Leanne ten Brinke
Psychologist, director of the Truth and Trust Lab at the University of British Columbia, and author of Poisonous People
Leanne ten Brinke (Psychologist, director of the Truth and Trust Lab at the University of British Columbia, and author of Poisonous People) has appeared as a guest on 1 episode in TMT. Topics they speak about most include Deception detection, Psychopathy and leadership, Psychopathy.
In their words
Positions and remarks grouped by topic, each with the exact quote and where it was said.
Deception detection
Ten Brinke reported that people feel less close to conversation partners who lie to them, even without suspicion.
“we keep finding these pretty small but consistent effects that people feel less close to their interaction partner when someone is lying to them”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 52:26
Ten Brinke said simply judging how verifiable a statement is beats trying to combine many unreliable cues.
“it is better to focus on one cue that works than to try to put together all of these little cues that mostly don't work at all”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 19:32
Ten Brinke argued that learning to ask good, unanticipated questions is an essential tool for detecting lies.
“learning how to ask good questions is actually a really kind of essential tool for detecting lies”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 15:30
Ten Brinke said people detect lies at only about 54% accuracy on average.
“People are not very good at detecting these lies or really any kind of lies. On average, people perform at about 54% accuracy”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 14:31
Ten Brinke said the most consistent difference between liars and truth tellers is that liars give fewer details.
“the most consistent effect we have that differentiates people who are telling the truth from people who are lying is the amount of detail that they give”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 10:10
Ten Brinke reported that four cues predicted with about 90% accuracy which TV pleaders were lying, though a later replication found more modest effects.
“we were able to use four different cues, so two verbal and two nonverbal, to predict with about 90% accuracy who was lying”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 9:02
Psychopathy and leadership
Ten Brinke argued it is a lie that success requires looking out for number one and displaying dark traits.
“one great lie we've all been told is that to be successful, you have to be in it for number one”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:41:29
Ten Brinke argued that narcissists seem like leaders because people confuse confidence with competence.
“the thing that can make narcissism look good at the outset is our confusion of confidence and competence”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:04:23
Ten Brinke said her research with Dacher Keltner found psychopathy was linked to less government influence and lower hedge fund earnings.
“consistently, we found that high levels of psychopathy was associated with less influence in government. It was also associated with making less money as a hedge fund manager”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:02:12
Psychopathy
Ten Brinke said offenders with clinical psychopathy, about 1% of the population, account for about half of serious crime.
“offenders with clinical levels of psychopathy account for about 50% of all serious crime”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:40:31
Ten Brinke recommended rewarding good behavior in people with psychopathic traits because they are reward-sensitive but not punishment-sensitive.
“people, particularly with high levels of psychopathy, very reward sensitive, but not very punishment sensitive”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:25:09
Ten Brinke said research shows people can get a kernel of truth about how psychopathic someone is in about five seconds.
“you can get a kernel of truth about someone's personality, the extent to which they're psychopathic, in about five seconds”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 4:17
Dark Tetrad
Ten Brinke cited research showing people with dark traits obtained better deals in face-to-face negotiations than over text, advising text-based negotiation.
“whenever those negotiations occurred face-to-face, the person with the high level of psychopathic traits or any of these dark traits, they got a really good deal”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:34:24
Ten Brinke said about 10% of people on average agree with self-report items measuring dark traits.
“if you just look at the people who on average agree with the items that we use to self-report, assess these traits, it's about 10 percent of the population”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 36:38
Parenting and personality development
Ten Brinke said early intervention training parents in warm, responsive parenting can reduce development of psychopathic traits in children.
“early intervention with kids is. really can help reduce the likelihood of them developing high levels of psychopathic traits as they grow older”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 41:46
Ten Brinke said variation in psychopathy and narcissism is about half genetic and half environmental.
“the variation in someone's score on that personality trait is about 50% genetic and about 50% environmental”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 38:26
Gaslighting
Ten Brinke defined gaslighting as a pattern of denying someone's version of reality that functions as a control tactic.
“it's a pattern of denying someone's version of reality”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 1:20:36
Narcissism
Ten Brinke argued that dark traits exist on a continuum, so it is more accurate to describe people as having high levels of a trait than labeling them narcissists.
“I think it's more accurate to say they have relatively high levels of narcissism or psychopathy or whatever the case is”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 25:59
Body language
Ten Brinke said there is no research supporting the common belief that sketchy eye contact signals lying.
“They will say sketchy eye contact. And there's no research to suggest that that is true”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett: Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten Brinke (Sep 7, 2026) · Listen from 20:44
Appearances
Human Lie Detector: The #1 Sign They’re Lying To You, Catch Liars Instantly! | Dr Leanne ten BrinkeThe Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett · Sep 7, 2026 · 1 h 44 min
Psychologist Leanne ten Brinke tells Steven Bartlett how to detect lies, explains the Dark Tetrad of personality traits, and offers rules for dealing with toxic people.
Often appears with
- Steven Bartlett · 1 shared episode