Book Review: Telling Lies. Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage by Paul Ekman

The author of this work, which devotes several pages to lying from an evolutionary perspective, is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, San Francisco, and the book is the updated 3rd edition of an eight-chapter work first published in 1985. Chapters 9 and 10 were added for the 2nd edition, published in 1992, and chapter 11 for this one. In his new Preface he remarks of the earlier editions; “I was relieved to find nothing that I considered incorrect.”

In essence this is a handbook based on his extensive researches into our apparently near universal inability to detect lying by means of observation. In test-situations (and, it seems, in many life-situations) most of us, most of the time, score little better than chance. The only groups he has found which score consistently high at lie-detecting are small minorities among those whose speciality it is, and he makes the alarming claim that in the existing training materials he has examined; ‘About half the information ... is wrong’. (p. 22)

Although large quantities of material on body-language are presented throughout the book, the author eschews this expression, preferring the term ‘demeanour’. Topics dealt with explicitly include ‘Lying, Leakage, & and Clues to Deceit’ (ch. 2), and ‘Why Lies Fail’, (ch. 3), the effectiveness of polygraph tests (ch. 7); ‘Lie Catching in the 1990s’ (ch. 9); and - an extremely important chapter, (no. 10), ‘Lies in Public Life’. The latter deals more with high affairs of state than with public life in general and is probably the most interesting and important part of the book. Of the final chapter, no. 11, he writes: “This ... contains new theoretical distinctions, a brief summary of new findings, and a set of explanations for why it is that most people, even professionals *are such poor lie catchers”. (p. 7) *[He means, of course, people such as police-officers and judges who are especially concerned with uncovering the truth]

There are, also, a six-page Epilogue; a 10-page Appendix (consisting of tables and check-lists setting out in great detail the various behavioural signs by which lying may be detected); 12 pages of reference notes; and 16 pages of combined Index.

Today We Are Rich: A book review by Bob Morris

A grandmother for all seasons
In this his latest book, Tim Sanders creates a context for several concepts introduced in earlier works. More specifically, the lessons he learned from a grandmother who raised him after the death of his mother. As Sanders explains, his grandmother probably had the greatest influence on his professional as well as personal development. When introducing the first of seven principles of Total Confidence, that fact immediately becomes obvious:

Principle 1: Feed Your Mind Good Stuff
“She avoided “gossip snipes” as if they had an infectious disease. She even dumped negative-minded friends after one too many offenses. When one of the ladies at our church asked her why a Christian woman would quit friends over the words they used, Billye would quote The Power of Positive Thinking: “What comes out of the mind is what you put in the mind. You must feed your mind like you feed your body.”