really intrigued me and I found myself imagining all of a sudden how I would conduct such experiments or interview, and how overwhelming it is to notice signs of deceit and to analyse all the data that you get after the experiment! I felt and still feel so excited.

As I’ve reached only the first image of the “Figure 1” (in the section “the body”) I cannot say more about nonverbal signs, but as I was desperately waiting for the moment when such pictures of the postures would appear, and I’m impressed so that I cannot really convey my seething emotions. However, It was a picture (actually just a drawing) from his experiment that showed an unconscious sign of a finger in the moment of feeling anger and discomfort. “The shrug and the finger are two examples of actions that are called emblems…”

As the author stated the reason of one of his experiments:

There is still another, more important reason why there are more clues to deceit in the face than in words.

Now, I would like to share with you some new vocabulary items:

• Gory scenes — violent images or scenes that show a lot of blood
• Trounce — to defeat a competitor by a large amount, a large score
• Succinctly — in a way that expresses what needs to be said clearly and without unnecessary words (уратко, лаконично)
• Ignoble — morally bad and making you feel ashamed (постыдный, низкий)
• At the outset — at the start, from the start
• Prevaricating (prevaricate) — to avoid telling the truth or saying exactly what you think (увиливать, изворачиваться)
• Сircumlocution — (an example of) an indirect way of saying something, especially something unpleasant (уклончивый стиль речи)

Reading the book I’ve noticed that he mostly uses“she” when referring to the person. And while talking to the reader, he tends to generalize and uses “we” as making appeal common and personal. It’s just an interesting observation.

And for last, enjoy and reflect on the poem of Shakespeare quoted by Paul Ekman:

When my love swears that she is made of truth,

I do believe her, though I know she lies,

That she might think me some untutored youth,

Unlearned in the world’s false subtleties.

Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,

Although she knows my days are past the best,

Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue.

On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed.

But wherefore says she not she is unjust?

And wherefore say not I that I am old?

Oh, love’s best habit is in seeming trust,

And age in love loves not to have years told.

Therefore I lie with her and she with me,

And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

Thank you for your attention!