The Most Accurate Lie Detector Ever Made

When someone lies, the temperature of the tip of their nose drops by up to 1.2 degrees Celsius while their forehead rises by up to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The reason for this peculiar phenomenon is that lying causes anxiety, which manifests itself in the temperature of the nose. The larger the difference between the nose and forehead, the more likely it is that the person is lying.

“Lies make us think, reason and analyze the context. This makes them a cognitive load or requires us to control our attention strongly, which leads to an increase in forehead temperature… Lying makes you think, and that is why the forehead temperature increases as well as the nose temperature decreases,” explains one of the researchers, Emilio Gomez Milan, from the University of Granada.

Polygraphs are said by researchers to be up to 80% accurate.

Researchers have taken advantage of this to create a lie detector test using infrared cameras that detect heat patterns and blood flow in the body.

The study asked participants to make a phone call to a loved one, in which they had to tell the other person a meaningful lie, such as that they had just seen a famous actor. The control group noted that lying caused a feeling of anxiety known as the “Pinocchio Effect” on the nose and affected the “mental effort” in the forehead, which allows us to detect lies.

The researchers say their method offers an 80% accuracy rate, making it 10% more reliable than popular polygraph tests. They are so confident in their test that they claim it is the most accurate way to tell if someone is lying.