Don’t Ask the Sheriff How to Tell if Someone is Lying—Quick Lesson from a Homemade Flying Saucer…
So here’s the proposition I’m asking you to consider today: A person would rather admit to lying, than admit they fell for a lie.
You want proof? I don’t blame you. Stay with me, I’ll give it to you.
Deception is a game, of sorts: One side plays, and the other gets played. Nobody enjoys that, of course, feeling like a sucker; or worse yet, appearing to be one. And one-on-one’s bad enough, but in front of the whole planet? Yikes, man, now that’s hard on a guy’s ego.
But that’s just what happened with the whole Balloon Boy thing last week; the sheriff got played, felt like a sucker in front of the whole world, and then to save face, he lied about being fooled.
Sounds convoluted, I know, but it’s really not.
On the day of the incident (Thursday), suspicions of a hoax immediately swirled. Larimer County, Colorado Sheriff Jim Alderden said, “We were convinced after talking to parents and having investigators on scene during the duration of event, that the parents were being honest. Their verbal, body language and emotions were consistent with events taking place, believing their child was in the aircraft. Our people didn’t think this was being faked.” (I’m guessing they don’t have The Insider’s Report on Lying)
Alderden cited the expert judgment of his seasoned investigators as proof the Heene’s were being truthful—which later served only as proof that even veteran cops can be fooled (and that the average person has even less ability to tell if someone is lying).
On Friday, the sheriff was facing a new round of controversy after the Heene family’s appearance on TV the night before, in which Balloon Boy Falcon Heene made the dubious statement to his parents, “You guys said we did it for the show.”
In the video segment above that aired on Friday, Sheriff Alderden once again committed to his position on the incident, saying, ”We believe that this was a legitimate incident, and not a hoax. We still believe that.” He went on to say that his office planned to re-interview the Heene’s the next day (Saturday), but stated they had yet to contact the Heene’s to ask for the interview.
When it was announced on Sunday that Ms. Heene had spilled the beans and the whole thing was a setup, Alderden claimed that his Friday statements about their lack of suspicion had been false, a ruse to disarm the Heenes. I submit to you that of the two positions, his second statement was the lie.
Why I conclude this:
1-Police ineptitude in high-publicity incidents is tough on the “agency ego”. When Falcon was found “hiding” in the garage on the first day of the incident, Alderden had to admit his deputies had failed to find him during their search of the house: “We were a little bit embarrassed about that. But they did a very thorough search of the house and attic.” Thorough, maybe, but a failure, certainly. So they’d already had one bonafide instance of ineptitude; the sheriff surely didn’t welcome another, especially his own.
2-During the interview in the video above, the sheriff said they planned to re-interview the family the next day, but that they hadn’t contacted the family yet to ask for the interview.
If this had been part of a clever scheme to lower the defenses of the Heene’s, rather than announce their intentions on national TV and give the Heenes a full day’s notice to prepare or get an attorney, they would have instead just gone to the family the next day and caught them flat-footed for the interview. (If we take the sheriff at his word, then the announcement itself would be ineptitude.)
3-On page 150 of Conquering Deception I wrote, “When a person openly states his opinion or position on a subject, he will be slow to recant it. This phenomenon is directly tied to ego, of course.”
This is proven true once again, this time by the sheriff. He had cited the expertise of his skilled investigators and their judgment of the Heene’s “verbal, body language and emotions”, and then he’d publicly stated his opinion during numerous interviews that the Heenes were truthful—most notably, after Falcon’s slip on Thursday night.
He had committed publicly that the Heene’s story was true. To admit being fooled—being wrong—when so many had already concluded the whole thing was hoax would have been a tough thing. So salvage at this point required the real ruse, and the sheriff made this statement to cover his mistaken judgment: ”It became very clear to us at that point (Falcon’s remark) that they were lying.” But to get the truth, “it was very important that they maintain their trust with us.” He added that they had intentionally misled the media to carry out their “game plan” of gathering the truth.
It’s interesting that he again cited his investigators’ judgment of “nonverbal responses” and “verbal cues”—which they had failed to accurately decipher on the first day. The sheriff was truthful when he made this admission, that the Heene’s “put on a very good show for us.” And they should have; the Heenes met at a Hollywood acting school.
So the Heene’s deceived everybody, the sheriff deceived the media, and the media isn’t happy. The reaction by Fox News’ Gregg Jarrett in the clip below is good example of how offended folks get when they’re fooled—even when it’s not directed at them personally! And notice they’re working from the premise (which I don’t buy) that the sheriff knew all along:
I’ve often told audiences during speaking events that lying is something everyone does, but nobody wants to be caught doing. But this whole affair has made it apparent to me there’s something even more embarrassing to the ego than being caught telling a lie: Being caught… being fooled.
How bad is it? They’d rather volunteer a confession to lying.
If you have a take on any of this, your thoughts are welcome, leave a comment…
-jef
Tags: lying
Interesting exploration of the subject — although I feel a bit uncomfortable taking this officer to task for this situation. I think most of us would prefer not to have been exposed to it in the first place — especially him! He is unfortunately on the spot, in the national spotlight, because these people chose to deceive him and basically the world with their kooky idea. He’s had this thrust upon him to deal with, and I’d say — just let him try to deal with it. The eve of that day, I’m sure public sentiment was geared toward feeling great relief on behalf of this family who seemed to have been through something terrifying. He reflected that. Later, as things became clearer, he had to shift, however gracefully or gracelessly. We were all “fooled” too, so maybe we all feel foolish to some degree as well — let’s save our scorn for these nincompoops rather than the officials who have had to receive probably unwanted attention because of them!
I understand your point about the “lying” and again, it’s an interesting study — but I just hate to see these pundits trying to call this guy out. He’s just trying to do his job under very difficult circumstances.
Hey, Rob, you’ve put this very well, and oddly enough… I’m right with you.
Nowadays, a public official in any remote place can suddenly find himself giving a press conference on CCN–tough situations, no doubt.
My real aim wasn’t to jump on the sheriff (though it looks like it), but to peek into the less obvioius aspects of this whole thing. It’s a case study in how people act/react, and it’s an unusual one. My interest is only in the actions, not the person… but it’s hard to critique words and actions without stepping a bit on the person they came from.
What I don’t care for–and won’t do–is the critiquing of what a street cop does, on the street, in a confrontation. We’ve seen enough of that from media and others who’ve never been in those situations. But this guy’s an elected official, he had time–albeit brief–to calculate the best course: he blew it… and I don’t get any kick out of saying that. I wish the sheriff all the best.
Great stuff, Rob, thanks much!
-jef
I’m with Rob, I think the sheriff is in a bad spot not of his own doin. But he made a bad move with the “lie” bit, whichever version one believes.
My question to you, what else would you have had him say? What was a better PR move for him?
V
Politics and PR are very different. Politics win elections, but PR wins people. Whatever his real “scheme” was, all he needed to say was “It’s our job to always keep an open mind and lend every benefit of the doubt–we did that in this case until Ms H confessed that it was all a setup.”
Thanks V.
There are a lot of instances in the media now days that put local officials in the national focus instantly, and I’m sure it catches a lot of them unprepared. A CNN or FOX camera is a lot different than lunch with the Rotary Club.
Thanks for the “stuff” Jef.
V