This new software from the University of Michigan is 75% accurate at catching a liar

This new software from the University of Michigan is 75% accurate at catching a liar

order to build a tool that can determine whether or not someone’s pants should be combusting.

Better than a polygraph, the new software doesn’t actually need to measure a subject’s pulse, breathing rate, or otherwise touch them at all in order to catch a liar in the act. Rather, the speaker’s words and gestures are analyzed to measure their truthfulness (or the lack thereof).

In initial experiments, the University of Michigan software was significantly more accurate in identifying deception than were humans — in fact, it was 75 percent accurate in finding the liars, whereas humans were right only 50 percent of the time.

So how did they do it?

After poring over 120 video clips from real trials, the researchers found that the people who were lying had a number of distinctive tells. They moved their hands more, scowled or grimaced, said “um” more frequently, and attempted to create a sense of distance between themselves and their alleged crime or civil misbehavior by using words like “he” or “she” rather than “I” or “we.” Even more interesting, liars tended to make a greater effort at sounding sure of themselves — not only would they feign confidence, but they would also look the questioner in the eye, perhaps attempting to establish believability.

Source: digitaltrends