Alicorn comments on Open Thread: August 2009 - Less Wrong
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What strategies do you people who aren't me have to detect lies? And by 'people who aren't me' I mean verbal people.
In order to understand what people are saying, even to parse sentences, I have to build a bit of a model of personality/motivation. This means I comprehend that one is building oneself up before I can even know what you think I should think highly of one for. The structure of dark arts is visible before the contents of the message: repetition of 'facts' in absence of evidence, comparing someone I don't like and someone one doesn't want me to like, intimidation for accusing one of wrong (Pavlov).
I tend to notice when people handle me, but I can't imagine how a verbal person thinks. That is my main defense, and I worry that I'll meet (have already met?) another like myself and have nothing else. How do you protect yourself from mental hijacking, those of you who have to work to do so?
I originally wasn't going to reply because I'm not entirely sure if it's a good idea for other people to adopt my strategy, but my name has been uttered, so I'll give it a shot.
I have no strategy directly aimed at detecting lies. I notice when someone's statement seems to contradict something I already believe, and I notice when someone's statement seems just plain wacky. I tend not to believe those statements, unless the preexisting belief they contradict is equally unsupported (which means I don't care much about the subject and might as well be agreeable with whoever I'm talking to), or I have an extended friendship with and favorable insight into the ethics and intellect of the speaker (so I think they'd be especially unlikely to lie to me or be mistaken), or I seek additional information and find the statement confirmed by legitimate-looking other sources (which I do when I care about the subject a great deal, regardless of my opinion of the likelihood of lying/mistake). But other than that, I'm a very trusting person.
The lies and errors that slip through this admittedly unsophisticated web of detection are usually caught when I permit myself to become loudly curious, which happens whenever I care about a subject. (It matters very little to me if I have false beliefs on subjects that are of no importance to me). Your average liar cannot tolerate extensive, earnest questioning about the details of the situation about which they have lied, even if there are legitimate-looking sources which back them up. When this inquisition turns up a falsehood, I typically operate under the assumption that it was a mistake rather than a deliberate attempt at deception; this seems to make most people less likely to resent me, and is probably true much of the time anyway.
I like to think that most people here have their heads screwed on tight enough to make a reasonable evaluation of a given strategy before adopting it. That said, I won't mind at all if you don't indulge my curiosity in the future.