A number of body language experts have been having a field day analyzing recent testimony from baseball great Roger Clemons as he denies steroid use. The New York Times has a story where various body language experts weigh in. While I am a big believer in the idea that people who speak need to be very attentive to how their body language augments or undercuts their messages, I’ve always been skeptical of experts who claim to be able to tell instantly if someone is lying simply by analyzing body language.

Here is the most telling piece from today’s Times story, “Even the most skilled body-language experts are right in only about half of all cases, he (retired FBI body language expert Joe Navarro) said, and investigators often study body language to decide when to dig deeper.”

This struck me as odd. If experts are only right half the time on whether or not someone is either lying or not lying,, that means they are statistically no better than guessing or flipping a coin. Yes, someone may be showing signs of distress when they are lying, but sometimes people may be showing signs of distress simply because they are distressed about being the center of attention or accused of a crime.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.