Telling Lies

What Hacker News says

1. didsomeonesayFeb 2015
   > The key to faking a real smile is in wrinkling the eyes.

   The wrinkling is not a very reliable indicator of fake smiles [1]. A real smile does indeed involve muscles around the eyes, but wrinkling could be caused by the cheek muscles pushing upward too.

   Some more indicators of a real smile are, IIRC - curling corners of the mouth - corners of the eye pushing inward - short duration - it starts and ends smoothly - symmetry

   [1] Source: Having recently read "Telling Lies" by Paul Ekman (and that was a HN recommendation too)

   Show morethread
2. kriroDec 2012
   My candidates (not in order):

   Getting Things Done (Superpower: Time Management)

   Bargaining for Advantage (Superpower: Negotiation)

   The Art of Learning (Superpower: Learning)

   Telling Lies (Superpower: Facial expressions etc...somewhat of a cheat since you'll probably need to read more on the topic)

   Economics in One Lesson (Superpower: Understanding the fundamentals of economics...and wandering down the dark,Austrian path eventually)

   Edit: An even better superpower is learning a new language and understanding the corresponding culture. I usually suggest that over anything else for anyone that knows <3 languages well

   Show morethread
3. j_bakerAug 2010
   Unfortunately, I'm not the best person to go into much detail. If you're interested in this subject, I'd highly recommend checking out "Telling Lies" by Paul Ekman: http://books.google.com/books?id=7I_wDDfrwCgC&dq=ekman+t...
   thread
4. toomuchtodoNov 2025
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ekman

   https://openlibrary.org/books/OL22796185M/Telling_lies

   https://www.paulekman.com/

   thread
5. NukedOneJan 2024
   If you want to go deeper into this, there is the Manual that describes the action units and how to measure them, but you'll also want to read about how specific emotions manifest in humans. For that, some other Ekman's books are useful, in no particular order:

   - Unmasking the Social Engineer: The Human Element of Security by Christopher Hadnagy, Paul Kelly F. & Paul Ekman (2014)

   - Unmasking the Face: A Guide to Recognizing Emotions From Facial Expressions by Paul Ekman & Wallace V. Friesen (2003)

   - Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life by Paul Ekman (2003)

   - Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage by Paul Ekman (1992)

   - Emotion in the Human Face: Guidelines for Research and an Integration of Findings by Paul Ekman, Wallace V. Friesen, Phoebe Ellsworth, Arnold P. Goldstein & Leonard Krasner (1972)

   - What the Face Reveals: Basic and Applied Studies of Spontaneous Expression Using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) (2nd Edition) by Paul Ekman, Erika L. Rosenberg (2005)

   - Why Kids Lie by Paul Ekman (1989)

   Show morethread
6. monkeynotesNov 2018
   This is an interesting article[1], the opinion of the author is that no reliable studies have been conducted as to if humans can detect deceit at all. He is skeptical that machines can deduce deceit using micro expressions.

   Quote: "Looking for cues to deception merely from ephemeral facial micro-expressions is questionable and likely fruitless. Micro gestures may be indicative of internal emotional turmoil that is being suppressed, but that is it. The distinguished Paul Ekman, who in fact coined the term micro - expression has stated in his book Telling Lies that micro expressions are rare and they "don't occur that often" (Ekman 1985, 131, 165). Plus as others have said, there is no single behavior indicative of deception (Matsumoto et. al., 2011, 1-4). I am concerned that machines that focus solely on the face will no doubt miss other information from the body (sweating, jittery hand, etc.) or generate lots of false positives because negative emotions abound especially where such machines are intended such as airports (stress of travel, stress of being subjected to searches, or inconvenient interviews, etc) or in a police setting."

   [1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/spycatcher/201203/th...

   Show morethread