Intuitive sense more reliable at detecting lies than conscious thought

A new study has revealed that unconscious mind may be more accurate than conscious thought in detecting lies.

According to the research, automatic associations may be helpful in detecting deceit and pegging truth-tellers and liars, as conscious awareness may hinder the ability of detection.

The study revealed that humans tend to seek out behaviors that are supposedly stereotypical of liars, like averted eyes or fidgeting, but those behaviors may not be all that indicative of an untrustworthy person.

Leanne ten Brinke, lead author of the study and psychological scientist, said that their research was prompted by the puzzling but consistent finding that humans are very poor lie detectors, performing at only about 54 percent accuracy in traditional lie detection tasks.

The study found that people were more likely to unconsciously associate deception-related words, such as "untruthful," dishonest," and "deceitful" with the suspects who were actually lying and were more likely to associate truthful words like "honest" or "valid" with the suspects who were actually telling the truth.

Brinke added that the findings provide a new lens through which to examine social perception, and suggest that unconscious measures may provide additional insight into interpersonal accuracy in terms of detection of lies.