Telegramdagi kanal: https://t.me/PROFESSIONALS_cefr page 12 Part 4 Read the following text for questions 21-29 How to Spot a Liar However much we may abhor it, deception comes naturally to all living things. Birds do it by
feigning injury to lead hungry predators away from nesting young. Spider crabs do it by
disguise: adorning themselves with strips of kelp and other debris, they pretend to be
something they are not – and so escape their enemies. Nature amply rewards successful
deceivers by allowing them to survive long enough to mate and reproduce. So it may come
as no surprise to learn that human beings- who, according to psychologist Gerald Johnson
of the University of South California, or lied to about 200 times a day, roughly one untruth
every 5 minutes- often deceive for exactly the same reasons: to save their own skins or to
get something they can’t get by other means.
But knowing how to catch deceit can be just as important a survival skill as knowing how to
tell a lie and get away with it. A person able to spot falsehood quickly is unlikely to be
swindled by an unscrupulous business associate or hoodwinked by a devious spouse.
Luckily, nature provides more than enough clues to trap dissemblers in their own tangled
webs- if you know where to look. By closely observing facial expressions, body language
and tone of voice, practically anyone can recognise the tell-tale signs of lying. Researchers
are even programming computers – like those used on Lie Detector -to get at the truth by
analysing the same physical cues available to the naked eye and ear. “With the proper
training, many people can learn to reliably detect lies,” says Paul Ekman, professor of
psychology at the University of California, San Francisco, who has spent the past 15 years
studying the secret art of deception.
In order to know what kind of Lies work best, successful liars need to accurately assess
other people’s emotional states. Ackman’s research shows that this same emotional
intelligence is essential for good lie detectors, too. The emotional state to watch out for is
stress, the conflict most liars feel between the truth and what they actually say and do.
Even high-tech lie detectors don’t detect lies as such; they merely detect the physical cues
of emotions, which may or may not correspond to what the person being tested is saying.
Polygraphs, for instance, measure respiration, heart rate and skin conductivity, which tend
to increase when people are nervous – as they usually are when lying. Nervous people
typically perspire, and the salts contained in perspiration conducts electricity. That’s why a
sudden leap in skin conductivity indicates nervousness – about getting caught, perhaps -
which makes, in turn, suggest that someone is being economical with the truth. On the