--- title: The Computer Can Tell When You’re Faking It description: Pain, that is canonical: https://time.com/32356/computer-faking-pain/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-20T18:25:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:52:52.755Z article:section: Health og:title: The Computer Can Tell When You’re Faking It og:description: Pain, that is og:url: https://time.com/32356/computer-faking-pain/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76e65cf7acdc6505/69868670cd68487cdd093b28/70478_web.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 400 og:image:height: 225 og:image:alt: 70478_web og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Computer Can Tell When You’re Faking It twitter:description: Pain, that is twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76e65cf7acdc6505/69868670cd68487cdd093b28/70478_web.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Computer Can Tell When You're Faking It > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Mar 20, 2014 6:25 PM UTC  Kang Lee, Marian Bartlett by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Mar 20, 2014 6:25 PM UTC Researchers from the University of California San Diego and the University of Toronto have designed a sophisticated computer that can tell when someone is faking facial expressions of pain with 85% accuracy, outmatching humans’ ability to do so. To test the computer, the research team had 25 volunteers record two videos each. The first video recorded the volunteers’ expressions while one of their arms was in ice water for a minute, and the second video recorded the subjects pretending to be in pain while their arm was actually in warm water. The researchers then had 170 people watch the videos and asked them to guess which video showed real pain and which video showed a fake response. The participants did no better than random chance. Even when they were trained on how to spot real and fake emotion in the videos, they only reached 55% accuracy. But the computer guessed correctly 85% of the time. “In highly social species such as humans, faces have evolved to convey rich information, including expressions of emotion and pain. And, because of the way our brains are built, people can simulate emotions they’re not actually experiencing – so successfully that they fool other people. The computer is much better at spotting the subtle differences between involuntary and voluntary facial movements,” said study author Kang Lee, a professor at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study at the University of Toronto [in a statement](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub%5Freleases/2014-03/uoc--cts031714.php). The researchers, whose work is published in the journal _Current Biology,_ hope their technology could one day be applied in fields such as homeland security, job screening and law. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/32356/computer-faking-pain/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/32356/computer-faking-pain/"},"headline":"The Computer Can Tell When You're Faking It","datePublished":"2014-03-20T18:25:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:52:52.755Z","description":"Pain, that is","url":"https://time.com/32356/computer-faking-pain/","keywords":["Technology","Pain"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76e65cf7acdc6505/69868670cd68487cdd093b28/70478_web.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt76e65cf7acdc6505/69868670cd68487cdd093b28/70478_web.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"70478_web","caption":"","creditText":"Kang Lee, Marian Bartlett","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/technology/","name":"Technology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/32356/computer-faking-pain/","name":"The Computer Can Tell When You're Faking It"}}]}] ```