It seems to me that under some circumstances, developing a skill for detecting liars could be dangerous. If you are good at catching liars, then your confidence in people who you do not belief to be lying could go up, which could in turn increase the damage done by false-negatives.
Knowing that in all likelihood some of the people I interact with are sociopaths/psychopaths (somewhere in the neighborhood of 1% of the population are, and most blend in with the general population), I distrust my own ability to determine when somebody is or is not lying to me. Being self-critical in this way limits the damage done by the few that will inevitably slip through.
Are you suggesting that it is impossible to detect that a sociopath or psychopath is lying? They're probably better at it, partially because they do it so much and can practice, but I doubt any of them are infallible.
That being said, it is indeed very risky to assume you can always detect lying, or even be certain that a particular person is lying. It's good to be wary but bad to be certain.
Lying, as a social interaction, actually has a net benefit to society allowing interaction between humans - it can avoid conflict, ill feeling, embarrassment, shame and a whole host of other negative scenarios.
You are absolutely correct that it is risky to assume you can detect lying. Most of the time it is simply not in your best interest to even point out a lie let alone be wrong about it.
I wouldn't say that I think it is impossible to detect when a sociopath/psychopath is lying, but I strongly suspect that I would not be good at it. Much of the body language and unease that is often associated with lying could be absent or minimized.
Comments
It seems to me that under some circumstances, developing a skill for detecting liars could be dangerous. If you are good at catching liars, then your confidence in people who you do not belief to be lying could go up, which could in turn increase the damage done by false-negatives.
Knowing that in all likelihood some of the people I interact with are sociopaths/psychopaths (somewhere in the neighborhood of 1% of the population are, and most blend in with the general population), I distrust my own ability to determine when somebody is or is not lying to me. Being self-critical in this way limits the damage done by the few that will inevitably slip through.
Are you suggesting that it is impossible to detect that a sociopath or psychopath is lying? They're probably better at it, partially because they do it so much and can practice, but I doubt any of them are infallible.
That being said, it is indeed very risky to assume you can always detect lying, or even be certain that a particular person is lying. It's good to be wary but bad to be certain.
Lying, as a social interaction, actually has a net benefit to society allowing interaction between humans - it can avoid conflict, ill feeling, embarrassment, shame and a whole host of other negative scenarios.
You are absolutely correct that it is risky to assume you can detect lying. Most of the time it is simply not in your best interest to even point out a lie let alone be wrong about it.
I wouldn't say that I think it is impossible to detect when a sociopath/psychopath is lying, but I strongly suspect that I would not be good at it. Much of the body language and unease that is often associated with lying could be absent or minimized.