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  • [6 Minute English, from bbclearningenglish.com]

  • Hello, this is 6 Minute English.

  • I'm Rob.

  • And I'm Sam.

  • In this programme, we're talking about biscuits.

  • Really? That's not what I was told...

  • Oh hold on, you're lying.

  • Yes, you're right, Sam.

  • I am lying simply to demonstrate our topiclying and how to detect it.

  • You detected my lie very easily, Sam!

  • I could tell by the smirk on your face that you were telling a fibthat's the word for a small, inoffensive lie.

  • To be honest, talking about lie detecting will be much more interesting than biscuits.

  • But first, let's start with a question for you to answer.

  • A competition is held in Cumbria in the U.K. every year to find and award the title of "The Biggest Liar in the World".

  • But which type of people are not allowed to take part?

  • a) Farmers, b) Lawyers, or c) Estate agents.

  • What do you think, Sam?

  • I'd be lying if I said I knew.

  • But based on personal experience, I'd say estate agents.

  • They'd find it too easy!

  • Ha! Well that's your opinion but I'll let you know if you're right at the end of the program.

  • So, lying is something I'm sure a lot of us do.

  • Sometimes to avoid trouble, sometimes to cheat people, or sometimes just to impress someone.

  • Did you know I can speak seven languages, Sam?

  • That's just a barefaced lie, Rob!

  • But I can see how easy lying can be, and that's what neuroscientist Sophie Scott thinks.

  • Here she is on BBC Radio 4's Seriously podcast, explaining how we sometimes lie just to be nice!

  • Often what we mean by lying is someone setting out to deceive us with their words or their actions.

  • But actually normal conversation probably can only happen because we don't actually say all the time exactly what we really think and what we really mean.

  • And that kind of cooperation is at the heart, I think, of a lot of social interactions for humans.

  • And I think that's one of the strong pushes to make conversation polite and therefore, frequently, not actually truthful.

  • So, Sophie mentions two types of lying.

  • There's the one when we try to deceive someone.

  • So that's trying to hide something by tricking someone to gain an advantage.

  • Hmm, that's like you getting me to pay 10 pounds for a cinema ticket when actually they were only 5 pounds.

  • That's just dishonest, but there are also what I like to call white lies, small lies we tell to avoid upsetting someone.

  • Those are lies that aren't intended to give you an advantage.

  • Yes, Sophie Scott says we use them in normal conversation, when we don't say what we really mean.

  • So, we want to make conversation polite because we want to cooperate with each other. She says cooperation is at the heart.

  • Something that's at the heart is the most important or essential part.

  • Now telling lies is one thing but how do you know if we're being lied to?

  • Sometimes there are telltale signs, such as someone's face turning red or someone shuffling their feet.

  • But if you really want to know if someone is lying, maybe we should listen to Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire.

  • Here he is speaking on the Seriously podcast...

  • Liars in general say less.

  • They tend to have a longer what's called response latency, which is the time between the end of the question and the beginning of the answer.

  • And there also tends to be an emotional distance in the lie.

  • So the words 'me','my', 'I'—all those things tend to drop away in lies.

  • And it's much much harder for liars to control what they're saying and how they're saying it, so focus your attention there, you become a better lie detector.

  • Some good advice from Richard Wiseman.

  • So to detect lies we need to listen out for the response latency.

  • A term used in psychology to describe the time taken between a stimulus or question and a response to it.

  • The bigger the gap, the more chance there is that someone is lying.

  • Is that a good summary, Sam?

  • Sort of, Rob.

  • Richard also suggests we focus onor concentrate onwhat and how people are saying things too.

  • There's probably more to it than just that.

  • Well now you know how to detect my lies, Sam, maybe honesty is the best policy, as they say.

  • So I'm now going to give you an honest answer to the question I asked earlier.

  • A competition is held in Cumbria, in the U.K., every year to award the title of "The Biggest Liar in the World"

  • But which type of people are not allowed to take part?

  • a) Farmers, b) Lawyers, or c) Estate agents?

  • I guessed c) Estate agents.

  • And you are wrong, I'm afraid.

  • Lawyers, as well as politicians, are not allowed to enter the competition.

  • It's claimed "they are judged to be too skilled at telling porkies."

  • Porkies is an informal word for "pork pies" and that rhymes with "lies."

  • Fascinating stuff, Rob and that's no lie!

  • But now, shall we recap some of the vocabulary we've heard today?

  • Yeah, why not.

  • A fib is a small inoffensive lie.

  • A white lie is also a small lie, told to avoid upsetting someone.

  • When you deceive someone, you try to hide something by tricking them to gain an advantage.

  • When something is at the heart of something, it is the most important or essential part of it.

  • And we heard about response latency.

  • A term used in psychology to describe the time taken between a stimulus or question and a response to it.

  • Okay, thank you, Sam.

  • That's all from 6 Minute English.

  • We look forward to your company next time. Goodbye!

  • Bye everyone!

[6 Minute English, from bbclearningenglish.com]

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