Humour

Taking the spin out of spin

T A Balasubramanian on SLEUTH—the magical truth detector that uncovers facts from fiction

“Blink, and you would have missed it. The expression of relief on Caesar’s face during his last speech as he says ‘Et tu, Brutus?’ lasts for just a fraction of a second. But to me it was glaringly obvious. Given that he was supposed to be looking horrified and disgusted, I would have to say that the entire performance was a terrible flop,” says Oza Spinoza, CEO of PR Enterprise Systems and Solutions, also dubbed as ‘The PRESS.’

“This was a play that you went to, Boss?” says Ditto Copywala, Chief Marketing Manager, guessing wildly. Spinoza usually launches into speeches without a preamble.

“Ha, Ditto, you are bright today,” quips Sellina Reddy, Product Manager.

“Well, he is right for a change, Sellina. It seems that Caesar’s micro-expression gave away more about his true feelings than he intended,” says Spinoza, raising his arm like a Roman king for dramatic effect. “The important thing to recognize is that bad actors or politicians, diplomats or lawyers, are not typically good at dishing out out-and-out lies convincingly. What they use is actually doublespeak. Modern-day politicians—and others who doublespeak habitually to large masses of people—do not usually give themselves away so tellingly, and many of us would like to know whether they mean what they are saying. So how are we to know when they are lying?”

“I know, Boss. We could use a lie-detector,” chirps Copywala.

“You could, Ditto. But that would mean having to strap down the subject in a seat, attaching sensors and electrodes to his limbs and so on. Not something you could do to a person who has not been accused of any crime, eh?”

“All right, Boss. So how do we find out, then?” says Sellina, frowning.

“With a little help from technology and my friend, Plato, who has studied people’s facial and verbal expressions and how they relate to what they are thinking for over 40 years. What Plato and my research team at the PRESS have designed is a software program that analyses a person’s speech, voice or facial expressions and uncovers the places where the truth is being stretched, and even by how much. We are calling it SLEUTH—short for Sly Exposer of Untruth.”

“So how does SLEUTH expose the truth?”

“Plato says he has built in a sly-detector that pounces on verbal ‘spin.’ He has developed an algorithm that evaluates word usage within the text of a conversation or speech to determine when a person presents his or her ‘thoughts’ inaccurately—or, in a manner that does not necessarily reflect what they know to be true.”

“How exactly does it do that?”

“Well, the SLEUTH algorithm counts usage of first person nouns—‘I’ tends to indicate less spin than ‘we,’ for example. It also searches out phrases that offer qualifications or clarifications of more general statements, since speeches that contain few such amendments tend to be high on spin. Finally, increased rates of action verbs such as ‘go’ and ‘going,’ and negatively charged words, such as ‘hate’ and ‘enemy,’ also indicate greater levels of spin. Plato validated the program by making it tackle a database of 400 speeches from politicians involved in elections around the world.”

“Well, Boss, that is not a task that any sane human would dare to undertake,” says Sellina, shuddering.

“Plato has gone further than verbal analysis in SLEUTH—he uses auditory analysis software to map seven parameters of a person’s speech, including pitch modulation, volume and fluency, to create a voice profile. Our program then compares that profile with the speaker’s facial expressions, using as a benchmark a set of universal facial expressions called the Facial Action Coding System, to develop an overall picture of how they express themselves.”

“That’s ingenious, Boss. So SLEUTH could actually catch a person being devious or sincere by simply looking at a video recording?”

“Indeed it can. For example, take the play I attended last week. Our analysis shows that Caesar’s voice changes little in pitch as he speaks, and so conveys very little emotion or impact. Whether he is addressing Brutus in anguish or discussing amazing facts about Rome, his voice always sounds the same. People are unlikely to trust statements made in a flat tone, particularly when they do not match the person’s facial expressions.”

“In short, this actor was actually pretty lousy at acting?” says Sellina.

“Exactly. But instead of just saying that as a subjective personal opinion—as a cranky theater critic might be inclined to do—we now have an objective program that does a far better job. If he is to avoid being billed as a lousy actor, he has to convince our program that he is the person that he is playing. SLEUTH found out that his voice and facial movements rarely match up. He often smiles in a manner that commonly conveys sarcasm when uttering charming lines. That, now, is what I would call lack of credibility.”

“So what do we do with this product, Boss?” says Copywala.

“We had no way to prove doublespeak is doublespeak, but now a computer can,” says Spinoza, cheerfully. “SLEUTH is a magical truth detector that can determine if a statement is true simply by noting the way a person speaks. With our marvelous product, you will no longer need to check facts. Instead, you can simply believe whomsoever our program tells you to believe. All right, team, it is time to take our genius out and sell it to the world. There are millions of chattering snake oil salesmen out there just waiting to be trapped.”