I originally wasn’t going to reply because I’m not entirely sure if it’s a good idea for other people to adopt my strategy, but my name has been uttered, so I’ll give it a shot.
What strategies do you people who aren’t me have to detect lies?
I have no strategy directly aimed at detecting lies. I notice when someone’s statement seems to contradict something I already believe, and I notice when someone’s statement seems just plain wacky. I tend not to believe those statements, unless the preexisting belief they contradict is equally unsupported (which means I don’t care much about the subject and might as well be agreeable with whoever I’m talking to), or I have an extended friendship with and favorable insight into the ethics and intellect of the speaker (so I think they’d be especially unlikely to lie to me or be mistaken), or I seek additional information and find the statement confirmed by legitimate-looking other sources (which I do when I care about the subject a great deal, regardless of my opinion of the likelihood of lying/mistake). But other than that, I’m a very trusting person.
The lies and errors that slip through this admittedly unsophisticated web of detection are usually caught when I permit myself to become loudly curious, which happens whenever I care about a subject. (It matters very little to me if I have false beliefs on subjects that are of no importance to me). Your average liar cannot tolerate extensive, earnest questioning about the details of the situation about which they have lied, even if there are legitimate-looking sources which back them up. When this inquisition turns up a falsehood, I typically operate under the assumption that it was a mistake rather than a deliberate attempt at deception; this seems to make most people less likely to resent me, and is probably true much of the time anyway.
I originally wasn’t going to reply because I’m not entirely sure if it’s a good idea for other people to adopt my strategy...
I like to think that most people here have their heads screwed on tight enough to make a reasonable evaluation of a given strategy before adopting it. That said, I won’t mind at all if you don’t indulge my curiosity in the future.
I originally wasn’t going to reply because I’m not entirely sure if it’s a good idea for other people to adopt my strategy, but my name has been uttered, so I’ll give it a shot.
I have no strategy directly aimed at detecting lies. I notice when someone’s statement seems to contradict something I already believe, and I notice when someone’s statement seems just plain wacky. I tend not to believe those statements, unless the preexisting belief they contradict is equally unsupported (which means I don’t care much about the subject and might as well be agreeable with whoever I’m talking to), or I have an extended friendship with and favorable insight into the ethics and intellect of the speaker (so I think they’d be especially unlikely to lie to me or be mistaken), or I seek additional information and find the statement confirmed by legitimate-looking other sources (which I do when I care about the subject a great deal, regardless of my opinion of the likelihood of lying/mistake). But other than that, I’m a very trusting person.
The lies and errors that slip through this admittedly unsophisticated web of detection are usually caught when I permit myself to become loudly curious, which happens whenever I care about a subject. (It matters very little to me if I have false beliefs on subjects that are of no importance to me). Your average liar cannot tolerate extensive, earnest questioning about the details of the situation about which they have lied, even if there are legitimate-looking sources which back them up. When this inquisition turns up a falsehood, I typically operate under the assumption that it was a mistake rather than a deliberate attempt at deception; this seems to make most people less likely to resent me, and is probably true much of the time anyway.
I like to think that most people here have their heads screwed on tight enough to make a reasonable evaluation of a given strategy before adopting it. That said, I won’t mind at all if you don’t indulge my curiosity in the future.