-Caveat Lector- Does the Nose Know? Psychiatrist Says Clinton's Body Language Shows Deception 5.35 p.m. ET (2135 GMT) May 19, 1999 By Renee Shilhab WASHINGTON, D.C. — Does the nose know when its owner is lying? Joe Marquette/AP Alan Hirsch says that one can determine when the president told a whopper by looking at when he touched his nose It does, says a Chicago psychiatrist and expert on the sense of smell. Alan R. Hirsch, who studied President Clinton's videotaped grand jury testimony about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, says that one can determine when the president told a whopper by looking at when he touched his nose. By studying a 23-minute segment of Clinton's August 17 testimony in the Paula Jones case, Hirsch said he determined that the president touched his nose .26 times every minute, or roughly once every four minutes, when he gave answers that later were shown to be false. By contrast, the president did not touch his nose at all when he was asked simple factual questions such as his name. Hirsch used the factual portion of the president's testimony as an internal control and a videotape of a fundraising speech by Clinton as an external control. "This validates what I call the Pinocchio effect," Hirsch said. "When someone lies, the erectile tissue inside his nose swells with blood and causes his nose to itch." The White House declined to comment on the study. Hirsch and Charles Wolf, an Illinois psychiatry student, studied Clinton's testimony for a study on lying. They presented their findings on Wednesday at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in Washington. Hirsch and Wolf studied the president for 23 verbal and non-verbal signs of lying they selected from 64 academic articles and 20 books on mendacity. The cues include leaning forward, lip licking, face stroking, drinking or swallowing, gaze aversion, handling of objects, stuttering and denials of lying such as use of the words "frankly" and "obviously." They found that the frequency of 20 out of the 23 indicators increased compared to Clinton's truthful internal control. Clinton's rate of speech errors — a category which includes changing thoughts in mid-sentence, grammatical errors and Freudian slips — went up 1,700 percent when the president gave answers that were later shown to be false compared to answers he gave in the internal control. His rate of stuttering increased 1,400 percent when the two segments were compared. The researchers determined that the president did a "liar's lean" — leaning forward when talking — .87 times per minute compared to .18 times per minute when he answered simple questions, an increase of nearly 400 percent. The president handled objects more frequently when he answered falsely, playing with objects such as eye glasses, a pen and papers roughly once every two minutes compared to once every four minutes when he answered truthfully. "Manipulation of objects such as eye glasses may symbolize manipulation of the person or persons being lied to," the researchers wrote. Hirsch admitted that similar responses can occur during periods of high stress. But if the president's body language was solely due to stress, he said, Clinton would have exhibited more signs of stress during the simple, or factual, portion of his testimony. Hirsch has spent 15 years studying the human sexual response to scent. In his book Scentsational Sex: The Secret to Using Aroma for Arousal, he wrote that men are sexually aroused by the scent of pumpkin pie, lavender, cinnamon buns, licorice and donuts. With his latest study, "Practical Methods for Detecting Mendacity," Hirsch went a step further, seeking to ferret out physical signs that would reveal deception rather than simply trying to figure out whether patients were lying about not being able to smell certain scents. While refining his ideas about a link between physical body language and truthfulness, Hirsch went to his health club. While riding a stationary bicycle, he looked up at a television screen to see Clinton testifying before the grand jury. The sound was turned down, so he couldn't hear. But when he saw the president repeatedly touch his nose, Hirsch decided that he was lying. "I said to myself, 'I wonder if anyone else knows about the Pinocchio effect,'" he said. Hirsch said that his findings could be used by employers, spouses and attorneys as a "human lie detector test" to determine whether someone is being truthful. The psychiatrist said that he has observed Clinton making physical gestures indicative of deception when talking about Kosovo. "He's doing some of these same things, such as touching his nose, on the ground troops question," he said. "You begin to wonder." Hirsch said he considered studying O.J. Simpson's responses to questions posed in a BBC interview. Wolf said that Simpson did "extended eye blinks" — blinks lasting more than one-twelfth of a second — when answering questions about the killing of his wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ron Goldman. But the researchers decided against the idea when they were unable to find suitable videotapes of Simpson in which he was known for certain to be telling the truth. Hirsch rejected the notion that his study might be invalid because it was conducted after Clinton was found to have engaged in a relationship with Lewinsky. He said that is important to compare a person's behavior to a time when you know the person is being truthful. Hirsch, who said he did not vote in the last two presidential elections, selected Clinton as a subject for his study simply because "the material was there" and a suitable control was available for comparison. Bard Visit me at: The Center for Exposing Corruption in the Federal Government http://www.xld.com/public/center/center.htm Federal Government defined: ....a benefit/subsidy protection racket! DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
