ivantohelpyou

In Chris Cooper's brilliant portrayal of Robert Hanssen in Breach, he greets the young agent assigned to him with an odd request: "Tell me five things about yourself, only four of them true."

Interesting game. Sure, you could list a bunch of innocuous statements, such as "My favorite color is blue," and "My favorite ice cream is pistachio." But that'll never teach you how to become a good liar, and it won't be enough to get people to believe something important as your lie. Instead, serious players have to come up with items that are at least as interesting as the untruth. You're trying to gain someone's trust to the point where they accept the entirety of what you say, and you can't do that by being reticent and withdrawn.

In coming up with the five things, you have to consider the following questions:

• What do you expect that your opponent will believe about you? The lie has meet a plausibility threshhold.
  
• What do you think your opponent won't believe about you? In order to divert attention away from the lie, you have to make at least one of the true items wild enough that your opponent will doubt that it's actually true, and pick it instead of the lie.
  
• What can you reveal safely? Remember, this is a game supposedly played by counterintelligence agents and Russian spies. As such, it's probably unwise to mention childhood traumas, crimes committed, sexual peccadilloes or other things that can be used against you. While it's tempting to put something scandalous and personal out there as one of the "true" items with the idea that your opponent will believe that you'd never admit to something like that, it's probably too high of a price to pay.
  
• Should the lie be something positive (e.g. "I ran the Boston Marathon"), or something negative? (e.g. "I was arrested for truancy.") Remember, your reputation can be damaged as much by a lie of your own creation as by an incautious revelation of something true.
  
• Knowing that your opponent knows the dynamics described here, how should you adjust your questions?
  

It's game theory fundamentals in action. In essence, you have to pick four items that skirt the edge of plausibility but that do not overly jeopardize your reputation, plus add another item that resembles the first four.

Anyway, I thought this would be a good exercise for a blog post. See if you can spot the lie.

• I was kicked off the high school chess team.
  
• I scored well on the LSAT.
• I performed at open mic night at a NYC comedy club.
• I am a thoughtful and considerate lover.
  
• I was an extra in Patch Adams.
  

If the correct answer jumps out at you, then perhaps you should consider a career in the intelligence services. Or you're my ex-girlfriend. Good luck!

Labels: movies