In 2007 researchers in the Miniature Electronics Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology invented a tiny device that is a very accurate lie detector. It senses both skin temperature and moisture level and then radios the data to a receiver, which analyzes the readings. It’s been shown in tests to have a 90% accuracy of discerning if the wearer is telling the truth or not. This device, known as FALSE (Factual Analyzer for Lies and Suspicious Emanations), can be disguised as an American flag pin and attached to the lapel of a suit.
The Psychology Department at Harvard then took up the research and conducted a one-year experiment, in which they implanted the FALSE sensor on several hundred unsuspecting subjects and monitored the number of lies they uttered. It was a double-blind experiment, in which those who attached the devices (they hired retired CIA agents) were kept incommunicado with those who recorded and analyzed the lie data.
Each subject was tracked for one week and the results were expressed as the average number of lies told each day. Here is a brief summary of the preliminary findings, as a function of the profession of the wearer of the FALSE sensor, in order of decreasing number of lies per day:
· Fox News broadcasters and radio talk show hosts: 100 (while on the air) and 30 (at other times)
· Lawyers: 75 (while in court) and 35 (at other times)
· Politicians: 60 (at all times)
· Bankers and corporate executives: 55
· Advertising agency personnel: 50
· Newspaper editors: 30
· Medical profession: doctors 15 and nurses 7
· The Shenandoah Hermit: 1
These are initial findings of an ongoing study. The research will continue, as other professions are being evaluated (some surprising findings about teachers and preachers have been leaked, showing some of them to score as high as 20). The scientists are also attempting to refine the results, to determine if the test subjects actually believed their lies, or were truly deceitful. (We all know which, in the case of politicians.) Stay tuned for the release of Phase 2 results, next month.
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Hermit Musings (the book)
A self-published book is now available at www.lulu.com, that contains the first two years (171 entries) of this blog. Volume two (the next 171 postings) is also now available.
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About Me
- The Hermit
- The northern Shenandoah Valley is my long term—but not native—home. The Appalachian Mountains are my adopted surroundings. Having survived into my mid 70s, I continually muse upon the dichotomy of physically waning while still possessing what seems to be a youthful and dynamic outlook. At one time an engineer, I quit that life for one of simplicity, over three decades ago—exchanging an urban frenetic existence for the contemplative mode of a rural homesteader. The switch rewarded me with the opportunity to reorder my priorities and to pursue life’s more profound matters. I engage in my ongoing quest and challenges primarily as a hermit—having discovered that my journey currently seems to be mostly a solitary one. I find myself spending much of my time just trying to be attentive to the magical world around me—watching nature and my mind. The majority of my musings come to me during lengthy soaks in hot water in an outdoor tub, heated by an underwater woodstove, filled from an adjacent creek.
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