Dylan Whyte
Social International Psychology
February 13, 2012
Doctor Cochrane
Lie To Me Paper

The human body functions in many ways whether voluntarily or involuntarily in order to express reactions or emotions that occur while someone acknowledges someone else. The body can change how it tenses up and relaxes anywhere but when it happens to tenses up or twitches in more visible areas such as the face or arms and hands the reactions become more noticeable to others. Facial expressions and body language are very distinct abilities of the human body. These bodily expressions are shown all throughout the Fox network television show Lie to Me.
Often times the language taken from the stresses in certain muscles can tell if someone is lying or telling the truth. This is where Dr. Cal Lightman flourishes as a detective because for his job he must work just like any detective with little evidence and still try to get the story straight making the right decision. Dr. Lightman focuses highly on the stresses in the neck, the movements in the hands, and the facial expressions that all make up the body language while the person talks and shares their side of the story. Through these body expressions and movements he can pick up if the story is true or false.
In the episode “The Royal We” a teen beauty pageant is taking place but one girl claims an abuse and molestation upon one of the beauty pageant fathers. This young lady, Megan, has a very overpowering mother who needs to be in control at all times and will not let Megan out of her sight. After Lightman meets Megan he begins to intrude with the questions and notices she touches her shoulder and quickly asks while making a move to uncover a terrible bruise. Not knowing what to do, Megan said Mr. Fletcher was the one who put the bruise on her. As she began to state this Lightman noticed the stress in her neck believing right there that she was lying.
Mr. Fletcher’s side of the story was next and he expressed how he would never do such a thing and his emotions express through how he acted showed that he was innocent and pushed Cal Lightman’s thoughts even more against the lying beauty. A few days later another girl came forward sharing the same story that Megan shared about Mr. Fletcher molesting her. Dr. Lightman found it stranger how the story was the same so he took further actions and went to question Megan while her mom wasn’t around. When he got Megan to talk to him alone he found through her facial expressions a side of happiness about her mom being upset through how she talked about her mom’s reactions to