Lying The David Meade Project

-Holy cripes!

-LAUGHTER

It was like a human lie detector.

SHE LAUGHS

For those of you who haven't heard, this is the David Meade Project,

and if my eyes don't deceive me, that's him now, David Meade.

-You're 22.

-Yeah.

-Are you, really?

-Is that what your PIN number is?

-Yeah.

-Yes!

Once again, David is going to play around with a side of human behaviour common to us all.

Trouble is, not everyone can handle it.

Obviously, he's a mastermind.

-It just blew my mind.

-Just unbelievable.

David's latest fascination is with the naughty side of human nature.

Telling lies.

We've all told little fibs now and then,

but imagine meeting someone who could see through them straight away.

As a student of human nature,

David knows you can't always focus on the plus side.

Sometimes just the bad behaviour is more interesting.

But remember, not everything is what it seems with David Meade.

For years now, I've been looking into some of the science and the research around deception, lying

and spotting when someone isn't telling the truth.

David is out on the street with random strangers observing their skills of deception.

All they have to do is lie about their PIN number.

Today we are all terrified about losing our identity,

about identity theft and about people stealing our personal information.

So I think there is nothing more terrifying than a person

being able to work out your PIN number.

I want you to think of your PIN number. We always try to keep these things a secret,

but it's my job to try and work out if you are lying or telling the truth.

So I want you to think of your PIN number,

and call out all the digits one through nine.

-Go!

-OK. One, two, three, four, five,

six, seven, eight, nine.

OK, you're really conscious of your upper body, you're trying not to give anything else away.

You're trying to catch me out. What you didn't realise is your left foot only tapped on the number six.

-Is the second digit number six?

-Yeah.

-It is, yeah?

-OK, think of the third digit...

-My foot tapped?

-Yeah, it did, yeah.

As a mentalist, I am going to use every skill and every tool that I have

to try and work out exactly what's going on inside their head.

David's keen mentalist intellect will take stuff he's read in books

and mix it up with his skills of mind manipulation.

Today he's focusing on the funny facial expressions people are supposed to make when they lie,

called "tells".

Whether or not tells actually exists, is up for debate.

But I need the participants to believe they do for this to work.

Hi, guys, what's your name?

David has picked on this pair of vict...I mean participants,

a couple of trainee lawyers.

-Are you studying law as well?

-Yes. But I am a year ahead of him.

So you're both, sort of, liars then? Is that right?

David, that's allegedly, allegedly!

David is still determined to discover their PIN number.

But you want to watch it, mate, don't mess with these legal eagles.

-One to nine, quickly, first digit.

-One, two, three, four.

-Oh, is it one?

-Yes!

-Ha-ha! Very good! All right.

-Say no to all of these things. One.

-No.

-Two.

-No.

-Three.

-No.

-Four.

-No.

-Five.

-No.

-Six.

-No.

Seven. You're feeling yourself starting to laugh. So it's seven, eight or nine.

-Seven.

-No.

-Eight.

-No.

-Nine.

-No.

-Seven.

-No.

-Eight.

-No.

-It's a seven, isn't it?

-Yes!

-All right, OK. Last time.

-OK.

We can do it however way you like. Do you want me to call it out to you or do you want to call it out or...

-I want to do the noes again.

-You want to do the noes again?

-Yeah, and go - no!

-OK. She's obviously used to it.

-Yes, she is.

So...

-One.

-No.

-Four.

-No.

-Two.

-No.

-Six.

-No.

-Is this making it more difficult for you? Seven.

-No.

-Nine.

-No.

-Eight.

-No.

-Four.

-No.

-Four.

-No.

-Four. It's four! Was it four?

-1474?

-Yes!

Now, don't think for one minute that this lot have kept the same PIN numbers.

OK, all right. OK.

They've all changed after David figured them out.

Because there's no telling what he might do with them.

I want you to think of the first digit of your PIN number for me.

Not satisfied with chancing one lawsuit,

David wants to go again with lawyer number two. Is he crazy?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...

All right, so your upper body is very tense.

That suggests to me that you know that I'm looking for a signal.

And you didn't give anything away with your eyes. In fact, you blinked incredibly consistently.

What you didn't notice was that your left shoulder only lifted on six.

-Is the first digit six?

-It was.

-It was, OK, all right!

So don't feel bad, you know what I'm looking for now. You know what I'm looking for.

-Think of the second digit for me.

-OK.

-And do the same, all the numbers.

One, two, three, four...

I don't want you to feel bad, but one and two were a little bit higher than three and four, but keep going.

Oh, is that a problem?

-So it definitely was one or two, right?

-I'm not saying that.

Oh, it was one. You looked to the left. Second digit one?

-Yeah.

-OK!

-I didn't want to tell you...

You've got to teach me how to do this.

-So starting at one, say no to all of these things. One.

-No.

-Two.

-No.

-Three.

-No.

-Four.

-No.

-One.

-No.

-Two.

-No.

-Three.

-No.

-Four.

-No.

-OK.

You're really conscious of what you're saying.

What you don't notice is I'm not really particularly paying attention to your face.

-Your foot tapped on four. Was the last digit four?

-Yes.

-It was? So 6144?

-Yes.

-Is that what it was?

-Yes.

-You're easy!

I think that if I ever have a huge case,

I want him on my side to read the jury.

The minute that they mentioned that they were lawyers, I was genuinely terrified,

because I thought, you know, they're well able for debate.

But I think that overconfidence made my job a little bit easier.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

-I don't know why I kept counting to ten...

-You know what?

I could have sworn it was a three or a five. What's the last digit?

-The last? Five!

-All right, so it was a three or a five.

-Yeah!

-All right, OK. You're not a bad liar.

-Yeah!

And say no to all of these things.

-No matter what I say, you just keep saying no.

-I say no, OK.

-One.

-No.

-Two.

-No.

-Three.

-No.

-Four.

-No.

-Five.

-No.

-Six.

-No.

-Seven.

-No.

-Eight.

-No.

-Nine.

-No.

Is your PIN number 1985?

-Yeah.

-Is that what it was, yeah?

Oh, brilliant, good job!

Obviously, he's a mastermind.

Obviously, he's good at what he does, so maybe I'm not a good liar after all.

The success of his game on the streets has given David a new idea.

Detect any lie, you've got to admit that would be a great skill to have.

Just imagine if you could tell when anybody was telling a lie.

As usual, David wants to investigate the concept that would make

some people a little bit uncomfortable.

And that's no word of a lie.

I think the reason that lying and deception are such interesting areas is that

we are all terrified that someone might be able to spot whether we're lying or not.

There are certain environments where lying is part of the currency of communication.

So to test my skills, I want to take myself to somewhere where lying is kind of OK,

where it's not frowned upon to lie.

In fact, maybe somewhere where you are kind of expected to lie, supposed to lie even.

I want to throw myself right into that lion's den.

To get down to brass tacks, David has chosen a group who are no strangers to bull.

COW MOOS

The young farmers of Fermanagh.

I've come to Fermanagh to meet a group of young farmers.

I want to meet them in an environment where they don't feel too guilty

about telling little white lies.

It's time for some speed dating.

HORN BEEPS

Talk about Farmer Wants a Wife. And have a butcher's at this bunch of young hopefuls giving it all that.

I'm looking for a man with plenty of money and a good body.

He knows how to treat a woman.

Obviously she's a lot in her.

A bit of lamb...

Well, if he wears wellies and has leggings and drives a tractor, it's good enough for me.

If you've ever wondered the definition of blarney, hark at this lot.

-How much land?

-I've got 70 acres.

-70!

Usually a farmer will exaggerate what he owns.

So, in other words, if you've ten acres, you might say you've 30, 40.

-What kind of tractor do you have?

-Uhm...Massey Ferguson.

I try not...I try and be as honest and straight as I can,

but obviously there are times you have to exaggerate a wee bit, like.

I haven't come here to pick up a date, at least, you know, who knows, that's not my plan.

I want every single one of them to give me a fact about themselves

and my job will be to work out whether that fact is the truth or a lie,

and these guys, more than anyone, should be up for a laugh.

-Hiya, how is it going? What's your name?

-Rebecca.

-Rebecca, brilliant.

-Look at that, jingle bells.

-I know.

-OK, Rebecca.

Have you been on many dates, Rebecca?

No, actually, I've only been on a couple, but some have been more successful than others.

-All right, what happened?

-Well, he was too nice.

-Oh, really!

-Do you want someone that is going to treat you rudely?

-No, but...

Get the hell out of here!

I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm fascinated, I'm really interested in the lies

-that people tell on dates, OK.

-OK.

Now, Rebecca, whenever you're ready, go ahead and tell me a statement about yourself.

Well, I recently was given my sister's car, which is a black Corsa,

and it's 2004, and to be honest, I don't really like it.

Oh, my gosh, that's really detailed.

I really don't like it.

Is that the best you could come up with? It's not exactly hot date material, is it?

Put up both your hands for me. I want you to say over and over again, I was lying, I was lying.

BOTH: I was lying, was lying, I was lying...

Say I was telling the truth...

BOTH: I was telling the truth...

-You were lying, weren't you?

-Yeah!

-Really?

So what's the truth about it. Did that happen at all?

-It's a blue Corsa!

-All right, OK. Brilliant. OK.

Blimey, that's a real deep, dark secret.

HORN BEEPS

Nice one(!)

I go to the gym once a week, and I do a bit of body building.

Right, OK. I am going to say you are...

I'm going to say you're telling the truth.

LAUGHTER

-No, it's a lie.

-Is that a lie? You're a good liar, I have to say. Brilliant.

Good man, well, you beat me. Good man. Cheers, brilliant job.

HORN BEEPS

That fellow certainly pulled the wool over David's eyes.

He would have to up his game to detect something a little more tricky.

I want you to imagine you could go on a date with anyone, any celebrity in the world.

-Yeah.

-I'm going to try and work out who this is, OK?

-Right.

I want you to go nose to nose, nose to nose right now, OK.

-This is not...

-You love it.

LAUGHTER

You love it. You've been waiting for this all day.

I want you to imagine you're going for a date with this person.

-Yeah.

-By the way, you smell amazing.

LAUGHTER

I want you to imagine who this person is.

-You can go for a date with anyone in the world, OK?

-Yes.

-Say no to all of these things. Actress. Keep saying no.

-No.

-Politician.

-No.

-Musician.

-No.

-Singer.

-No.

-Poet.

-No.

-Stripper.

-No.

LAUGHTER

-You wished... OK, say no to all of these things, OK? American.

-No.

-British.

-No.

-Irish.

-No.

-Canadian.

-No.

-Australian.

-No.

-Are you thinking of Catherine-Zeta Jones.

-Holy cripes!

-That's...

-Is that who it was?

-Yeah!

-Ah, brilliant! Good man, good man.

HORN BEEPS

This is like bootcamp training for David's detection skills.

-I'm 18 and legal.

-You're 18 and legal! What do you mean by legal?

-That's for you to work out.

-OK.

-Name any country in the world, any one, go.

-Australia.

-Name any celebrity. Go.

-Paris Hilton.

-You're lying.

-Yeah, I'm lying.

-Are you? How old are you?

-I'm 17.

-Oh, brilliant!

These farmers are really giving David a chance to limber up to spot their lies.

-12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17...

-You're not 18, you're older, keep going.

-19, 20, 21, 22, 23...

-Are you 22?

-Yes.

Are you, really?

And the bullsh... I mean, hot air detector, is in full effect,

and the more he does, the more David hones his skills of lie detection.

LAUGHTER

-All right, OK, let's go.

-I don't think you need the socks.

Come on, come on. All right, OK. So...

Ah, look at that!

Give me your statement again.

I had a football trial with Arsenal Football Club when I was 14.

I can smell milk.

LAUGHTER

-I am going to say...

-Don't tickle me, ah! Don't!

You're telling lies, that's a lie, isn't it?

-It's a lie.

-It's a lie! Oh, brilliant! Good man, cheers.

That was a really good limber up for me.

I have to say some of them gave a genuine run for my money.

It seemed like the more I tried, the better I got.

And now that I've honed my skills, I want to see just how good I am at this.

Back in the city, David wants to push his mental skills in lie detection to a new level.

He's focusing on a human emotion common to us all.

It's always astounded me how guilt can built inside a person from the very moment that they tell a lie.

So today, I'd like to see if I can uncover some guilty secrets.

For me, I think that lies always tell the truth on you.

Cos that guilt follows you around like a massive cloud,

so I'm going to help some people get things off their chest.

I'm going to ask a few people to think of the biggest lie that they've ever told.

And I'm going to try and work out what it is.

So are you a good liar, or...?

-Uhm, I can be, yeah.

-OK, all right.

-You've gotten away with quite a few?

-Yeah.

-OK.

I want you to think of a really big lie. A lie that you've told at any point in the past.

-My job is going to be to try and work out what it is.

-Yeah, no problem.

So all you need to do is relax. Face me, face me. Let both your arms go totally loose.

And I want you to think of, first of all, who you told this lie to.

All right, just think about who it is. Try to give nothing away, right?

Say no to all of these things. It could be a boss.

Just keep saying no to everything. It could be a boss.

It could be a brother. Cousin.

Mother. Father.

It could have been a teacher. Could have a been a boyfriend, or friend.

It could have been... Oh, so it was a boyfriend, was it? Is that right?

-Yeah.

-Try not to give anything away, now.

Is it a current boyfriend or an ex boyfriend? Oh, it's an ex boyfriend, is that right?

Let both your arms go down by your side.

Is your mum going to be embarrassed if she hears this?

-All right, never mind.

-Maybe!

-Don't worry, OK.

Give me your hands and let them both go totally loose.

No to everything.

-It could have been about money.

-No.

-It could have been about work.

-No.

-It could have been about a partner.

It could been about relationships, about travel.

-It could have been about school. It could have been...

-No.

I think I know what it is. Are you sure you want me to say this out loud?

THEY LAUGH

-Were you caught cheating with somebody else?

-Yes.

-Were you caught with a fellow by...

-That's what it was.

-Oh, my god.

-Do you remember this?

-Yes.

-Oh, god.

-So did that feel like a pretty big lie?

-Yeah. Probably the worst.

-Did you feel guilty?

-A wee bit, to be honest.

-A wee bit guilty.

Research shows that everyone lies between four and six times a day.

The question isn't then - is a person lying or not?

The only question is when they're lying.

Oh, let me see...

It could have been to do with money, it could have been to do

with relationships, with jobs or education.

This is to do with relationships, isn't it?

You looked down into the left, which suggests you were trying to hide something,

trying not to disclose...you were trying to keep a secret from someone.

-Yes.

-You didn't want someone to discover something.

Let me see straight into your eyes. Were you...

Oh, you were trying to hide an ex girlfriend from a current girlfriend?

Is this man crazy? Fancy letting that one out the bag.

Isn't that your current lady love standing right next to you?

Oh...

-Think about what the lie is.

-OK.

-Think about what it is.

-Say no to all of these things. Big lie.

-No.

-Small lie.

-No.

-Money lie.

-No.

-Absence lie.

-No.

-Sickness lie.

-No.

Sickness, did you pretend you were sick to get off work?

-May have.

-Is that what it was?

May have, yeah. He was like a human lie detector. He caught me out every time.

-You lied to Stephen that you were sick.

-Yeah.

-So that you didn't have to go to college.

I don't know how he could tell that. It just completely...completely blew my mind.

Uhm, I'm just angry, but I don't care.

I'm not a mind reader, but that is the laugh of a very nervous man.

That was a lot easier that I expected.

It seems to me that there are an awful lot of guilty consciences roaming around the streets.

I know that I can do it now.

The big questions is - can I make someone else a human lie detector?

David has been holding sessions to find new recruits to the art of lie detection.

It would be really easy for me to choose a subject expert to do my experiments or games with.

That would make life a lot easier for me, but it would also make it a little bit boring.

I want to take ordinary people and have them do extraordinary things.

That's the real challenge for me.

I'm truly spoiled for choice when it comes to selecting people for this next test.

The reason being that I want ordinary people who will just trust their instincts.

The problem is that they are so many people that I might be able to choose from.

There's one person in particular who, I think, could be excellent.

And then there's another one that I'm not quite sure about, if I'm honest.

But I have a feeling that she would at least give it a good shot.

I just hope it works.

-Two candidates have caught David's eye.

-Hiya.

Diane.

Diane has recently graduated,

and Lisa here is no stranger to the odd lie, too.

Well, she's a mum.

I like to think I'm good at spotting lies, cos I've got children to raise, ha-ha!

And I know they're testing me all the time.

David has collected 100 mug shots.

In each, the person has written a statement about themselves

on their blackboard.

50 are true, 50 are complete lies.

It's up to my participants to try and discern

whether those statements are lies or whether they are telling the truth.

Check out these fools.

That's got to be a lie.

I suppose that was on a flying pig.

Oh, don't be so ridiculous.

You've got to be joking.

Here we have roughly about 100 mug shots.

And in front of every mug shot, every person has got a statement.

And your job is going to be to work out if you think these people are lying or telling the truth, OK?

And, Diane, you're going to be looking for the truth tellers here,

you are going to be looking for whoever you think is being honest.

And for you, Lisa, you are going to look for the people who look like they are deceiving you.

-OK.

-And I'm not going to give you any clues, so go ahead and start now.

-What kind of things are you looking for, Diane?

-Just their eyes.

-Are they looking directly at the camera, or are they smiling?

-OK.

-Cos normally people smile when they're telling a lie.

-OK.

You sound experienced on this?

SHE LAUGHS

Shall I just keep picking?

Yeah, absolutely, just keep going. Fill up your pile.

So let's get this straight - Diane is filtering out the true statements,

while Lisa is sniffing out the lies.

I suppose what's really important for me to underline

is that my job as a mentalist is to make these participants believe

that they can be human lie detectors,

whether or not they can operationalise these skills in the real world is one thing.

But I need them to have that confidence.

Now, we have two piles here. Before we continue, I need to check.

Are you absolutely confident and sure

that you made all of these choices yourself?

Yes.

So you were looking for the truth tellers,

and you were looking for the liars.

OK, one for one. One for one.

Two. Two right, two for two.

Three for three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Oh, oh, OK, so don't feel bad.

You've got one wrong there.

Correct, correct, correct.

Diane, that is unbelievable!

That is unbelievable! You are my winner.

You have successfully...

That's amazing!

Diane seems to have achieved the impossible, and got every truthful statement right.

Lisa's gut reaction wrongly accused a couple of mugs of lying,

when they were really telling the truth.

That floored me, that really floored me because it's just a picture, you know,

and you're basically guessing, or using your prejudices or whatever.

Did that really happen? Is that really true?

I was looking for a lie card to come up any second, and I thought

one was going to come up because Lisa had truth cards come up in her pile.

My heart was racing a hundred miles an hour. I was just so pleased.

In my heart, I feel really disappointed for Lisa,

because on any other day, she would have done extraordinarily well.

Her performance was far greater than chance or luck or just guessing.

It was way more than 50/50.

But, unfortunately, she was up against an amazing opponent in Diane.

I need them to believe that they can do this, so that one of them

will have the confidence to move through to what will be a virtually impossible task next.

What David has set up for Diane will be the ultimate conclusion

of his journey into the murky world of deception.

Diane is up against not one, but six potential liars.

And these six aren't going to make it easy.

They can use every trick of body language

and rapid eye movement to keep Diane off the scent.

And I wouldn't trust a single one of them.

Is it me? Or has this all gone really serious?

At this point, I want Diane to look for what I call a baseline.

So what's going to happen is I'm going to have every one in the room

tell the truth, and the baseline is

observing their behaviour to see how they react when they're telling the truth.

That way, when or if the participants tell a lie,

Diane should be able to spot the deviations in their behaviour.

Watch carefully now, and remember how these players behave

when they are telling the truth.

Oh, and by the way, David and Diane are separated from their subjects by a two-way mirror.

They can watch and listen, but their adversaries can neither see nor hear them,

which is just as well, because David can be a little bit bitchy.

Number one, could you stand up please?

Get ready - truthful statement number one.

I can speak my Chinese language, Mandarin, very well.

-Stand up and take two steps forward.

-I hate spiders.

I've lived in five different countries.

Uhm, she's a tough one, now.

I'm getting married this year on my birthday.

What do you think of that?

I needed microsurgery by making porridge.

He needed microsurgery by making porridge?

Me and my partner are having a baby.

So they were the true statements,

this is the fun bit.

This game is all about something people never reveal to you when you first meet.

Their middle name, of course. I don't know what you were thinking.

All the participants have written their real middle name on a card hidden against their chest.

In a moment, they will stand up and call out a name.

But will it be their true middle name or can they fake it with a lie?

Neither David nor Diane have any way of knowing the suspects' real middle names.

The pressure is now on the human lie detector to spot who is telling a lie.

-I'm nervous. How are you?

-On a scale of one to ten...

before I came into the room probably six. Now it's about eight and a half.

-Eight and a half. Really?

-Yes.

-No toilet breaks for you.

Oh, is this a good time to remind everyone that David isn't a scientist? He's a mentalist.

Despite briefing Diane with his skills, all his theories might be codswallop.

Pay attention now, here's subject number one.

Is this the truth or a lie?

My middle name is Chu...Chun.

You see, what's her body language giving away?

I think she's going to tell the truth.

So you think that was the truth, that was her middle name?

-Yeah.

-OK. Write it down.

My middle name is Stewart.

He's held the same position as he did the last time, when he came up to speak.

And he told the truth last time.

-I think he's going to tell the truth.

-OK.

My middle name is Mary.

Oh, she's lying! She's lying, yeah.

-Do you think so?

-Yeah, definitely.

-It's too short and two sweet.

-OK.

-And she's just trying to hold her face.

-OK, so a little bit too closed.

Yeah. It's just too concrete.

OK, brilliant.

My middle name is Mary.

OK. She's very nervous. I think she's telling the truth.

-You think she's telling the truth?

-Yeah.

-If you don't mind me saying.

-Yeah.

-I disagree on that one.

-Oh, OK.

-I disagree.

It was just something about her.

-I'm pretty...I'm 90-95% sure, I think I am...but I know you can do this.

-OK.

My middle name is David.

-Um, he's a quirky character.

-OK.

I think he's lying through his teeth.

My middle name is James.

Not much movement in the face, and he hasn't moved much.

I'm going to go with he's telling the truth.

-You think he's telling the truth?

-I think he is.

OK, write that down.

So you've made your guesses now - truth, truth, lie, truth, lie, truth. OK?

-So participant number one, you thought participant number one was telling the truth.

-Yeah.

Participant number one, the human lie detector thought that you were telling the truth.

Were you telling the truth or were you lying?

I'm telling the truth.

My middle name is Chun.

Well done, one out of six. Participant number two, please turn around your card.

I was telling the truth. My name is Stewart.

OK, so the odds of you getting this right are incredible,

because you have no information about these people, you know nothing about them.

OK, so number three, you thought they were telling a lie.

Participant number three, were you lying or telling the truth?

I'm lying, my middle name is Anna.

Participant number four, the human lie detector thought you were telling the truth.

-Were you lying or telling the truth?

-I was telling the truth. My middle name is Mary.

-Yes! I told you!

-OK, I was wrong.

You don't need to make a big deal about it.

Participant number five, the human lie detector thought you were lying.

-Were you lying or telling the truth?

-I was lying.

My middle name is William.

OK. Five out of five.

Participant number six, the human lie detector thought you were telling the truth.

-Were you telling the truth?

-Yeah. It was James.

Yes!

There was one bit where David disagreed with me.

And I thought he was right 100%, and then I got it right, and I just pushed him.

And I could see everyone inside, they were all getting all excited as well.

And...just unbelievable.

At the very end, I just jumped up and down. I just didn't know what to do.

I just had such a rush!

I think it's pretty obvious by now that lying is one of those important functions of human behaviour.

Imagine we didn't have any lying, every day would be filled with awkward honesty.

So I think we should embrace our lies.

Maybe even tell some more, but let's just make sure that they are all really small.

Or do what I do. Don't tell any lies at all.

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