小木偶匹诺曹一说谎鼻子就会变长，这只是个童话，但是西班牙的一项惊人发现指出，说谎真的能改变鼻子大小，只不过不是变长，而是变小。这是什么回事呢？

Pinocchio may be just a children’s fairy tale, but Spanish scientists at the University of Granada recently investigated the so-called ‘Pinocchio effect’ and found that our noses don’t grow when we tell a lie, but actually shrink a bit.

《匹诺曹》也许只是一个讲给孩子听的童话，不过，西班牙格拉纳达大学的科学家最近确实研究了所谓的“匹诺曹效应”，结果发现，我们在说谎时鼻子不会变大，而是会缩小一点。

Dr Emilio Gómez Milán and his team developed a lie detector test that used thermography to tell if people were lying, and found that whenever participants in their research were being untruthful, the temperature of the tip of their nose dropped up to 1.2 degrees Celsius, while the temperature of their forehead increased up to 1.5C. Scientist also found that drop in temperature at nose level actually caused it to slightly shrink, although the difference is undetected by the human eye.

埃米利奥·戈麦斯·米兰博士和他的团队研发出一种测谎试验，用热成像仪来判断人们是否在说谎，结果发现只要参与者一说谎，鼻尖的温度就会下降多达1.2摄氏度，而前额温度会上升多达1.5摄氏度。科学家还发现，鼻尖温度的下降会导致鼻尖略微缩小，不过这种差别是人的肉眼所无法察觉到的。

"One has to think in order to lie, which rises the temperature of the forehead,” Dr. Gómez Milán explained the findings. “At the same time we feel anxious, which lowers the temperature of the nose.”

戈麦斯·米兰博士在解释研究结果时说：“一个人在说谎前要先想一想，这会导致前额温度升高。与此同时我们又感到焦虑，这会降低鼻尖的温度。”

For this study, researchers asked a number of 60 students to perform various tasks while being scanned by thermal imaging technology. One of these tasks involved calling a 3 to 4 minutes call to their parents, partner or a friend and telling a significant lie. Participants had to devise the lie themselves during the call, and the thermal cameras picked up this ‘reverse Pinocchio effect’ caused by the fluctuation in temperature in the nose and forehead.

在研究中，研究人员请60个学生在接受热成像技术扫描期间执行了多项任务。其中一项任务就是给父母、伴侣或朋友打3-4分钟电话，说一个大谎。参与者在打电话过程中要自己编谎话。于是研究人员就通过热成像摄影机捕捉到了鼻子和前额温度波动引发的“反匹诺曹效应” 。

Interestingly, the thermal lie detector picked up the temperature difference in 80 percent of test subjects, which is a better rate of success than that of any modern lie detector.

有趣的是，热成像测谎仪捕捉住了80%的测试对象的温度差异，成功率比任何一种现代测谎仪都高。

"With this method we have achieved to increase accuracy and reduce the occurrence of “false positives”, something that is frequent with other methods such as the polygraph,” said Dr. Emilio Gómez Milán, who added that law enforcement interviewers could one day combine other lie detection technology with thermal imaging to achieve better results.

埃米利奥·戈麦斯·米兰博士说：“用这种方法我们提高了测谎准确率，降低了误报的发生率，而用测谎器等方法经常会出现误报。”他还说，执法部门负责审讯的官员有一天将能把热成像技术和其他测谎技术结合起来以达到更准确的结果。

The thermal lie detector has been dubbed the most reliable in the world, 10% more so than the popular polygraph.

热成像测谎仪被称为世界上最可靠的测谎设备，比普遍使用的测谎器准确率要高出10%。