Brain Scans to Identify Liars?

dotc writes "After a bunch of sci-fi stories and rumors, now it looks like the future has become a reality -- a reliable, unbiased test using functional MRI brain scan to detect lying. The article author details a first-person account of undergoing the MRI 'deception task'. And the test is available now - use it to prove your innocence." From the article: "Laken said he's aiming to offer the fMRI service for use in situations like libel, slander and fraud where it's one person's word against another, and perhaps in employee screening by government agencies. Attorneys suggest it would be more useful in civil than most criminal cases, he said."

Comments

Wow! A new story!

[Anonymous Coward]

Did someone forget to show up for their shift? Or was Zonk busy watching the Royal Rumble?

Originality minus one

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, how original. Taking ideas from Wired now, are we?
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.01/lying.htm l

Airports?

[houghi]

When we will see these on airports and near kids? It would be great against terrorists and childmolesters. I mean; why could you opose to this? If you have nothing to hide, there is no need to lie.

Was she a Mormon?

[FreeUser]

Yeah, we had a crackpot like that at work for about 2 weeks... she just seemed to lie constantly, for no reason. She also seemed to really believe it.

Was she a Mormon?

I would be absolutely fascinated to see this technique tried out on a sample of the Mormon population.

As one who has had family and friends in that particular cult, I can tell you the ability of those in that subculture to lie to themselves and others, and work themselves into a position of believing it, is something I've not seen anywhere else (except perhaps in Washington, and I believe Washington would come in second place). Examples include but are not limited to: outright fabrications about other people and things they supposedly did/did not do (all of which were trivially disprovable, yet the proof was ignored and the lie spoken even more resolutely), dismissial of emperical proof as to the falseness of the religion itself (examples include DNA, ear-wax, facial-feature, and other studies disproving the core tenat of the Mormon faith and the Book of Mormon, that Native Americans are decendents of an Israelite named Lehi who was led by the Lord to bring his family to America, whereupon the bad sons Lamen and Lemual were cursed by God and given dark skin--I kid you not. Other examples include Egyptologists looking at the Paparyi the Mormon "Book of Abraham" is supposed to be a translation of, which has subsequently been shown to be a common burial document having nothing to do with Abraham, or any other Biblical figure, and the list goes on).

The deceitfulness of this subculture, both to themselves and to others, is quite well documented on the Recovery from Mormonism site, and surpasses even my (low) expectations based on my personal experience.

Alas, any such study would likely suffer the same fate this post is likely to suffer, and indeed the fate that most articles and literature critical of that religion suffer (despite mountains of factual evidence and well documented research): getting spiked (or moderated) into oblivion by those supportive of such groups.