Pinocchio may be just a children’s fairy tale, but Spanish scientists at the
University of Granada recently investigated the so-called ‘Pinocchio effect’ and
found that our noses don’t grow when we tell a lie, but actually shrink a
bit.
虽然《木偶奇遇记》里匹诺曹撒谎鼻子会变长只是个童话故事，但格拉纳达大学(University of Granada)的西班牙科学家最近对所谓的“匹诺曹效应”(Pinocchio Effect)进行了研究，结果表明，当我们说谎时，我们的鼻子不会变长，反而还会收缩一点。
Dr Emilio Gómez Milán and his team developed a lie detector test that used thermography to tell if people were lying, and found that whenever participants in their research were being untruthful, the temperature of the tip of their nose dropped up to 1.2 degrees Celsius, while the temperature of their forehead increased up to 1.5C. Scientist also found that drop in temperature at nose level actually caused it to slightly shrink, although the difference is undetected by the human eye.
埃米利奥·戈麦斯·米兰博士和他的团队开发了一种测谎仪，用热像图来判断人们是否在说谎。研究发现，当研究对象撒谎时，鼻尖的温度就会下降(最多)1.2℃，而额头的温度则会升高(最多)1.5℃。科学家还发现，鼻子温度下降实际上会导致它轻微收缩，尽管人类肉眼察觉不出这种细微的差别。
“One has to think in order to lie, which rises the temperature of the forehead,” Dr. Gómez Milán explained the findings. “At the same time we feel anxious, which lowers the temperature of the nose.”
“人类在撒谎的时候需要思考，这就会使额头温度升高。”米兰博士在解释这项研究发现。“同时，我们还会觉得焦虑，这会降低鼻子的温度。”
For this study, researchers asked a number of 60 students to perform various tasks while being scanned by thermal imaging technology. One of these tasks involved calling a 3 to 4 minutes call to their parents, partner or a friend and telling a significant lie. Participants had to devise the lie themselves during the call, and the thermal cameras picked up this ‘reverse Pinocchio effect’ caused by the fluctuation in temperature in the nose and forehead.
在这项研究中，研究人员要求60名学生在接受热成像技术扫描时执行各种任务。其中一项任务是给父母、伴侣或朋友打3到4分钟的电话，并对他们说谎。被试在通话过程中必须自己编一个谎，而此时热相机则捕捉到了这种由鼻子和前额温度波动引起的“反向皮诺曹效应”。
Interestingly, the thermal lie detector picked up the temperature difference in 80 percent of test subjects, which is a better rate of success than that of any modern lie detector.
有趣的是，热测谎仪探测到了80%的被试者在说谎时的温差，这比任何现代测谎仪的成功率都要高。
“With this method we have achieved to increase accuracy and reduce the occurrence of “false positives”, something that is frequent with other methods such as the polygraph,” said Dr. Emilio Gómez Milán, who added that law enforcement interviewers could one day combine other lie detection technology with thermal imaging to achieve better results.
米兰博士表示，“通过这种方法，我们提高了测谎的准确性，减少了‘假阳性’的发生，而这种情况在其他方法(如测谎仪)中经常出现。”他还补充道，“总有一天，执法人员可以将其他测谎技术与热成像技术结合起来，以获得更准确的结果。”
