A light rain hits all it can outside as I write this. It’s Saturday, October 14th and my relevant activities this past week have been marked by updates to my library of deception’s spreadsheet and by learning about the supposedly “slightly better than chance” odds of lie detection indicated by the majority of past deception research.
What follows are my daily activity summaries from the week.
Sunday, October 8th, 2023
Today I got three book reviews posted from my summer reading. I forgot about a fourth book I read so I have to do that later this week. The three books were:
1 – Juan Jacinto Muñoz-Rengel’s “A History of Lying” (review 1/5 stars: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5895341499?book_show_action=false)
2 – Federico Finchelstein’s “A Brief History of Fascist Lies” (review 3/5 stars: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5896129223?book_show_action=false)
3 – Jeremy Campbell’s “The Liar’s Tale: A History of Falsehood” (review 3/5 stars: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5896177452?book_show_action=false)
I also spent a couple hours updating my deception library spreadsheet so that all the relevant books I own are on it. Additionally, I added a new column to include the purchase dates so that I know exactly when I bought each book. I have a little under 230 books so this took some time and I didn’t get all the dates added.
Monday, October 9th, 2023
I continued adding purchase dates to my spreadsheet but didn’t finish the list yet.
I started reading through Levine’s “Duped” again where he makes his argument for Truth-Default Theory. I read the first three chapters over the summer so went back through them today to refresh myself.
Chapter 1 is an introduction.
Chapter 2 discusses common beliefs about detecting deception and then goes over a meta-analysis of academic findings on deception detection.
Chapter 3 goes into accuracy rates of deception detection. The simplified answer based on the meta-analysis of prior research is that lie detection accuracy is slightly better than chance. The figure he gives is 54%.
Tuesday, October 10th, 2023
I read Chapter 4. He gives a summary of the theories that rival his. He discusses when they were created and the impact that they’ve had. They are:
1 – Ekman’s Original Leakage Theory
2 – Ekman’s Updated Theory
3 – Four-Factor Theory
4 – Bella DePaulo’s Self-Preservation Perspective
5 – Interpersonal Deception Theory
6 – Aldert Vrij’s Cognitive Load Approach
Thursday, October 12th, 2023
I read Chapters 5 and 6.
Chapter 5 followed up Chapter 4 by critiquing and pointing out issues with each of the rivaling theories.
This book, “Duped”, is laid out into 2 parts. The first part is all background knowledge and introduction. Chapter 5 marks the end of it.
Chapter 6 is the opening to part 2 and lays out the basics of Truth-Default Theory. TDT’s core concepts and definitions, main modules, and 14 propositions are laid out plainly and clearly.
Friday, October 13th, 2023
I finished updating my spreadsheet with the purchase dates and started adding in publication dates. I should’ve started adding the publication dates a long time ago, as well as the publishers, but I figure better late than never. All this extra data can help with creating summaries and explanations, so it’s worth adding in.
I also got that final review up from my summer reading. It was for Matthew Fraser’s “In Truth: A History of Lies from Ancient Rome to Modern America” (review 3/5: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5906666139?book_show_action=false).