How do you get information
from someone who wants
to keep it from you?
Somewhere locked
inside their brain
could be the truth
about a crime
or the plan
for a t*rror1st att*ck
or the password
to a bank account
or nuclear codes.
To get information,
we often resort to v*olence,
but that often doesn't work
and can cause a person
to close off even more.
But that's not to say
there aren't other ways
of getting people to talk
or even of getting their brains
to talk for them.
In this episode,
I'm going to be injected
with a truth serum.
I'm going to coerce people
into giving false confessions,
and I'm going to try
to hide the truth
from a mind-reading machine.
What's the best way
to get the truth
or detect a lie?
Let's see if anybody
can dig out the secrets
I've got locked up in my head.
[theme music playing]
[siren wailing]
[indistinct radio chatter]
It's a classic scene
in spy movies.
Someone captures someone
they want information from,
they inject them
with truth serum,
and the person spills
all their secrets.
The serum used in almost
all of these movies
is Sodium Pentothal,
which is an actual drug
that inhibits brain activity.
It was first used
as a painkiller,
but was found to work better
as an anti-anxiety drug.
It dulls your thoughts,
making it harder
to perform cognitive tasks,
including the task
of making up a lie.
The use of truth serums
began in 1915
when Dr. Robert House,
a physician in Texas,
realized that scopolamine,
a drug given to women
during childbirth,
had the effect
of getting them to talk
without reservation.
Another drug, midazolam,
has been used to treat
Iraq w*r burn victims
who suffer from PTSD.
Midazolam helps reduce
their inhibitions,
allowing them
to talk more freely
about their experiences.
Midazolam is also
one of the dr*gs used
in lethal injections,
including several
botched executions.
I arranged to be injected
with midazolam
to see if it could make me
spill my guts.
[music playing]
[cars revving]
[Dr. Malek]
This is the midazolam,
the medicine
we are going to use.
This is enough
to put an elephant to sleep.
So we'll have to make it
very, very, very dilute
and then give you
very, very small amount
- of the diluted drug.
- Please, yes.
You will be
comfortable and happy.
It's euphoric.
You will feel very cool.
But I also wanna
keep some secrets.
That is--
it remains
to be determined.
Okay. Michael, um, we'll
introduce you to Dr. Pavlo.
- Hi.
- [Michael] Nice to meet you.
[Dr. Pavlo]
How are you doing?
- Good.
- [Michael] Dr. Pavlo
is a police psychologist
and an expert
in interrogations.
[Dr. Pavlo]
Have you started the drip yet?
[Dr. Malek]
Uh, we would like to start
with the amount
of one, uh, milligram.
[Michael] Dr. Pavlo's objective
was to get me to admit
to certain information,
one, that my sister's name
is Melissa
and, two,
that my job is hosting
Mind Field and Vsauce.
My objective--
not to admit the truth.
Are you feeling
more relaxed in your body?
I'm feeling warm
all over.
It's amazing how quickly
this came into effect.
Let me just ask you
a couple of basic questions.
- I love to.
- [Dr. Pavlo] Okay.
Where are you?
- What town? What city?
- Uh, Pasadena.
How old are you?
- Thirty-one.
- Do you have any siblings?
Uh, yeah.
How old
is your sister, Melissa?
[chuckles]
Uh,
That-- That's not her name.
- Um...
- [Dr. Pavlo]
What do you do for a living?
I am
a choreographer by trade.
- Um...
- [Dr. Pavlo]
What might be something
I'm familiar with that you did?
[Michael] Have you heard
of, um, The Lion King?
- Yes.
- On Broadway?
[Dr. Pavlo] I have.
I think he needs
an extra dose.
- Absolutely.
- [laughing]
- That means I got them right.
- [Dr. Pavlo]
You are too sharp.
[Michael] How much
have I had total so far?
[Dr. Malek] Two milligrams.
[Dr. Pavlo]
Question for you.
How do you feel now?
I feel like in order
to feel like this,
I would have had
to have had...
six drinks.
[Dr. Pavlo]
Tell me about Mind Field.
- Mine field?
- [Dr. Pavlo] Yeah.
[music playing]
Mine field?
Uh, they're--
they're terrible.
There are places
that we've got mines
still littered throughout
the, um, the land,
Cambodia, Vietnam.
You know, I think
you misinterpreted my question.
YouTube show Mind Field
that you host.
Tell me about that.
Scientific?
I am somewhat familiar with it.
- [clears throat]
- Can he get another dose?
Okay. We're just gonna
get you even more relaxed.
Tell me your occupation.
I'm a choreographer.
And siblings?
I have a sibling
in, uh, Colorado.
[Dr. Pavlo]
What's your favorite food?
[Michael] Uh, rotisserie,
uh, Greek doner.
Does your sister Melissa
like that, too?
She'll eat the meat by itself.
[bell dings]
Trying to get Michael to admit
that he has a sister,
Melissa, was no easy feat.
Luckily,
he was anesthetized enough
and did admit that
he has a sister, Melissa.
You ever think about being
an uncle or a father yourself?
Do you want children?
Ah, I would love
to have children, yeah.
My-- my wife and I are trying,
but I'm always doing stuff
like this, you know.
- [Dr. Pavlo] Yeah, yeah.
- It's like, "Hey, honey,
do you wanna make
a little, uh, baby?"
And I'm like,
I got to go [sighs]
get interrogated
and pumped
full of midazolam.
Are you gonna
give him anymore?
Yeah, because I--
He's not sedated enough.
[Michael]
I could do another one.
[Dr. Malek] This would probably
the last dose I wanna give him.
[Dr. Pavlo] Yes.
Do most people
at this dose fall asleep?
Oh, yeah.
[yawns]
How you doing, Michael?
Good.
Feeling a little bit
more tired now?
Yeah, heavy.
And who's the president?
President P--
President Tr*mp.
[Dr. Pavlo]
President Tr*mp. Where are we?
What city are we in?
Yo, Pasadena.
Which show do you like
to do more,
Mind Field or Vsauce?
Which one
do you enjoy more?
[yawns] Vsauce.
[Dr. Pavlo] Vsauce?
- Yeah.
- Why?
Because they can be
whatever I want them to be,
and there's no
executive in control.
By the way, my eyes
were closed, weren't they?
- Uh-huh.
- [Michael] And I didn't realize
that you were still a real
person asking me questions.
I think had it
not have been for the drug,
there's no way he would
have admitted anything.
Before, you were pretending
to be a choreographer,
weren't you?
No, it's the dr*gs,
but I really am
a choreographer.
[Dr. Pavlo]
After a few minutes,
he got right back on track.
He's very strong-willed
and really believes
in what he's doing
and was able
to maintain the charade.
Okay. You're done.
How do you feel?
Uh,
I feel ready to drive.
- [laughs]
- Just kidding.
[Michael] While midazolam
lowered my inhibitions
and my ability
to lie consistently,
truth serums raise
ethical concerns
about one's right
against self-incrimination.
Furthermore, larger scale
studies have shown
that truth serums
can cause people
to reconstruct
and fabricate memories.
So, truth serums
are not very reliable,
but what about the techniques
used by the police?
[music playing]
I'm gonna tear you apart
if you don't give us
some answers.
Michael,
let me take a sh*t at this.
Look, we're all friends here.
If I was in your shoes,
I'd probably do the same thing.
You're being too easy
on this, scum.
Your fingerprints are
all over the crime scene.
You make me sick.
Michael,
if you get him too scared,
he'll shut down.
We only wanna scare him enough.
That's right.
And after I do that,
he's gonna
give you relief,
and then we'll do that
over and over and over again.
You're gonna be taken on
an emotional roller coaster
that will
deplete the finite
cognitive resources
you'll need to keep
withholding information.
All right.
I confess.
It really does work.
You see, at one moment,
I'm terrified
but then I'm comforted.
The constant shifting
from one emotion to another
fogs my critical thinking
until I might confess to a crime
I didn't even commit.
It's called
the fear-then-relief response.
[siren wailing]
The good cop/bad cop method
of interrogation
evolved out of a psychological
manipulation procedure
called the Reid technique,
developed in the 1950s
and used broadly
by police departments
since the 1970s.
Now, under the Reid technique,
interrogators first assess
whether a suspect
is withholding the truth.
If they think
the suspect is lying,
interrogators then move
to the second stage
in which they seek a confession.
Now, critics
of the Reid technique say
that the first phase
isn't reliable enough,
and that often,
someone who is
completely innocent
makes it to the second stage
where it's assumed
they're guilty
and police begin
seeking a confession.
And they often get it.
But why would anyone
falsely confess?
Well, to find out,
I decided to learn
how to make someone confess
to a crime they didn't commit.
[music playing]
[Michael] Dr. Melissa Russano
is an expert
in investigative research,
including the process
of interrogation
and confession.
Tell me about
false confessions
and why people make them.
In a nutshell,
people confess to crimes
that they didn't commit
because they come to believe
that it's in their best interest
to falsely confess,
and that's really
counterintuitive.
Right, because confessing
is the worst thing
to do, right?
Like that's what you need
to avoid at all costs.
Yes, when you're not
in the situation
of being convinced that
it's actually your best option.
But that's kind of
what I wanna do today.
I wanna see how easy it is
to get a false
confession from someone.
How do I do that?
[Dr. Russano] One way
is minimization techniques.
You've got
to get them to believe
that their best option
out of this situation
to make this end
is to confess.
You can say,
"Look, I really think
it's in your
best interest to cooperate."
There are
other techniques as well
- like maximization, right?
- [Michael] Okay.
So they have
to believe that
if they don't confess,
things are gonna be worse,
um, that the punishment
will likely be more severe,
and so their best option
in the moment is to--
is to confess to you.
One other technique
is befriending them,
um, where you're
lulling the suspect
into a false
sense of security
to trust you.
What about making a deal?
So police officers
are not allowed
to, um, make explicit offers
of leniency or a deal.
So you cannot make
any promises,
but you can say,
"Look, I really think
it's in your best interest
to cooperate."
You don't have
to explicitly say something
for the message
to be communicated.
[Michael]
With Melissa's tools in mind,
I was ready to try to get
a false confession.
- [woman] All right.
- [Michael]
Our subjects answered
our online ad
offering participants $75
to test a new logic exam
for an educational institution.
They didn't realize
that the institution was fake
and the other participants
taking the test
were actually actors
working for us.
[woman] It's a pretty
standard release form.
[Michael] Before the test,
the participants were required
to sign a document
stating that they would be
under breach of contract
if they cheated on the test.
When you work
on the individual questions,
it's very important
that you work alone.
Don't talk about
what you're doing,
don't share answers.
Good luck.
See you soon.
[Michael] The subjects didn't
know that there were several
hidden cameras around
and that we were watching
everything unfold
from another room.
During the testing,
the participants and our actors
did not share information.
At no time
did cheating take place.
I'm gonna collect these
and put them in the database,
and I'll be right back
to start the next phase,
okay, guys?
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
[Michael] I wore an earpiece
so that Melissa could guide me
during the entire process.
A few minutes later,
it was time
to set up a false accusation.
So, we actually
might have a problem.
Um, I'll need to speak
to each of you separately.
So, James, could you
come with me just outside?
- Sure.
- I'll take these now.
Thank you.
And, um, Nicole,
you can
just wait right here?
- Awesome. Thank you.
- Mm-hmm.
You got to give them
enough time to plausibly
- be talking to you.
- Believe that
I'm talking to him.
And calling the director.
- Hi, Nicole.
- Hello.
You and James both had
the same wrong answer
for the triangle problem.
It looks to me like
there was information sharing.
Like, you guys spoke
to one another about the answer
- on that problem?
- I didn't-- I didn't do it.
We didn't talk at all
on the individual problems.
I kept my eyes on my paper
because I knew
that would probably
throw off the results.
If I just write out here,
like,
"I admit
that I shared answers."
I don't remember talking
to him at all about,
- like, while we're doing
the individual...
- Okay.
[Michael]
First I tried to minimize
the consequences of confessing.
I really think
it's in your best interest.
I really think it's
in your best interest
to sign this stating
that you admit
to sharing the information.
I honestly believe
that that is...
But I did not--
Look, I don't know
what's going on here.
I really--
that's-- I don't know.
- I came here to help.
- I understand
what you're saying and...
And I never said,
like, "Hey, there's..."
- Megan...
- Please let me finish,
because I don't appreciate,
like, over-talking and stuff.
[Michael] I think I may have
come on too aggressively.
Next, I tried to maximize
the consequences
of not confessing.
What we're looking at
is-- is possible
breach of contract here.
If he comes down here,
he's going to be
a lot more upset.
If the director
has to come down here,
he's gonna be
even more upset
and annoyed
than he already is.
- It did not happen.
- [Michael] Okay.
And I-- my--
I put that on my dad,
and I have my dad
around my neck, so...
[Michael] Some people
were just too strong-willed.
Finally, I tried
to befriend the suspect.
I also understand
you're a nice guy
and, like, sharing information
or helping someone
with a problem
is the nice thing to do.
It's what we normally do.
But I didn't share
any information,
so I can't sign
that document.
[Michael] But this guy
didn't want to be my friend.
I struck out with all
of these test subjects.
But after these
failed attempts,
I was ready to put
everything I had learned
into the next encounter.
Is there a strategy
I should use?
I think that
you should proceed
with making sure that you're
not overly confrontational.
- Yeah.
- And making sure that she
sees you as someone
who she can trust
your advice,
and so I would--
I would proceed
with that kind of approach.
Okay. I'm going in.
Thanks for waiting.
- No problem.
- So...
I think we do have a problem.
I was looking through
your individual questionnaires.
- [Deja] Mm-hmm.
- And you guys both had
the same wrong answer
on the triangle problem.
- Really?
- So, it was kind of
this weird, like,
okay, what's going on?
Like, statistically,
what are the chances
that two people are gonna have
these very unique answers?
[Deja] Mm-hmm.
So, I called
the project director
to see what to do
because if, you know,
this is a sign
that information were shared
during the individual section,
that's a major problem
for the study, right?
We didn't look
at each other's stuff.
That was like--
We were, like, on--
Like, we didn't ask
each other anything,
we didn't,
like, you know...
We didn't talk to each other
the whole entire time.
So I don't know how
we got the same answer.
But I'm, like, a hundred
percent sure that that was,
like, the answer
that I came up with.
[Michael] Deja was resolute
about her innocence,
so I changed tactics and
told her what the consequences
of sharing information
could be.
And that's a really big deal
because through this grant,
we need to have
integrity of the data,
we need to always obey
the rules of the experiment,
and it could even be
a breach of the contract
that you guys signed
when you came to do this study.
- Okay.
- [Michael] Deja now knows
the stakes that are involved.
My job is to convince her
that I have her best interest
at heart.
I have to call
the director back, right?
And I could either tell him
I don't know what's going on,
we can't proceed, like,
- you need to come down here.
- Mm-hmm.
I don't know
who he's going to involve.
- The easier...
- I don't think any sharing
was involved, though.
All I know is that I can't
explain what happened.
- Okay.
- The easier option
is to just document that,
um, information was shared.
- Okay.
- Okay? So, if I write out,
um, you know,
"I admit
that I shared,
uh, the answer..."
- But we didn't.
- [Michael]
"...to the triangle..."
Is that crazy to say
that we didn't
share answers, though?
Because I'm like,
I don't know
what he's saying
or if he said that
he looked at my answer
or we didn't.
[Michael]
Deja wasn't quite convinced.
So the next tactic
was to minimize
the impact of confessing.
I don't know
exactly how it happened.
I just know that
we've got to figure out
the best way forward.
- This is so weird.
- I don't know exactly
how it happened.
It looks like
information sharing.
- If you just tell us
that that happened...
- Say that?
...then what we can do is
I can call the director back
and say that you guys
are cooperating
- and I know him.
- Mm-hmm.
- [Michael]
That's the best thing.
- Okay.
I mean, it's not true
but I'll sign it.
Okay. If you sign
and date it,
I can go and call him back,
and I'll try to get you
out of here.
Okay.
It's very weird,
but...
Okay.
- Thank you very much, Deja.
- You're welcome.
I will be--
I'll be right back.
- Okay.
- Thanks for your patience.
No problem.
So you did an excellent job
of communicating to her
that it was
in her best interest,
that the best way
out of this situation
was to confess.
But it feels so bad.
- Of course.
- I mean, she knows
the seriousness.
She knows
that it's a lie.
I mean, I didn't cheat.
I did not cheat.
Those were
all my answers.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Okay. Uh,
this concludes the study.
I'm gonna give you
a debrief now,
uh, to tell you
about what we're studying.
- Okay.
- So, first of all,
you're not in trouble.
Okay.
The other guy here
works for us.
- [Deja] Okay.
- This is not a study
of logic problems,
it's a study of interrogation
and false confessions.
Mm-hmm.
Good one.
You falsely confessed today.
Mm-hmm. I see that.
How do you feel?
I feel mad at myself
because I'm usually
the one who, like,
you know, just...
sticks to what,
you know, what's right.
I try to, at least.
So, what happened today?
It was just scary, I guess,
because it's an environment
I've never been in before
and then just, like,
all the pressure.
It was just like,
"Uh, well, I guess,
I should just sign it
and say that I did it."
[Michael] Despite knowing
she was innocent
and knowing she was admitting
to breaching a contract,
Deja signed a confession
that in a true criminal case
could be used as evidence
in a trial against her.
Imagine if
there were consequences
- and this
was a real crime...
- Mm-hmm.
...how easy it is
to get someone to confess
to something without
even punching them
or waterboarding them,
just being nice
and tell them that
it's in their best interest.
Yeah.
That's messed up, actually.
- [Michael] Isn't it?
- That's really crazy.
'Cause there's a lot
of people in prison
for crimes they didn't do.
[music playing]
[Michael]
The Innocence Project,
an organization dedicated
to uncovering
miscarriages of justice,
estimates that 20,000 people
are currently falsely
imprisoned in the U.S.
The number one cause
is faulty eyewitness testimony,
and the number two cause,
false confession.
Interrogation techniques
are unreliable.
They can fail to produce
truthful information
from suspects
who are good at lying,
and, perhaps worse,
they can manipulate
innocent suspects
to confess crimes
they've never committed.
But neuroscientists
may have discovered a method
for extracting the truth
that's impervious
to good liars
and bad interrogators.
Dr. Peter Rosenfeld
and his team
at Northwestern University,
including Ph.D. candidate
Anne Ward,
have developed
a high-tech method
for lie detection.
You guys brought
with you today
a P300-based
concealed information test.
How does that work
and how is it different
than a polygraph
or traditional
verbal-only
interrogation techniques?
Well, we're looking at,
um, physiological responses
of the brain
in response to information
that's presented.
And if the information
is meaningful,
like the m*rder w*apon
that a guilty person used,
he will recognize it,
and there's
a brain signature to it.
And so, the machine
that we brought with us
is basically an EEG machine.
So the way my brain,
your brain,
all of our brains
respond to things
that are meaningful
that we recognize is different
than the way it responds
to novel meaningless things?
- Right.
- Has this been used
in a court?
Has it been used
by a prosecution?
Not in court,
There are some
Fifth Amendment issues
as far as betraying,
um, yourself,
based on your brain waves.
But you could use it
for witnesses,
or you could use it
within companies
that are already using
polygraph methods.
Okay. Well, I'm excited
to see this in action.
I'm gonna step out,
you guys are gonna prepare
the first test.
- Okay.
- Excellent. All right.
See you soon.
Okay.
We're ready
for the test.
Thank you
for joining me.
Hannah from Vsauce,
Wren from Corridor Digital.
So, one of us today
is going to be a thief.
[Michael] Per Dr. Rosenfeld's
instructions,
we randomly determined
who would be the thief
by seeing whoever
drew the green chip.
Three, two, one.
- [gasps]
- Hannah's the thief.
Oh, my God. I knew it.
[Michael]
So, Hannah, go on in.
- Look at the item.
- [Hannah] Okay.
[Michael]
In this real-world scenario
designed by Dr. Rosenfeld,
the designated thief
actually takes the item,
handles it,
and gets a good look at it.
This activity causes the item
to register
in the subject's mind,
so they can't help
but recognize it later.
The other subjects
are also required
to enter the room and sign in
to prove they were there.
But never get a look
at the stolen item.
And, of course, Dr. Rosenfeld
and Anne have no idea
who the thief is.
Then each of us is tested.
Go ahead
and take a seat here
- and we'll get you all set up.
- Okay.
Basically, I'm just gonna
put a couple electrodes
behind your ears
and a couple on your face,
and then, um,
the EEG cap on your head.
What you're gonna do
is you're gonna use
these two mice
in front of you...
- Mm-hmm.
- ...to respond to the images
that you see on the screen.
So you'll see an image,
a string of numbers,
an image,
a string of numbers.
Anytime you see an image,
no matter what it is,
you're gonna
press this button.
All right. Are you ready?
[music playing]
[Michael]
The images we were shown
contained a variety
of jewelry items,
including the stolen one.
Of course, Wren and I
hadn't seen any of them before.
[music playing]
Hannah didn't consciously react
to any of them.
But would her brain waves
reveal
the one item she recognizes?
It was time for the results.
So here we are.
Have you reached
a conclusion?
Well, based on what we know,
and we know that
the stolen item was a watch.
And so we looked
at the brain waves
in response to the watch
in comparison
to the brain waves
in response
to other things.
And, uh, we have
two average brain waves,
uh, or event-related
potentials in each frame.
The black one
is the average
brain wave response
to the watch.
The red trace there
is the response
to the other stimuli
all averaged together.
We look for
the peak-to-peak difference,
the peak down here,
versus the highest peak
following this peak.
And we measure that,
and it's rather obvious
that the biggest response
we found was,
uh, Hannah's.
Wow.
[Dr. Rosenfeld]
And interesting thing, Michael,
is that you had
a special response
to the watch in comparison
to the other items.
That would suggest
that there's something special
about that stimulus, the watch,
that is meaningful to you.
Is it?
I collect watches.
I have about 40 or 50
of them.
But Hannah might not have
that kind of excuse.
I don't have
that many watches.
And out of three of you,
she definitely has
the biggest response.
So off to jail.
[music playing]
[Michael] The P300
concealed information test
correctly identified
which one of us was a thief.
But in this next test,
I will be the only suspect,
and they will know
that I've stolen something.
But the question will be,
what did I steal?
Inside this room
are seven boxes,
and inside those boxes
are seven different items
that I've never seen.
My task is to open only one box
at random and steal that item.
All right.
We've got a...
a camouflage hat.
And that's not all.
During this next test,
I will be implementing
countermeasures
to try to outsmart the test.
I will think
a very strong thought
every time something comes up
that's irrelevant.
Will that enable me
to create brain waves
powerful and dramatic enough
to not be distinguishable
from my response
to the actual item
I'm trying to conceal?
- Anne.
- [Anne] Hello. Welcome back.
I, uh, committed a crime.
[Michael] Wish me luck,
because this time,
there will be punishments
like in the real world
where getting caught in a lie
can have consequences.
And my friend Adam Savage
was happy to advise me
on my punishment.
- Adam.
- Michael.
I am going to be taking
an EEG lie detection test.
- Okay.
- If I lose,
- there need to be stakes.
- Yeah.
- Okay?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Naturally, I thought
of Chinese water t*rture,
which as you know
from personal experience,
is when someone is restrained
while water is dripped
on their forehead.
And then right after that,
I thought, I know just the guy
- to talk to about this.
- Okay.
Because I--
I want it to be
actually something
that I'm fearing and dreading.
So, yeah,
we did an episode
on Chinese water t*rture
on Mythbusters,
and the creepiest thing
that happened
after we did this episode
was that I got an email
from someone
from a throwaway account.
He said,
"We found that randomizing
when the drops occurred
was incredibly effective."
That anything that happens
on a regular periodicity
can become a type
of meditation,
and you can then
tune it out.
If you couldn't predict it,
you're-- he said,
"We found, we were able
to induce a psychotic break
within 20 hours."
Sounds like
the stakes that I want.
- All right.
- Thanks.
You're welcome, sir.
[Michael]
So now, under the thr*at
of Chinese water t*rture,
I was extra motivated
to b*at the lie detector.
[music playing]
[Anne] All right.
That is it.
I was trying
to think about all kinds
of frightening scenarios,
I was trying
to tense up to make sure
I was really uncomfortable
the way I was sitting.
Well, for most tests,
that would work.
But we will take a look
at this data and see...
- [Michael] Yes, we will.
- ...what it shows.
[sighs]
Wow. Okay.
I don't think they're going
to be able to figure out
what item I stole.
I really kept my mind active.
I was going crazy
with countermeasures.
I was sitting uncomfortably,
I was thinking about
all kinds of really
crazy things.
I was thinking about like,
"What if I have
diarrhea right now?
How would that feel?
How do I hold it back?
And maybe I do have diarrhea."
All these things
that were sort of physical
in nature as well.
I thought a lot about death
and dying
and being dismembered.
And if they can get it right,
I would probably blame
witchcraft as well as science.
[Dr. Rosenfeld] Well, it's--
I would say that's it.
Yeah, okay.
[Dr. Rosenfeld] We're ready
to give him our best guess.
Hello.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- [Michael] Are you guys ready?
- Yup.
Let me ask you this.
First of all,
how confident do you feel?
Pretty confident.
What did I take?
The camo hat.
- Camo hat.
- Camo hat?
Yeah.
[music playing]
[Michael]
That's impressive.
Did you see any evidence
of countermeasures being used?
Not something I would swear to.
Even while
I was doing the test,
I thought, you know what?
I'm reacting too quickly
to the actual item.
I should also treat it
as though it's irrelevant.
I should treat them
all the same.
[Dr. Rosenfeld]
If you are consistently
reacting to all
of the irrelevance
with their specific
countermeasure responses
that you formed
in your mind,
they should produce
bigger P300s also.
But the biggest will still be
produced by the camo hat,
even if you were
countering it also.
That means
I now have to be punished.
[music playing]
Science is improving
in its ability
to read people's minds.
And that raises some
difficult ethical dilemmas.
We would have nothing to fear
from perfect lie detectors
if the people using them
had perfect morals.
So, the prospect of a
scientifically rigorous method
of extracting information,
while exciting,
is also terrifying.
As we continue to probe
interrogation methods
scientifically,
we have to also continue
to probe them ethically.
You know, Chinese water t*rture
isn't even Chinese.
Its earliest description
comes from Italy
in the 15th century.
And the Chinese name
was added later
to make it sound
more mysterious.
Oh, man, these irregular drops
are supposed to drive you
slowly insane.
You know, I think
this is a lot less
about getting information
and more about punishment.
And as always,
thanks for watching.
[theme music playing]
02x03 - Interrogation
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"Mind Field" takes a journey into the mysterious depths of the human psyche and investigates the strange and surprising terrain of the Mind Field.
"Mind Field" takes a journey into the mysterious depths of the human psyche and investigates the strange and surprising terrain of the Mind Field.