Researchers at Brigham Young University found that texts containing a lie took longer to compose and were often shorter than truthful texts. This makes sense, but even armed with the knowledge humans are still poor lie detectors. The researchers found that through exact measurement and modeling they could predict SMS lies more accurately. “Unfortunately, humans are terrible at detecting deception. We’re creating methods to correct that,” BYU researcher Tom Meservy said.
The study, which is being published in ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems, looked at 100 subjects who answered 30 questions in an IM/texting-style conversation on a computer. Before the study began they were directed to lie in about half their answers. The subjects took 10 percent longer writing their lies and then also took longer to revise them.
via Gizmodo
September 10, 2013
