The Department of Homeland Security (TSA's parent agency) did not concur with the report, claiming that the GAO had not considered all the available research, and that the research it had considered lacked validity. They spent the next two years analyzing the data from SPOT, and then in 2013, presented their report, titled TSA Should Limit Future Funding for Behavior Detection Activities. So in 2010, the Government Accountability Office determined that TSA had deployed SPOT without first validating its scientific basis. Not one has ever been linked to terrorism. Only about 3/4 of a percent were arrested, nearly all for completely unrelated charges like outstanding warrants - about the same rate you'd get from the general public.

Almost all were found to be not up to anything.

TSA does publish their statistics, and over one three-year period, their behavior detection pulled some quarter of a million people for secondary screening. The system involves a 92-point checklist largely based on behaviors that are stereotypically associated with lying and deception: avoiding eye contact, fidgeting, touching their face, faster breathing, increased rate of blinking, etcetera - basically everything you've ever heard of as being a trait of liars. TSA has trained thousands of Behavior Detection Officers at a cost of some $900 million as of 2015. In 2007, the TSA deployed a program called SPOT, which stands for 'Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques' (it has since been renamed BDA, for 'Behavior Detection and Analysis'). One of these is the United States' TSA (Transportation Security Administration). In controlled testing, are these marvelous techniques any better than random chance at telling whether someone is lying?Ī lot of people think so, and they've invested considerable money based on this notion.

So maybe it's time that we had a quick look to see if the science behind it is valid. It's used in law, it's used in security, it's even used in sales it's taught in trade schools and it's sold as learning products. Whichever it is, they're all part of the same craft, the observation of body language that will give away deceptive behavior. Maybe you're a TSA agent in the airport watching people go by, looking for the specific little behaviors that reveal this person is up to something deceptive.

Maybe you're a cop in the interview room watching the suspect for cues that will betray his guilt. Maybe you're at the poker table, looking to see if your opponent is bluffing - a scrap of insight that could be worth thousands of dollars.

Body language tv series