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Science

Your Nose Really Can Out Your Lies — Although It Won’t Grow Like Pinocchio’s

Dec. 5, 2012 2:47pm Liz Klimas

When the wooden Disney character Pinocchio lied, his nose grew. Turns out there is some merit to your nose giving away clues about when you’re fibbing.

A study from researchers at the University of Grenada in Spain used thermal imagery to study a person when they lie. The study found when a person tells an untruth, the area around the nose heats up — registering a hotter color in the thermal image. They call this “Pinocchio effect.”

Pinocchio Effect: University of Grenada Study Uses Thermography to Show the Nose Gets Hotter When One Lies

This image shot with a thermographic camera shows how the area around the nose will be hotter when someone is telling a lie. (Image: Emilio Gómez Milán and Elvira Salazar López/University of Grenada)

According to the university’s website, lying about one’s feelings affects a part of the brain called the insula. It states the insula activates when one experiences “real feelings.”

“The insula is involved in the detection and regulation of body temperature. Therefore, there is a strong negative correlation between insula activity and temperature increase: the more active the insule (the greater the feeling) the lower the temperature change, and viceversa,” the researchers stated.

They found that lying is not the only thing that will change the temperature in the face but also strong mental exertion, which drops temperature, and anxiety, which raises it.

Live Science pointed out this work was performed as part of a doctoral thesis and has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

(H/T: Huffington Post, Science Daily)

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Comments (18)

raderby
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 2:24am
one thing the “researchers” and the huffpo weeds failed to realize. A psychopath and/or a sociopath has no normal feelings about lying. What does their nose do? Guessing? Nothing.

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noslave
Posted on December 5, 2012 at 8:07pm
how can you tell if obamas suck-ups like chris mathews,etc are lying with their nose so far up obamas arse??

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- DADDYWOREAWHITEHAT
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 2:08am
  And how can you tell who is telling the truth when they use so much fuzzy math”
  This is that and that is this. We can’t believe anything they say. It’s all alie and they cover p with fuzzy math.
  
  Report this comment
SaturdaysWarrior76
Posted on December 5, 2012 at 7:50pm
We should start calling 0bama “Rudolf the Red nosed Reindeer!”

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fastfacts
Posted on December 5, 2012 at 6:21pm
Can we put Boehner in front of this machine and ask him if he is a true conservative after what he has done this week…

Did you see what Mark Levin said about him. Tore into Boehner over this matter: http://www.thedailycandidate.com/video/2012/dec/levin_boehner_ego.html

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- DadRocked
  Posted on December 5, 2012 at 9:37pm
  Don’t just read about what Mr. Levin says folks…
  Listen to the podcasts at http://marklevinshow.com/sectional.asp?id=32930
  
  Report this comment
The-Monk
Posted on December 5, 2012 at 4:00pm
Can we use this technology during an Obama speech?

Or Nancy Reid or Harry Pelosi AND the rest of Congress…..

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- White Devil
  Posted on December 5, 2012 at 4:08pm
  The problem is that they are so stupid that they think they are telling the truth, therefore emitting no heat from their noses… or their hearts.
  
  Report this comment
- rickc34
  Posted on December 5, 2012 at 4:40pm
  Hey Monk Obamas nose would out shine Rudolphs. Maybe he could earn some extra money this Christmas.
  
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Cronpolis
Posted on December 5, 2012 at 3:40pm
So the next thing will be to put ice in your nose before you lie! Nose detectors will be used! The future is here!

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- White Devil
  Posted on December 5, 2012 at 4:07pm
  “The future is here!”
  
  I don’t know why, but I laughed so hard when I read that. lol :)
  
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ResistSocialism
Posted on December 5, 2012 at 3:13pm
The Pinocchio theory was better.

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Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on December 5, 2012 at 2:59pm
Obama’s nose must be on fire, then. I wish someone would film him with an infrared camera.

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- hauschild
  Posted on December 5, 2012 at 3:23pm
  Anybody as inherently evil as Obama probably even has his biology conned.
  
  Report this comment
- OniKaze
  Posted on December 5, 2012 at 3:59pm
  I don’t think so….. Obama is so stupid, that he actually believe his own B.S….
  
  This wouldn’t work on MOST demoncrats…. Technically it’s only a “lie” if you KNOW its a lie, so this wouldn’t work on them since they are so dumb they “Think” they are telling the truth…
  
  Report this comment
cessna152
Posted on December 5, 2012 at 2:52pm
More heat comes from the nose when one lies? Then get all the politicians grouped up, start asking them questions, attach a generator to their nose and all our energy problems are solved for the next 10-15 generations.

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- cptenn94
  Posted on December 5, 2012 at 3:17pm
  Nice the sad thing is that it is true…..and if Obama had a pinnochio nose it would be at least to the moon by now. Biggest lie ” if the economy isnt fixed by the end of my first term i will not run for a second”…..yet here we are economy isnt fixed and he has his second term…….”i will cut the debt in half by the end of my first term” instead we have almost double the debt “hope and change” “i was naive to think i could change washington from the inside” then why did you run a second term if you couldnt do it in your 1st term it wont happen in your second……”Now i dont shoot first and aim later” yet you blamed benghazi on a protest for weeks, when you couldve easily said “we are investigateing it still to draw a complete conclusion first”
  
  i could spend more than a month typeing obamas lies…..
  
  sorry for the rant
  
  Report this comment
progressiveslayer
Posted on December 5, 2012 at 2:52pm
If that’s true then there’s a lot of pigs in DC with hot snouts.

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