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You will find the techniques described in the article used when you are traveling into Israel. I've gone through this many many times, and am still often taken

You will find the techniques described in the article used when you are traveling into Israel. I've gone through this many many times, and am still often taken aback by the weird questions I sometimes get asked by their officers. Still, the whole process is rather smooth and I've never been detained or even treated unfairly.

bhouston 11y ago
You probably are not Arab then... http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/palestine-israel-west-bank-americans-detained-ben-gurion.html http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/palestine-... http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/israel-border-entry-denied-arab-americans-jordan.html# http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/israel-bor... http://mondoweiss.net/2012/06/do-you-feel-more-arab-or-more-american-two-arab-american-womens-story-of-being-detained-and-interrogated-at-ben-gurion http://mondoweiss.net/2012/06/do-you-feel-more-arab-or-more-...
personlurking 11y ago
I once vacationed in Colombia and upon return to the States (I'm American) was questioned by two 'tough guys' upon entry. I was with my brother and they both asked us 3-4 rapid-fire simple, unopen questions, repeating the questions in virtually the same ways about 3 different times in just a few minutes. Our only thought in the moment was they must have been simpletons or simply bad at their job. - Why were you there? - Vacation. - How long were you there? - 2 weeks. - Who did you go with? - Him (points to brother) Treating people like idiots, and while asking dumb questions, doesn't seem to be the best way to spot a liar. I'm glad the science of it is improving.
paganel 11y ago
The way I see it there are at least two possible ways to "fight" against this, that is if you're on the liar's side. The first one is to offer to whoever is questioning you a "local maximum" victory, i.e. to pretend to hide a smaller lie compared to the bigger one you're supposed to be hiding. In the case you mentioned, you could pretend to be "covering up" the fact that you've been cheating on your SO, hence all the non-concordances related to your past locations. When the guys questioning you finally realize that you're lying on something, they'd think you had been doing so out of fear of not being seen as an unfaithful spouse, when in reality you want to blow things up (just to give an example). The downside to this strategy is that this fails when the "admission criteria" is 0 and 1, you're either a liar, which means you're out, or not, which means you're in. The one mitigating factor is that almost everybody lies all the time. The second strategy is to be so good at this as to believe in your lies/stories you're telling. This is a little sociopath bordering on schizophrenic, but I've seen some people doing it almost to perfection (granted, the stakes were not very high). The one weak point of this is that you have to know exactly when and how to push the on/off switch.
- adekok 11y ago
  > The second strategy is to be so good at this as to believe in your lies/stories you're telling. That is harder than it sounds. Even sociopaths have a hard time outright lying. Or keeping lies straight. The technique being used here is one of consistency. Is your story consistent? Does it have all of the details one expects from a normal story? Are there any hesitations when recalling the story? It is very difficult to come up with consistent and detailed lies on a moments notice. The better approach (used by lying CEOs on news shows) is to have a different story that you tell in detail.
  - nucleardog 11y ago
    If you have time to prepare your lies then it just requires a sort of reframing. Do all your imagining ahead of time. Walk through and construct the lie. Fill in the details. You're not just imagining this one thing, you're imagining an entire alternate reality where this thing is true and all the implications that follow from that. When it comes time to answer questions the person is asking about the alternate reality you've imagined. No need to make things up - just recall back. I guess I'm saying the same thing as you, just in a different way - don't make something up on a moments notice, just have a different story that you tell.
- pandler 11y ago
  I find it's sometimes easier to convince someone that you are lying when you aren't. I usually only do that when I am trying to pull someone into a prank, and I need them to believe something. Most people will pick up on the easy body language and verbal cues of a lie, and they won't consider that it's just a facade. Now that I think of it, I see that happen quite a bit at the poker table too. You can draw chips out of other players by making them think that you're just trying to bluff, but you really have a good hand.
- PhantomGremlin 11y ago
  be so good at this as to believe in your lies/stories you're telling One of my favorite quips from the internet is: All really good salesmen temporarily believe whatever bullshit they are selling at the time. It's kind of like method acting. They're not lying if they believe it themselves!
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
oe 11y ago
I've seen this in London too. I don't mind it. It's probably more effective than all the other security theatrics in an airport.

bhouston 11y ago

You probably are not Arab then... http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/palestine-israel-west-bank-americans-detained-ben-gurion.html http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/palestine-... http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/israel-border-entry-denied-arab-americans-jordan.html# http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/israel-bor... http://mondoweiss.net/2012/06/do-you-feel-more-arab-or-more-american-two-arab-american-womens-story-of-being-detained-and-interrogated-at-ben-gurion http://mondoweiss.net/2012/06/do-you-feel-more-arab-or-more-...

personlurking 11y ago

I once vacationed in Colombia and upon return to the States (I'm American) was questioned by two 'tough guys' upon entry. I was with my brother and they both asked us 3-4 rapid-fire simple, unopen questions, repeating the questions in virtually the same ways about 3 different times in just a few minutes. Our only thought in the moment was they must have been simpletons or simply bad at their job. - Why were you there? - Vacation. - How long were you there? - 2 weeks. - Who did you go with? - Him (points to brother) Treating people like idiots, and while asking dumb questions, doesn't seem to be the best way to spot a liar. I'm glad the science of it is improving.

paganel 11y ago

The way I see it there are at least two possible ways to "fight" against this, that is if you're on the liar's side. The first one is to offer to whoever is questioning you a "local maximum" victory, i.e. to pretend to hide a smaller lie compared to the bigger one you're supposed to be hiding. In the case you mentioned, you could pretend to be "covering up" the fact that you've been cheating on your SO, hence all the non-concordances related to your past locations. When the guys questioning you finally realize that you're lying on something, they'd think you had been doing so out of fear of not being seen as an unfaithful spouse, when in reality you want to blow things up (just to give an example). The downside to this strategy is that this fails when the "admission criteria" is 0 and 1, you're either a liar, which means you're out, or not, which means you're in. The one mitigating factor is that almost everybody lies all the time. The second strategy is to be so good at this as to believe in your lies/stories you're telling. This is a little sociopath bordering on schizophrenic, but I've seen some people doing it almost to perfection (granted, the stakes were not very high). The one weak point of this is that you have to know exactly when and how to push the on/off switch.

adekok 11y ago
> The second strategy is to be so good at this as to believe in your lies/stories you're telling. That is harder than it sounds. Even sociopaths have a hard time outright lying. Or keeping lies straight. The technique being used here is one of consistency. Is your story consistent? Does it have all of the details one expects from a normal story? Are there any hesitations when recalling the story? It is very difficult to come up with consistent and detailed lies on a moments notice. The better approach (used by lying CEOs on news shows) is to have a different story that you tell in detail.
- nucleardog 11y ago
  If you have time to prepare your lies then it just requires a sort of reframing. Do all your imagining ahead of time. Walk through and construct the lie. Fill in the details. You're not just imagining this one thing, you're imagining an entire alternate reality where this thing is true and all the implications that follow from that. When it comes time to answer questions the person is asking about the alternate reality you've imagined. No need to make things up - just recall back. I guess I'm saying the same thing as you, just in a different way - don't make something up on a moments notice, just have a different story that you tell.
pandler 11y ago
I find it's sometimes easier to convince someone that you are lying when you aren't. I usually only do that when I am trying to pull someone into a prank, and I need them to believe something. Most people will pick up on the easy body language and verbal cues of a lie, and they won't consider that it's just a facade. Now that I think of it, I see that happen quite a bit at the poker table too. You can draw chips out of other players by making them think that you're just trying to bluff, but you really have a good hand.
PhantomGremlin 11y ago
be so good at this as to believe in your lies/stories you're telling One of my favorite quips from the internet is: All really good salesmen temporarily believe whatever bullshit they are selling at the time. It's kind of like method acting. They're not lying if they believe it themselves!

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

oe 11y ago

I've seen this in London too. I don't mind it. It's probably more effective than all the other security theatrics in an airport.