Sep 7, 2026 · 1h 49m

Psychologist debunks deception myths and reveals how to spot toxic personalities

Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne Ten Brinke

Understanding the true science of deception and dark personalities protects individuals from toxic relationships in both their personal lives and the workplace.

3 key takeaways

1High-stakes deception is best detected by asking open-ended questions that trigger cognitive strain rather than watching eye contact.
2Individuals with dark personality traits often rise quickly in leadership but ultimately damage team performance and financial success.
3Warm and responsive parenting can actively reduce the likelihood of children developing psychopathic personality traits.

Don't miss

Dr. Ten Brinke analyzes mock dating profiles and voice notes to identify red flags like intense eye contact and a lack of self-aware emotions.

The brief

Psychologist Dr. Leanne Ten Brinke joins Steven Bartlett to dismantle the myths surrounding deception and explain how to spot the toxic behaviors associated with the dark tetrad of psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism.

Contrary to popular belief, avoiding eye contact is not a reliable sign of lying. Instead, spotting high-stakes deception requires looking for genuine emotional expressions and asking open-ended questions that trigger cognitive strain in a liar.

The conversation shifts to the workplace, where research shows that while individuals with dark traits make strong first impressions and rise quickly, they ultimately damage team performance and do not achieve greater long-term financial success.

Ultimately, Dr. Ten Brinke debunks the great lie of success, proving that ruthlessness is not a requirement to win. Ninety percent of the population is fundamentally good, and setting firm boundaries is the best defense against toxic people.

What was said on this episode

36 statements · 14 positive · 18 negative · 2 mixed · 2 neutral

Leanne Ten Brinkeon Psychopathic personality traitsPositive4:17
Brief observation can reveal a kernel of psychopathic personality traits within about five seconds.
“you can get a kernel of truth about someone's personality, the extent to which they're psychopathic, in about 5 seconds”
Listen at 4:17
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Psychopathy ratingsPositive5:02
Five-second observers’ psychopathy ratings correlate reasonably with trained clinical psychologists’ ratings.
“there's actually a pretty reasonable correlation between the ratings of these, like, you know, naive folks who watch 5 seconds and the trained clinical psychologists”
Listen at 5:02
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Psychopathic personality traitsNegative6:16
People high in psychopathic traits may pair happy-looking smiles with hostile language.
“The people who are high in these psychopathic personality traits, they were showing these kinds of, like, you know, very happy-looking smiles as they were saying really hostile things.”
Listen at 6:16
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Deception cuesPositive9:03
Four verbal and nonverbal cues initially predicted lying with about 90% accuracy.
“we were able to use 4 different cues, so 2 verbal and 2 nonverbal, to predict with about 90% accuracy who was lying and who was telling the truth”
Listen at 9:03
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Deception cuesNegative9:16
A later replication found substantially smaller deception-detection effects.
“we tried to replicate that more recently, and we found much more modest effects”
Listen at 9:16
Leanne Ten Brinkeon LyingNegative10:20
Liars generally provide fewer details than truth-tellers.
“people who are lying tend to give fewer details”
Listen at 10:20
Leanne Ten Brinkeon LyingMixed10:43
Preparation can make liars resemble truth-tellers in the amount of information provided.
“Whenever people have time to prepare, they can start to look pretty much like a truth teller on the amount of information they have.”
Listen at 10:43
Leanne Ten Brinkeon LyingNegative11:47
Lying tends to increase cortisol reactivity compared with telling the truth.
“people who are lying tend to have an increased cortisol reactivity relative to people who are telling the truth”
Listen at 11:47
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Human lie detectionNegative14:37
Untrained people detect lies with roughly 54% accuracy on average.
“On average, people perform at about 54%. Percent accuracy.”
Listen at 14:37
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Lie detection questioningPositive15:31
Learning to ask better questions is essential for detecting lies.
“learning how to ask good questions is actually a really kind of essential tool for detecting lies”
Listen at 15:31
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Statement verifiabilityPositive19:11
Assessing statement verifiability is better than combining unreliable behavioral cues to detect lies.
“if you just ask, how verifiable was that statement? That's a better strategy for trying to accurately detect lies than trying to use all of these other cues”
Listen at 19:11
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Gaze aversion as a deception cueNegative20:47
Research does not support gaze aversion as a reliable sign of lying.
“there's no research to suggest that that is true”
Listen at 20:47
Leanne Ten Brinkeon AutismNegative21:25
Autistic people may be perceived as lying more often when they are truthful.
“people who are on the autism spectrum are perceived as lying more when they're actually telling the truth”
Listen at 21:25
Leanne Ten Brinkeon NarcissismNeutral25:46
Narcissism and related traits vary continuously rather than forming a clear binary diagnosis.
“these exist on a continuum. There's no clear like moment where it becomes, you are a narcissist versus not a narcissist.”
Listen at 25:46
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Dark triadNegative32:47
Men tend to score somewhat higher than women on the discussed dark personality traits.
“men tend to score somewhat higher than women, and that's quite a consistent finding”
Listen at 32:47
Leanne Ten Brinkeon SadismNegative33:47
People high in sadism tend to take pleasure in others’ pain.
“people who are relatively high in sadism tend to, they take pleasure in other people's pain”
Listen at 33:47
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Antisocial personality disorder and psychopathyMixed35:44
Psychopathy increases violence risk, but many highly psychopathic people are not violent.
“psychopathy is like a risk factor for violent behavior, but there's plenty of people who would score relatively highly and never engage in violent behavior”
Listen at 35:44
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Clinical psychopathyNegative37:01
Clinical-level psychopathy affects about one percent of the population.
“That's about 1% of the population.”
Listen at 37:01
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Psychopathy and narcissismNeutral38:31
Variation in psychopathy and narcissism scores is approximately half genetic and half environmental.
“the variation in someone's score on that personality trait is about 50% genetic and about 50% environmental”
Listen at 38:31
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Early intervention for childrenPositive41:54
Early intervention can reduce children’s likelihood of developing high psychopathic traits.
“early intervention with kids really can help reduce the likelihood of them developing high levels of psychopathic traits as they grow older”
Listen at 41:54
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Child abuseNegative43:28
Child abuse is associated with increased likelihood of developing dark personality traits.
“physically harming them, that's child abuse, is associated with increased likelihood of developing these traits over time”
Listen at 43:28
Leanne Ten Brinkeon AmygdalaNegative45:50
People high in psychopathy tend to have smaller, less active amygdalas.
“amygdalas in people with high levels of psychopathy tend to be both smaller and less active”
Listen at 45:50
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Cognitive behavioral therapyPositive47:07
Consistent cognitive behavioral therapy can reduce recidivism among incarcerated people with psychopathy.
“if they do consistently engage in cognitive behavioral therapies, you can reduce the likelihood of recidivism”
Listen at 47:07
Leanne Ten Brinkeon LyingNegative53:08
People who report telling more everyday lies also report greater loneliness.
“the more lies that people tell, they just self-report on how much they lie in their everyday life, the more lonely they feel”
Listen at 53:08
Leanne Ten Brinkeon LyingNegative54:17
Liars are perceived as less warm, competent, and moral by interaction partners.
“people who are lying are perceived as less warm. They're perceived as less competent. They're perceived as less moral.”
Listen at 54:17
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Warmth and competencePositive58:39
High warmth combined with high competence is associated with greater perceived trustworthiness.
“this warmth, high warmth, high competence tends to be associated with high trustworthiness”
Listen at 58:39
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Antisocial personality disorder and psychopathyNegative1:02:14
Higher psychopathy was associated with less governmental influence and lower hedge-fund-manager earnings.
“high levels of psychopathy was associated with less influence in government. It was also associated with making less money, as a hedge fund manager”
Listen at 1:02:14
Leanne Ten Brinkeon NarcissismPositive1:03:56
Highly narcissistic people may initially appear confident, likable, and leadership-capable.
“The people who were high in narcissism came across really well in that first interaction”
Listen at 1:03:56
Leanne Ten Brinkeon NarcissismNegative1:04:12
Narcissistic people may be judged more negatively after prolonged group interaction.
“as the course of the term went by, people were like, this person's actually really hostile and like doesn't do their work and they're a pain in the butt”
Listen at 1:04:12
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Explicit behavioral rulesPositive1:20:03
Explicit rules reduce selfish behavior among people with elevated dark personality traits.
“establishing clear rules, making them explicit, decreases the likelihood of kind of selfish behavior”
Listen at 1:20:03
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Psychopathic individualsNegative1:23:10
People who are less assertive may be more likely targets for exploitation by psychopathic individuals.
“individuals who are not very assertive tend to be more likely to kind of, it's almost like they're picking the weakest of the herd”
Listen at 1:23:10
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Behavioral rewardsPositive1:32:12
Rewarding kind or helpful behavior increases the likelihood of its repetition.
“Then you are going to increase the likelihood that you get more of that behavior in the future.”
Listen at 1:32:12
Leanne Ten Brinkeon NarcissismPositive1:34:19
Shared identity can reduce anger in narcissistic people receiving negative feedback.
“people with high levels of narcissism get less angry when you give them negative feedback if they think you've got something in common with”
Listen at 1:34:19
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Question-framed criticismPositive1:37:24
Framing criticism as a question can make domineering people more receptive.
“Phrasing it as a question just kind of makes it softer and makes them more willing to just hear it.”
Listen at 1:37:24
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Collaborative lie detectionPositive1:41:14
Discussing statements with others improves accuracy in truth-versus-lie judgments.
“whenever we discuss with other people before making a truth-lie judgment about someone else's statements, we tend to be more accurate”
Listen at 1:41:14
Leanne Ten Brinkeon Clinical psychopathyNegative1:44:55
Offenders with clinical psychopathy account for approximately half of serious crime.
“Offenders with clinical levels of psychopathy account for about 50% of all serious crime.”
Listen at 1:44:55

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