How Americans Rank at Spotting a Liar
Study Ranks Countries on International Rules of Deception
By Jennifer Warner
Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD
on Friday, April 02, 2004
WebMD Medical News
April 2, 2004 – Americans may think they’re experts at the art of deception, but it’s really all a lie.
New research shows Americans rank near the middle of the pack worldwide when it comes to spotting a liar, but Turks and Armenians fare much better.
The 75-nation study shows Americans think they can spot a liar less than half the time, but Turks and Armenians can detect a lie up to 70% of the time.
Researchers say differences in international deception practices can make it harder for people of different cultures to get away with lying, or at least think they can.
The results of the study were presented recently at a Congressional hearing on international deception.
Detecting Lies
Worldwide, people surveyed for the study said they could detect a lie about 53% of the time.
“Eye contact, or lack of it, was mentioned more than any other cue as an indicator that a person is lying,” says researcher Charles F. Bond, a professor of psychology at Texas Christian University, in a news release.
“This belief is most likely inaccurate,” says Bond. “At least in western research, eye contact has only a weak relationship to deception.”
Interestingly, Bond says about 15% of respondents said they believe people telling a lie actually make more eye contact than someone who’s telling the truth. The percentage was higher in Muslim countries (nearly 30%) and lower in nations where Roman Catholic Christianity was dominant (11%).
Other telltale signs of deception mentioned included shifting posture, incoherence (speaking with a lot of “uhs” and “ahs”) and nervousness.
Cultural Differences in Lying
Researchers also found cultural difference in how often people believe they’re being lied to. People in Taiwan and Portugal believe they hear about four fibs a week, and Americans think they hear twice as many a week.
Those numbers were much higher in poor and Muslim countries. Pakistanis and Algerians said they are being lied to between 12 and 16 times a week. The worldwide average was nine tall tales per week.
But the study found religion had a strong effect on how good a liar people think they are. Muslims rated themselves the worst at lying and think they got away with it only 47% of the time, while Protestants think they get away with fibbing about 55% of the time.