Lying is a daily part of life， but how can you identify the liars around you？ A psychology professor outlines the top tips.

謊言是日常生活的一部分，但怎樣才能識別出身邊的說謊者呢？一位心理學(xué)教授概述了最重要的技巧。

Whether it’s an innocent white lie， or a deep dark secret years in the making， lying is very much woven into the fabric of society.

無論是無辜的善意謊言，還是醞釀多年的幽暗秘密，謊言在社會中無孔不入。

But， when you’re not dealing with an obvious deception， filled with plot holes and bizarre twists， how can you tell someone is lying？ The answer lies in psychology.

但是，當(dāng)你面對的并非充滿情節(jié)漏洞和離奇曲折的明顯欺騙時，你怎么能確定一個人在說謊呢？答案在于心理學(xué)。

We spoke to Richard Wiseman， a professor of the public understanding of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire， for an episode of the podcast Instant Genius1. He gave us insights into how to better understand a liar.

在播客《即時天才》的一集中，我們采訪了赫特福德大學(xué)教授理查德·懷斯曼，他的研究領(lǐng)域是公眾對心理學(xué)的理解。他給我們提供了關(guān)于如何更好地理解說謊者的洞見。

Are there any tells that can help us identify when someone is telling us a lie？

有什么線索可以幫我們識別出一個人在說謊？

I did an experiment with the BBC where we would interview politicians on the radio. Some would lie and some would tell the truth with audiences phoning in to say who’s lying. Unsurprisingly， no politicians wanted to do it.

我在BBC廣播節(jié)目里做過一個實驗，打算由電臺采訪政界人士。一些政界人士會說謊，另一些則會說真話，而聽眾會打電話來辨別誰在說謊。不出所料，沒有政界人士愿意參與。

We got in contact with a big political interviewer of the time and he agreed to do it instead.

我們聯(lián)系了當(dāng)時做政治訪談的一位名人，他同意來做這一試驗。

I interviewed him twice， each time about his favourite film. Once he lied to me， once he told the truth. We put them out live on TV. We ended up with about 30，000 calls and what we saw was that the public did the same on television as they do in the lab experiments， which is they were roughly 50/50. In other words， as a group， they couldn’t tell when he was lying.

我采訪了他兩次，每次都是關(guān)于他最喜歡的電影。其中一次他說的是謊話，另一次說的是真話。這兩次訪談在電視上進行現(xiàn)場直播。我們最終接到了約3萬個電話。我們看到，公眾在電視上與在實驗室里的表現(xiàn)一樣——猜對和猜錯的人基本上各占一半。換句話說，總體上無法識別出他什么時候在說謊。

We also ran the transcript in a newspaper and put the audio on the radio. When we stripped away the visual cues， you suddenly saw this big increase in people’s lie detecting ability.

我們也在報紙上刊印了文字記錄，并以廣播形式播放了節(jié)目內(nèi)容。剝除視覺線索后，你會突然發(fā)現(xiàn)，人們的測謊能力大幅提高。

The visual cues are highly controllable. How we gesture， smile and look， that’s under our control. When you get to the words we say and how we say them， it’s not really something we think about very much. And that’s where the good cues sit.

視覺線索是高度可控的。我們的手勢、笑容和表情都在自己掌控之中。但當(dāng)你關(guān)注我們說了什么和我們的說話方式時，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)，事實上，這些并不是我們會深思熟慮的方面。而這就是好的線索所在。

Once you focus on audio cues， you become a better lie detector.

一旦你專注于聽覺線索，就會成為一個更好的謊言識別者。

A popular example is that if you’re lying you look up and to the right， is there any truth in this？

一個廣為流傳的例子說，當(dāng)你說謊時，會抬眼向右看。這符合事實嗎？

We’ve looked into that. It is one of the most popular myths out there. I know people that have based big decisions on this belief， it’s quite worrying.

我們已經(jīng)對此進行了研究。這是最流行的迷思之一。我知道有些人基于這一信念作出重大決定，這非常令人擔(dān)憂。

Part of this is that we’re trying to cut down on faces coming into our heads because faces take up a lot of processing power. If you’re trying to remember something， often you look away but is absolutely seen across the world as a sign of deception.

望向他處的部分原因是我們在試圖減少進入我們大腦的面孔，因為面孔占據(jù)大量的大腦處理能力。如果你正試圖想起某件事，常常會把目光移開，但這舉動在全世界的人眼中，完全是一種騙人的表現(xiàn)。

Is it the case？ We tested this and found there’s no indication at all that the eye movements relate to whether someone is lying.

真的是這樣嗎？我們對此進行了測試，發(fā)現(xiàn)沒有任何跡象表明眼球運動與一個人是否在說謊相關(guān)。

Are people able to hide their body language tells when lying？

人們說謊時能夠隱藏自己的肢體語言線索嗎？

Some people can， but most people absolutely can’t. What you tend to look for in lie detection work is a deviation away from the person’s norm.

有些人可以，但大多數(shù)人絕對做不到。在測謊工作中，你要尋找的是人的表現(xiàn)與其常態(tài)的偏差。

If someone scratches their nose， it could be a sign of them lying， or perfectly normal behaviour. It’s no use to look at one piece of action and decide they’re lying because they looked away， maybe they do that all the time.

如果一個人摸鼻子，這可能是說謊的表現(xiàn)，但也可能是完全正常的行為。僅看一個動作，比如移開目光，就判斷是在說謊，這是沒有用的——也許人家總是做這個動作。

In lie detection work， we establish a baseline and then you’re looking for certain signals away from that baseline. And those signals tend to be verbal.

在測謊工作中，我們首先確立一個基線，然后尋找偏離該基線的某些信號。這些信號往往存在于言辭之中。

You’re looking for the hesitations， bigger distancing between the end of the question and the beginning of the answer as they think through the lie. You’re looking for a dropping away of detail.

要注意被測者是否猶豫不決，即聽完問題較長時間才作答，似乎在考慮如何撒謊。要看對方有無在不經(jīng)意間漏掉細節(jié)。

You’re looking for dropping of me， my and I， those sorts of words. Because lying is cognitively difficult.

要注意言語中me、my和I這類詞的缺失——因為說謊時會出現(xiàn)認知困難。

In a lie， you have to think through what the person knows， what’s going to fit in with my story， what have I said already and all those things tax the person’s mind.

人要說謊，就得考慮對方知道什么，哪些與自己編的故事相符，自己之前說過什么。所有這些思考會讓一個人費盡腦筋。

Can you become a good liar？

你能成為一個說謊高手嗎？

From a psychology perspective， there’s this sort of arousal theory.

從心理學(xué)視角來看，有這樣一種喚起理論。

This is the idea that when we lie to somebody， we feel guilty and therefore will start to sweat and move around， things that people who are physiologically active do.

這一理論認為，當(dāng)我們對人說謊時，我們會感到內(nèi)疚，因此會開始出汗并四處走動——這是生理活躍的人會有的表現(xiàn)。

However， if you told this lie quite a few times or you don’t really care very much about lying， or even if you’re lying for some greater good， you might not feel that same guilt.

然而，如果這個謊言你已經(jīng)講過很多次，或者你并不那么在意說謊，甚或你說謊是出于好意，那么你也許并不會有這種愧疚感。

It is also important to remember that lots of lies are in that category， explosive lies are only a very small part of lying.

同樣重要的是，要記住，許多謊言都屬于這一類。爆炸性謊言只占謊言的很小一部分。

Most of the time lying bonds us together. You meet somebody in the street and tell them it is great to see them. Maybe that is true， but it might equally be a lie to spare2 their feelings.

大多數(shù)情況下，謊言把我們聯(lián)結(jié)在一起。你在街上遇到一個人，對他說你很高興看到他——這也許是真的，但同樣可能是為了照顧他的感受而說的謊話。

Lying bonds us together as much as pushes us apart. If you don’t feel stressed when you lie， you’re not going to show any of those signals.

謊言將我們聯(lián)結(jié)在一起，也讓我們分離。如果你說謊時沒有感覺到壓力，就不會表現(xiàn)出任何說謊跡象。

From a cognitive perspective， lying is cognitively difficult. If you’ve told that story many， many times and you’re a well-rehearsed liar， you’re not going to have those cognitive signals. In fact， you may even end up believing the lie yourself because you’ve told it so many times.

從認知角度來看，說謊是有認知難度的。如果一個謊言你已經(jīng)講過很多很多遍，謊言也是精心排練好的，那么你就不會有那些認知困難跡象。事實上，你最終甚至可能自己也相信了這個謊言，因為你已經(jīng)說過那么多次了。

How reliable is a lie detector in testing a lie？

測謊儀測謊有多可靠？

It is a sophisticated piece of equipment that tells how physiologically active a person is. It will tell you how much they’re sweating， heart rate， breathing rate and so on.

測謊儀是一種精密設(shè)備，可以測出一個人的生理活躍度。它會告訴你被測人的出汗量、心率、呼吸頻率等等。

The question is， is all of this reliably linked to lying？ That’s quite a contentious topic. And again， it would depend on the situation.

問題是，這些指標(biāo)是否與說謊有可靠的相關(guān)性？這是一個相當(dāng)有爭議的話題。同樣，這要取決于具體情況。

Not surprisingly， if you start putting all these monitors on and you’ve got a big machine with lots of lights， even someone who isn’t lying can get nervous.

毫不奇怪，如果開始給你裝上所有這些監(jiān)測器，并準(zhǔn)備了一臺帶有大量指示燈的大型機器，即使是沒有說謊的人也可能會感到緊張。

Equally， some liars have told a story so many times or don’t feel guilty about lying， and therefore are not going to show those signals. So my own perspective is that they are not especially reliable.

同樣，一些說謊者已經(jīng)把同一個故事講了很多遍，或者并不因說謊而感到愧疚，因此不會表現(xiàn)出這些跡象。所以，我個人的觀點是，測謊儀并不是特別可靠。

They might give you some insight， but they certainly should be taken with a pinch of salt3.

它們可能會給你一些啟示，但我們當(dāng)然應(yīng)該對它們持保留態(tài)度。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎?wù)撸?/p>

1 BBC《科學(xué)焦點》（Science Focus）雜志主辦的高級講習(xí)播客節(jié)目。

2 spare不傷害。

3 take sth with a pinch of salt不完全相信，半信半疑。