"Welcome to Lying 101, the class where we talk about how lying is wrong and something you should never do," Lito said, casting a glance at the six-year-old currently seated behind his desk ( Read more... )

"I thought we could talk about a specific type of lying today," Lito said, "which I am not so experienced with myself, which is lying using statistics. Your American author Mark Twain, I believe it was, said, 'There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.' But how is this? Statistics are just numbers, if they say there are 30,000 people in a town ( Read more... )

Lito began today's class by saying, "One thing we have not talked about yet in this class is the ethics of lying. It's a terrible thing, yes? To look someone in the face and lie to them. It is a violation of their trust. Someone is trusting you to tell them the truth, and you do not do it. You're breaking faith with them. And yet sometimes, ( Read more... )

"Today, I thought we could workshop," Lito told his students. "I want you to think about a lie you told that didn't work. Why didn't it work? What could you have changed to avoid being caught? That sort of thing. You don't have to share with the class if you don't want to, but it could be useful."

"Today we will be watching meta for Liar Liar, a movie about...well, a liar," Lito announced. "Enjoy."

Today, Lito had written one word on the blackboard: Accomplices"Nothing happens in a vacuum, no?" (Nomi pointed out, "Except a space walk," but he ignored her.) "When you lie, you have your audience, but you also have any people you have involved in your lie. If you tell your mother you went to the bookstore, because your roommate wanted a book ( Read more... )

When the students arrived, Lito was writing, 'TMI' on the blackboard. However, Nomi, who from Lito's perspective was sitting perched on the edge of his desk (and from the students' perspective was nowhere to be found, unless they were maybe particularly psychic) told him, "Mm, no, wrong connotation," between spoonfuls of cereal. "Especially in ( Read more... )

"Today, we're going to continue working more on the fine art of body language," Lito declared at the beginning of today's class. "There are several 'tells' that may give away a liar, but one you may not have considered is being too still in an effort to control those tells. You may, for instance, have noticed that when you lie you shuffle your ( Read more... )

"Eye contact," Lito said at the beginning of today's class. "It is very important, but also a little bit tricky. Too much, and you unnerve people. Too little, and you seem automatically dishonest, although some people with conditions such as autism automatically avoid eye contact even when they are being perfectly truthful. And then, when you ( Read more... )

"To construct a successful falsehood," Lito began this week's class, "you must know your audience. You must know what they want to hear, and what they will believe. These are two different things. Take our hypothetical from last week, your parents asking you where you were last night, when you were at a bar being illegally served alcohol. Now, ( Read more... )