Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage, Third Edition [Paperback]

Paul Ekman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 2001

From breaking the law to breaking a promise, how do people lie and how can they be caught?

Paul Ekman, a renowned expert in emotions research and nonverbal communication, has now updated his groundbreaking inquiry into lying and methods for uncovering lies. From the deception strategies of international public figures, such as Adolf Hitler and Richard Nixon, to the deceitful behavior of private individuals, including adulterers and petty criminals, Ekman shows that a successful liar most often depends on a willfully innocent dupe. His study describes how lies vary in form and can differ from other types of misinformation, as well as how a person's body language, voice, and facial expressions can give away a lie but still escape the detection of professional lie hunters—judges, police officers, drug enforcement agents, Secret Service agents, and others. Photographs and line drawings.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ekman [is] a pioneer in emotions research and nonverbal communication. . . . Accurate, intelligent, informative, and thoughtful. -- Carol Z. Malatesta, New York Times Book Review

[A] wealth of detailed, practical information about lying and lie detection and a penetrating analysis of the ethical implications. -- Jerome D. Frank, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

About the Author

Paul Ekman, director of Paul Ekman Group, is the author of Emotions Revealed, Emotional Awareness (coauthored with the Dalai Lama), and twelve other books. The FOX series Lie to Me is based on his research. A professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco, he lives in the Bay area.

Product Details

• Paperback: 390 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 3rd edition (September 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393321886
• ISBN-13: 978-0393321883
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #210,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

158 of 162 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ekman is better than he is given credit, January 24, 2005

By 

Wm Hawthorne (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage, Third Edition (Paperback)

Dr Eckman may disappoint his readers by not giving them what they want: A simple protocol for determining whether or not someone is lying. There is a simple reason: There isn't one.

Other books will defraud the reader by giving them techniques that in reality don't work. Dr Eckman pounds in one central point - that there is no one single way to detect dishonesty. He calls any belief to the contrary "the Brokaw Hazard," named after Tom Brokaw, who believes that circumlocution is the omnipresent sentinel of a lie. He also develops the concept of the "Othello Error," that cautions the reader against actually causing lie signals by accident (named after the literary Othello, who assumed that his wife's sobbing was for her lover, but in reality she was sobbing because of her husband's rage over the incorrectly presumed affair.). He gives many tips, including a checklist in an appendix that might help the reader to detect lies, but most of the material is embedded deep within the text. He helps the reader to develop a dynamic approach to detecting lies; approaches that are developed as detection begins. He exhorts the reader to use NUMEROUS well-defined clues to develop the case for the conclusion that someone is lying.

The biggest flaw in the book is on its cover. The cover suggests that this is a practical book. It is more of a research paper. This is what makes it reliable - the fact that such a complete study is contained within. But the average reader will look for a standard protocol for detecting lies - but the Brokaw Hazard tells us there is none.

186 of 205 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The title of this book is a lie., May 21, 2001

By 

"ithuriel" (Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage (Paperback)

The title of this book suggests a practical approach: "Clues to deceit in the marketplace, politics and marriage". However the actual content is very different. Thorough the whole book the author mainly explains the results of some experiments he has done at the university. The results are interesting but non practical at all. Actually, it seems to me that the main conclusion of the book is that there are no reliable methods or tests to find out if someone is lying. The references to marriage, politics and the marketplace are just anecdotical and non substantial to the book.

I am not saying that the book is not interesting. What I'm saying is that the title is deceiving and seems to be only a marketing strategy to make it attractive to more people. That is not exactly honest, specially for a book dealing with lies and deceit.

66 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dr. Ekman Needs to Hire a Professional Writer!, October 23, 2001

By 

Murph Da Surf (Summerville, SC United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage, Third Edition (Paperback)

The book is fascinating, to say the least. I think people need to take a "realistic approach" to applying the knowledge acquired by reading the book. My one big fault with the book is that whoever actually "wrote" the book is terrible with regard to constructing sentences and expressing ideas! I had to read some things twice in order to make sure I was receiving the information as intended. Dr. Ekman needs to invest in a professional writer who can more clearly express his thoughts, intents and ideas. Hard reading and unneccesarily so!