Shawna Zielinski: May 2012 Archives

Have you ever felt discriminated against? Imagine being totally immersed in an inescapable environment in which you were treated as inferior to others whom you may have once thought your equals.

Jane Elliott's blue eyes-brown eyes demonstration with her 3rd grade class was something that I truly have internalized and feel that I learned from and will always remember. (chapter 13 of Lilienfeld)

For those that don't know, Jane Elliott created a microcosm of discrimination in society in her classroom in 1969 (and several times since) by separating her students by eye color, favoring one group over the other. It demonstrated the negative interpersonal effects of discrimination, and gave kids a real look into discrimination.

The results were the best: the students in the unfavored group performed significantly worse, and the results were reversed when the same students were put in the favored group the following day.

As a future teacher, this is something I know I can apply and will be important for me to remember. I hope to always be aware and conscious of in-groups, out-groups, and the effects of discrimination.

Are there human lie detectors? That is what Dr. Cal Lightman serves to be in the TV show, "Lie to Me." As cool as some TV series may be, I think we can all agree that one shouldn't take TV to heart.
So how much truth is there to this ability to "read" a person's face and detect a lie?

I found it surprising (and awesome) that federal officers were best at detecting lies among others such as federal judges, sheriffs, and academic psychologists. Even they, however, have an average accuracy of only about 72%. (With Mixed law-enforcement officers coming in last at just over 50% or chance accuracy)

Meanwhile, others like Dr. Paul Ekman still advertize "micro-expression reading" techniques as a legitimate way that anyone can detect lies.

Also, good to note was the finding that there's typically little or no correlation between one's confidence in their ability to detect lies and their accuracy. So, even though you're probably more likely to take someone's word and believe them when they say "I know he was lying..." "I could tell, I'm really good at it," "I'm positive," etc. you shouldn't confuse confidence with correctness.

Have you ever had a time when you "could have sworn" someone was lying and then were proven wrong? or right?