"truth wizard"
A Truth Wizard is a person identified in the Wizards Project, who can identify deception with exceptional accuracy of at least 80% or higher, whereas the average person is only as good as a coin toss. No Truth Wizard, however, is 100% accurate. The term "wizard" refers to "a person of amazing skill or accomplishment" [1].
Scientists Dr. Maureen O'Sullivan and Dr. Paul Ekman, who lead the Wizards Project identified only 50 people as Truth Wizards (about .25% of the population) after testing 20,000 people from all walks of life, including the Secret Service, FBI, sheriffs, police, attorneys, arbitrators, psychologist, students and every day people.
Dr. Paul Ekman said on NPR that "we have found 50 who have this really nearly perfect ability to spot liars, and that’s without any specialized training."
Dr. Maureen O'Sullivan from the University of San Francisco says, "Our wizards are extraordinarily attuned to detecting the nuances of facial expressions, body language and ways of talking and thinking. Some of them can observe a videotape for a few seconds and amazingly they can describe eight details about the person on the tape."
Scientists are currently studying Truth Wizards to identify new ways to spot a liar.
Truth Wizards use a variety of clues to spot deception and do not depend on any one "clue" to identify a liar. Truth wizards have a natural knack for spotting microexpressions. They also hone into inconsistencies in emotion, body language, and words spoken with amazing skill. Dr. Paul Ekman said on NPR, "We're still trying to find out how in the world did they learn this skill? Are they the sort of Mozarts of lie detection; they just had it?"
Ekman's work is the inspiration for the TV series Lie to Me (2009 - present), and one of the show's main characters, Ria Torres, is a "natural", otherwise known in the scientific community as a Truth Wizard.
In Popular Culture
One Truth Wizard writes a popular blog on the web called Eyes For Lies, and also maintains an informative website. She has been blogging for over four years and writes about hot topics in the news. She shares her thoughts about what makes her suspect a liar.
References
- ^ P.Granhag and L. Strömwall, "The detection of deception in forensic contexts", Cambridge University Press, p. 269, 2004