Liar, Liar

Curious Cases

• Episode: Liar, Liar
• Website: Curious Cases
• Feed URL: http://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/b07dx75g.rss
• Duration: 00:28:41
• Published: 2025-04-18 10:30

For any of you who have ever told a porkie pie, don't worry, this week we hear why we all do it... and discover that deception is actually good for social bonding. From the red squirrels who cry wolf to scare off the competition, to kids who look you in the eye as they tell bare faced lies, this is a behaviour that occurs across all species. And one man who's particularly good at it is Traitors contestant Paul Gorton who reveals he felt absolutely no guilt about his tv trickery. But it seems that while we're masters at telling tall stories, we're terrible at detecting them, because we've all been focusing on completely the wrong cues.

Contributors:

Paul Gorton Professor Richard Wiseman Professor Sophie van der Zee

Producer: Marijke Peters Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem

A BBC Studios Audio Production