Did You Know? You Should Say “Liar Liar Nose On Fire” Instead.
Finally, we now realize what makes Voldemort soooooo bad. 😈
Infrared technology can actually provide some insight into lie detecting. Human has tons of tiny muscles on the face that give us thousands of micro-expressions. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell what those expressions mean. There’s an expression for awkwardness, another for anger. But sometimes, you can’t really tell. 🤷♂️ That’s why we need some gadgets to detect lies. Scientists have found out that our nasal area’s temperature slightly increases a few degrees when we lie. Wait, that story sounds familiar. Our noses look different when we lie? 👃 And yes, we just love to name scientific findings after Disney characters. It’s called the Pinocchio effect.
Lying ain’t easy, but here’s why your nose might go pink next time. It takes some effort for our brains to tell what’s not true, plus energy to burn. BURN🔥. The frontal lobe in the brain is the part that grinds hard when we’re deceiving people. It’s located behind the forehead, making the temperature around that area rise. We can’t actually see heat. However, there are a whole lot more microvessels around the nose that’s easier to light up. Thus, giving your lie away.
The bottom line is, no technology can be 100% accurate. Infrared lie detection only gets it right 70%-90% of the time. Regardless, in the foreseeable future, we might see more and more villains cut their noses off. Or maybe, you’re gonna have to join the list of bad guys if you can’t tell the truth.
Another updated experiment is worth mentioning. For some people, temperatures around the nose actually dip down before increasing to red. Researchers suggest that it’s the anxiety that comes along with lying that causes temperature drop. Because when humans are anxious, our brains trigger the parasympathetic nerves, responsible for relaxing the body and causing temperature drops.
That being said, it’s virtually impossible to have 100% accurate lie detection. Yes, the Pinocchio effect helps identify liars by a 90% success rate, but it also has a 50% chance of mistaking innocent people.
It just doesn’t go both ways. Lying causes nose temperatures to rise, but higher nasal temps don’t always result from lying? I already feel bad for people who have allergies and can’t stop rubbing their nose like Rudolph.
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