I’m a Truth Wizard
I am pleased to share with you the exciting news that I have now been scientifically tested and classified as a “truth wizard” by scientist and researcher Dr. Maureen O’Sullivan.
I contacted Dr. O’Sullivan back in July of this year, and she agreed to test me. I took the tests and passed. I can’t tell you how excited I was!
This past week, I had the pleasure, honor and privilege of meeting Dr. O’Sullivan in person. It was a dream come true for me!
Dr. O’Sullivan is a Professor of Psychology at the University of San Francisco, and has been studying people’s ability to understand each other for over 30 years. One way people understand each other is by being able to detect lies. Dr. O’Sullivan started her wizard study back in 1996 with Dr. Paul Ekman, who is a world-renowned facial expression expert.
Dr. O’Sullivan’s “research addresses questions about human emotion including: emotional intelligence, humor, romantic love, lying and truthfulness, courtesy, and cross-cultural differences in emotional experience and expression. She also studies individual differences in intelligence and expertise.” (source: USF biography)
Read more about Dr. O’Sullivan’s wizard study here:
“Wizards can spot the signs of a liar.”
“Select few can identify liars.”
Dr. O’Sullivan has tested over 15,000 people for her study, and has found 46 wizards to date. With that, I’m wizard 46.
So, what does being a wizard actually mean? It means I see most kinds of lies accurately at least 80% of the time (I’m not flawless as I have said before.), whereas the normal person is only as good as a coin-toss in spotting deception.
Dr. O’Sullivan says most people look at the world through rose-colored glasses. They don’t have the “grit” inside them to see the truth, as it isn’t always pleasant.
Now, I am not going to talk about the “Wizards Project”, because Dr. O’Sullivan has asked me not to—and I have promised her I won’t—until the study is complete. So, no questions on “wizards” or the Wizards Project, please, but I can talk about being “me”, if you have interest.
But there you have it—I do have Eyes for Lies!!
More about me here.
This. Only in the past year has “Lie to Me” and other research helped me realize what I’m seeing. I’ve been conditioned to ignore/disbelieve/doubt my own perceptions, but when I manage to get past that, I get O.O responses from folks. (I tend to “read” people who aren’t feeling well, to offer them something to help them feel better.)
In my case, I might just be doing something a bit more Holmesian than Truth Wizard-ish, but it’ll be some time before I’m aware enough of it to tell. 🙂
Micro expressions are pretty cool, though. ^_^