The ‘Pinocchio Effect’: Your Nose Says You’re Lying
Lying is the order of the day From the highest political and economic spheres to the privacy of the bedroom, telling the truth is not always the chosen path.
This propensity to be insincere may sometimes be understandable, and at other times be immoral. In any case, psychology studies why human beings lie and, as we will talk about in today’s article, how the act of telling a lie is related to certain psychophysiological indicators.
How it happens to Pinocchio, your nose indicates that you are lying. But unlike the famous character, the nose does not grow, but rather the temperature of our face rises, and the same goes for the orbital muscle in the inner corner of the eye. When we make considerable mental effort, the temperature of our face drops, and when we have an anxiety attack, the temperature increases.
These are some of the conclusions drawn from a study that was carried out in the Department of Experimental Psychology of the University of Granada, which introduced new applications in thermography By the way, thermography was also used to design the first Body Map of Human Emotions.
Thermography is a technique that detects body temperature It is applied in many fields, such as general industry, the construction industry and medicine. Thermal imaging cameras have a wide range of uses: they measure energy loss in buildings, detect respiratory diseases in animals or rabies in raccoons. Thermography was developed in the US during World War II to detect the presence of enemies (night vision).
Scientists at the Chicago Taste and Touch Research and Treatment Foundation found that When we lie, chemicals called catecholamines are released, which cause inflammation of the internal tissues of the nose
Lies increase blood pressure and, consequently, the nose becomes inflamed, appearing slightly red. Nonverbal language experts have observed that those who are lying often rub their nose, either with a quick rub under the nose or with a quick, almost imperceptible touch.
Furthermore, the nose is not the only part of the body that becomes inflamed, since the penis also does so. As far as we know, Pinocchio’s nose only grew when he lied.
