What I've dedicated my life to is revenge.

A brand new drama based on the best-selling novel.

They think they're better than us.

Who do you think you are?

I'm going to prove to them that they're wrong.

She's punishing me.

You destroyed my family.

I will not rest until I've destroyed yours.

A Woman of Substance on Channel 4 starts tonight at 9.

... A woman of substance on Channel 4 starts tonight at 9.

For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Kendra Pluis, in for Rachel Feldman. The Global Reality TV show franchise The Traders has a simple premise.

Among a cast of, say, 23 people, roughly 20 are faithfuls and about three are traitors. The job of the traders is to lie,

so they remain undetected. The job of the faithfuls is to suss them out. All of that led

Siams breaking news reporter Jackie Flynn Mogensen to wonder, what does science have to tell us

about how to spot liars? And what can it tell us about how to be more effective liars?

She recently wrote about all this and is here to spill the deeps. But before we get started, if you're interested in the current U.S. season of the traders and haven't seen it, be warned, there will be spoilers. Hi, Jackie. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. So for those who haven't seen the show, can you tell us a little bit about what Traders is?

Yes. So Traders is essentially a reality TV game show that is a lot like the party game

mafia, if you've ever played it, where there is a group of traders within the group and everyone

else are faithfuls.

The goal for the faithfuls is to vote out the traders, and the goal of the traders is to pretend

to be faithful for the length of the game.

And the cast, it's usually for the U.S. version, a cast of celebrities, reality TV stars, Olympic athletes, actors, etc.

...