The human face is perhaps the most complex arrangement of muscle found in nature. Just ask Dr. Cal Lightman, the "face-reading" protagonist of the new drama series "Lie to Me," which premieres tonight on FOX at 9 p.m.
In "Lie to Me," Lightman (Tim Roth) and his expert colleagues must help government agencies sort fact from fiction.
Unlike typical crime-busters, however, Lightman has more than just fingerprints and paper trails at his disposal. By interpreting the anatomical nuances behind facial expressions, Lightman makes pinpointing fibs a science. Literally.
"You speak with your face as well as by using words, and your face can contradict what you're saying," Roth explained in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. "It's involuntary, the gestures you make with your face. And [Dr. Lightman] can read them."
If the good doctor's rare talent for diagnosing deceit seems too far-fetched to be taken at face value -- think again. Lightman's character is based on the work of notable psychologist Paul Ekman, who has pioneered developmental theories about emotions and human behavior for over 40 years. After a lifetime of studying cultures across the world, Ekman concluded that most human emotions have corresponding facial "microexpressions," or split-second ticks, that are the same for everyone.
"When you're surprised, your eyebrows go up. But it only happens for one second," Brendan Hines, who plays Lightman's colleague, Eli Loker, said in the Entertainment Tonight interview. "But if it happens for more than that, you're lying. You're faking surprise."
Still, identifying people's emotions and understanding why they feel that way are two different animals entirely.
"Othello killed Desdemona because he thought that her signs of fear were of a woman caught in betrayal," Ekman said in a 2004 sit-down at the University of California, Berkeley's Institute of International Studies. "[But] she was afraid of being disbelieved. The fear of being disbelieved looked just like the fear of being caught. Fear is fear."
For Dr. Lightman and company, though, the ability to decode an upturned lip or wrinkled nose is both a blessing and a curse. After all -- isn't it nice to be lied to sometimes and not know it?
