Professional lie detector will be watching Oprah interview for truths from Lance Armstrong
Jan 16, 2013, 8:12 AM | Updated: 8:57 am
As viewers, we should be objective and clinical when watching the interview. (AP Photo/File)
(AP Photo/File)
Lance Armstrong is allegedly going to “come clean” about his dirty history of doping in an interview with Oprah. The talk show legend has already said she was “satisfied” with the interview.
In the past, Lance Armstrong has come off confident and convincing. His fans who once put trust in him, might worry that he could lie again, and they wouldn’t even know it.
“The obstacle to detecting deception is the tendency to believe,” explained Mike Floyd, co-author of “Spy the Lie” and founding partner of QVerity.
He said we want to see the best in people, especially in someone like Lance Armstrong – a sports and cultural icon and someone who did charitable work through his foundation.
As viewers, we should be objective and clinical when watching the interview.
It won’t be the first time Floyd has analyzed a Lance Armstrong interview. In July of 2011, a client asked his company to examine a two-minute clip of a 2005 Larry King interview with Armstrong.
After watching the interview Floyd said, “Lance had some major problems facing him down the road.”
When Armstrong talks to Oprah, Floyd said to listen for “language qualifiers.” Exclusionary qualifiers, like possibly, maybe, not really could indicate he’s trying to dance around the truth.
According to Floyd, when a truthful person is accused of a wrong-doing the tendency is to dwell on the facts of the situation. “The facts are the allies of the truthful person.”
In Lance’s case, it appears the facts are not his ally, but we will get “convincing” language because he has to focus his comments elsewhere.
Floyd said to not waste your time thinking that blinking, eye contact or nervous tendencies will indicate a lie. Those are myths.
In that 2005 interview, Floyd and his team looked at, a statement by Armstrong like this sounded suspicious: “Why would I enter into a sport, dope myself up, and risk my life again? I would never do something like that.”
“To the untrained ear,” said Floyd, “this sounds logical and compelling, and that’s how the untruthful person wants it to be heard.”
