History Main / LivingLieDetector

--->'''Toph:''' And stick to the truth. I'll be able to tell if you're lying.\\

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': This is one of the powers Violet's Devil Fruit granted her. Because she can see through people both [[XRayVision literally]] and figuratively, she can easily read people's minds and memories, making it obvious to her when a person is lying.

* ''Manga/BlackClover'': Rhya boasts of being able to tell when someone is lying, which is ironic since [[spoiler:he knew all along that Lemiel never betrayed the elves but kept it to himself so that their hatred would be vindicated]]. When Asta tries to spare Rhya from Mereoleona by stating that they should be able to reach an understanding in spite of everything that has happened, Rhya is shocked when he realizes that Asta is being completely honest, and is reminded of [[spoiler:[[DeadAllAlong the real Licht]]]] while wishing more people were like Asta. Later, when fellow elf Ronne steals the last [[MacGuffin magic stone]] from Yuno and declares that the elves will finally have their vengeance, Rhya immediately realizes that Ronne is lying and asks him to explain the contradiction. [[spoiler:Ronne then [[TorsoWithAView puts a hole in Rhya]] before revealing that the "Ronne" in the room is actually [[DemonicPossession possessed by a devil]], who discards Ronne's body after using the magic stone to summon his real body from the Underworld.]]

* ''Manga/BlackClover'': Rhya boasts of being able to tell when someone is lying, which is ironic since [[spoiler:he knew all along that Lemiel never betrayed the elves but kept it to himself so that their hatred would be vindicated]]. When fellow elf Ronne steals the last [[MacGuffin magic stone]] from Yuno and declares that the elves will finally have their vengeance, Rhya immediately realizes that Ronne is lying and asks him to explain the contradiction. [[spoiler:Ronne then puts a hole in Rhya before revealing that the "Ronne" in the room is actually [[DemonicPossession possessed by a devil]], who then discards Ronne's body and uses the magic stone to summon his real body from the Underworld.]]

** Because vampires are telepathic, they can sense when someone's lying. In the second episode, Lestat de Lioncourt informs his new fledgling Louis de Pointe du Lac (who doesn't yet know how to tap into this skill) that the latter's employee Finn O'Shea is deceiving him.

** Louis can usually access Claudia's thoughts (unless she puts up a PsychicBlockDefense), so in episode 5, he knows her serial killing spree is far worse than how she's trying to depict it.

* In a mini-arc of ''Literature/GoblinSlayer'', a priestess of the Supreme God that Guild Girl employs has an ability called "Sense Lie", which she uses to catch Rhea Scout in some bullshit and allows Guild Girl to suss out that he had been NinjaLooting, keeping a treasure he had earned for himself rather than sharing it with his party and selling it off to get the money for some new boots, earning him a demotion back to Porcelain Rank.

* Biscuit in ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' is a justified instance, due to the Goblins universe being governed by ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' mechanics; Sense Motive (the skill which lets you know when someone is lying) is based on a character's wisdom, and creatures gain a bonus to wisdom as they age. Biscuit, being [[Really700YearsOld over 600 winters old]], has a considerable bonus to his wisdom...

** Louis can usually can access Claudia's thoughts (unless she puts up a PsychicBlockDefense), so he knows her serial killing spree is far worse than how she's trying to depict it.

--->'''Claudia''': ''(pretending to sound feeble)'' I didn't mean harm, a-and the bodies are just preten...\\

* In a mini-arc of ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'', a priestess of the Supreme God that Guild Girl employs has an ability called "Sense Lie", which she uses to catch Rhea Scout in some bullshit and allows Guild Girl to suss out that he had been NinjaLooting, keeping a treasure he had earned for himself rather than sharing it with his party and selling it off to get the money for some new boots, earning him a demotion back to Porcelain Rank.

* Three examples in ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure''.
** In [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]], Terrence D'Arby's Stand works like this: he can read his opponent's soul, allowing him to always know when he's being lied to. He uses this to beat Jotaro and his team at various video games until they figure out the trick: his ability only works on yes-or-no questions. Jotaro manages to defeat him by having Joseph secretly reach into the game console with his Stand Hermit Purple and alter his inputs. Thus when D'Arby asks questions like "Are you going to throw a fastball?" Jotaro's soul might answer "Yes", but Joseph turns it into a curveball instead, completely frustrating D'Arby.
** In [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond is Unbreakable]], Tamami Kobayashi's Stand is the Lock, an EmotionBomb that targets a victim's sense of guilt. Tamami can use it passively to detect if someone feels guilty, helping him find liars and cheaters.
** In [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]] we have Bruno Bucciarati and his [[Memes/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind very memetic]] way of finding out if someone's lying... by licking their sweat. This was famously used on series protagonist Giorno Giovanna in chapter 443 of the manga and episode 1 of the anime ("THIS IS THE TASTE OF A LIAR, GIORNO GIOVANNA!").

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': Akira's ArtificialIntelligence VirtualSidekick Alpha serves as this. As she will be quick to point out, she has a blind spot for a FullConversionCyborg, such as the ConsummateLiar Yajima.

* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' has Clementine, who has a natural talent to discern when people are being dishonest. This foreshadows a crucial moment near the end of Season 1 Episode 4, where she will be able to tell if you lie and be heartbroken if you do so. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption None of the other options lead to a better resolution]].

* ''Series/PokerFace'': According to the trailers, main character Charlie has an innate ability to detect when people are lying.

* Vincent Katherinessen from ''Carnival'' by Creator/ElizabethBear. His lover is a ConsummateLiar.

* ''LightNovel/SpiceAndWolf'': Holo claims that her [[UnusualEars wolf ears]] can tell if a person is lying or not most of the time. Given her lifespan and her inability to track down exactly what was being lied about in the first example, this is probably just a learned skill of knowing what to look for.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': There's a non-superpowered example with Daniel Molloy, who's an ordinary human. Because he's an award-winning investigative journalist, he has spent his entire career detecting inconsistencies and falsehoods, so he's able to read Louis de Pointe du Lac, a 144-year-old vampire, like a book. Daniel swiftly picks up on any holes in the narration, and he challenges Louis about the so-called truth every single time something doesn't add up. Louis may be able to lie to himself, but he can't lie to Daniel, who has zero patience for the former's "bullshit" (as Daniel calls it).

* One of the characters in the medieval RomanceNovel ''Enchanted'' has this ability as long as she's touching the person who's speaking. The heroine Ariane uses this to prove to her husband that she wasn't lying about being raped. He in turn uses it to assure her that he believes her.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode, "The Late Mr. Kent". In it, Clark interviews a man on death row who claims he is innocent. Clark uses his super-hearing to measure the man's heart rate and his super-vision to check the man's eye movement, and both remain steady, indicating that he is telling the truth. However, Superman does not take that as conclusive evidence, but just as something that prompts him to investigate the story further.

* This is, essentially, the role played in courts by ghatti in the ''Ghatti's Tale'' series, to sit in on hearings and speak up (through a telepathically bonded human interpreter) when a witness attempts to lie. They actually had some difficulty understanding the concept of a lie at first, as they are incapable of lying, most likely for the same reason as the Clan in ''Literature/EarthsChildren'', namely, they have a gestural language, in which lying would be impossible.

* ''Lie To Me'' by David Martin: A detective can always tell if someone is lying. He goes to investigate a reported suicide, and doesn't doubt that it was suicide, but is certain that the dead man's young wife is lying when she says that she doesn't know why he did it. [[spoiler:The dead man took it badly when his wife told him that [[SurpriseIncest she was his long-lost daughter]].]]

* In the ''Fever'' series, Christian [=McKeltar=] is born a Lie-detector, a case of BlessedWithSuck and constant annoyance to anyone near him.

* The Trout Of Truth in the ''Monster Hunters'' series has this ability and will eat (and then spit out) anyone who lies in its presence. Very unusually, it senses not whether the subject ''believes'' what they're saying is true, but whether it actually ''is'' true. This leads to its use as a way to sort out new Hunter cadets into Banishers and Nethermancers. You stand on the shore of the Lake, shout out "I am a Banisher!". If the monster eats you, you're a Nethermancer. If it doesn't, you're a Banisher.

* A rear-echelon officer in Creator/DerekRobinson's novel ''A Good Clean Fight'' has a rare form of synesthesia that causes him to smell rotten flesh whenever he is told a falsehood. This talent causes one of the secondary conflicts and leads to [[EverybodyDiesEnding the novel's abrupt resolution.]]

* In a miniarc of ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'', a priestess of the Supreme God that Guild Girl employs has an ability called "Sense Lie", which she uses to catch Rhea Scout in some bullshit and allows Guild Girl to suss out that he had been NinjaLooting, keeping a treasure he had earned for himself rather than sharing it with his party and selling it off to get the money for some new boots, earning him a demotion back to Porcelain Rank.

* ''Anime/{{K}}'': Anna Kushina is able to tell is someone's lying due to her ability to read minds.

** This trope gets played for laughs briefly as a case of BlessedWithSuck: She tried to use the artifact on herself when she was thinking of an adequate situation to the LoveTriangle she was in. Turns out that her [[MarryThemAll desired solution]] reinforces the fact that she is a CovertPervert.

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': This is only one of the reasons why Ranma Saotome thought Satori was annoying. It only made matters worse when Ranma realized that the kid was using his {{Telepathy}} to get back at him, because he was upset over Ranma and Akane's engagement.

* ''Manga/TeasingMasterTakagiSan'': The eponymous Takagi-san is able to tell pretty easily if the protagonist Nishikata lies to her. She does this through a combination of recognising Nishikata's tells (e.g. he tends to stammer or look away), a good understanding of his thought processes and deducing things.

* ''Manga/UsotokiRhetoric'': Kanako Urabe is able to tell when people intentionally lie, hearing it as a clanging sound in their voice. It made her an outcast in her home town, where everyone knew about it, so she left for Tsukumoya.

* Kelly from ''AudioPlay/WereAlive'' is able to do this from her background as a lawyer. She's able to detect when one of the Colony members is lying, allowing her to save Pegs and Michael in time to escape [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Gatekeeper's]] coup. She is less able to get a read on Pippin though, because his face was so badly swollen from the beating the Mallers gave him that she couldn't read his facial tics.

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': While Marston's Wonder Woman was not considered an avatar of the truth, nor was the magic lasso yet the "Lasso of Truth", through her low level telepathy Diana was still usually aware of it when she was being lied to. If a villain was hiding their true nature and making benevolent claims, she could generally tell if their actual intent was nefarious.

* ComicBook/DoctorStrange, the Sorcerer Supreme, holds an amulet called the Eye of Agamotto which reveals the true nature of things. On one occasion he used it to compel a confession from a burglar. This happened in ComicBook/SheHulk's comic, which at the time was a semi-comedic superhero legal drama: the firm tried to get the confession thrown out, since Strange had violated the fifth amendment protection from self-incrimination.

* In ''ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard'', Loki meets a woman named Verity Willis who has this power during a mission on behalf of Asgard. She is introduced during a speed-dating event where she sees through the bullcrap would-be dates feed her. Loki becomes interested when they realize she can see through their illusionary appearance of a 40 year old divorcee after she asks them if they were cosplaying. Verity then goes on to demonstrate how much having this power can [[BlessedWithSuck suck]] when it's [[PowerIncontinence always active]]. Ever since she was a child, she could see through any falsehood, [[spoiler:because she swallowed the ring of Andvari, which reveals all lies and illusions, and it merged with her]]. She never believed in the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus, she can't [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief suspend disbelief]] in order to enjoy fiction, and she's had her heart broken at least once by lying paramours. She buries herself in mathematics, computer programming, and other non-fiction, all the while not even being able to lie to herself that it's enough. Loki offers her their sympathies and assures her that there are people in the world who will never lie to her. [[ConsummateLiar Not them]], of course.

* Issue 6 of ''ComicBook/XFactor2020'' highlights how Eye-boy's ability to see on multiple spectrums, Prestige's telepathy, Daken's heightened senses and pheromone control and Prodigy's ability to "know" everything about someone all make them this so they can tell that [[spoiler:Siryn]] is lying to them.

** Elspeth inverts the trope two ways. First, other people know when she's lying, and second, her power goes off when she's telling the truth--but its absence is notable.

** In the second book of the trilogy a character becomes a werewolf and uses their enhanced senses to notice things like blood vessels dilating in the eyes. While they have those enhanced sense from as soon as they contract lycanthropy, it's not until they happen to read an article about unconscious physical reactions to telling lies in a Muggle magazine they become a living lie-detector.

* In ''Fanfic/DextersLabEquestria'', Applejack, because of her Element of Honesty, can tell when somepony is lying. This makes hard for [[WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory Dexter]] to hide his scientific genius. [[spoiler: Even more so are Changelings, based off their ability to sense emotional responses. The changeling posing as Cheerilee not only knows Dexter is lying about the machine, but is able to determine based of his biological response to her presence, that he not a pony.]]

* Janine in ''The Sanctuary Telepath'', being, y'know, a telepath. She can pick up the "feeling" of others minds without having to actually ''read'' them (and invading their privacy), but it's more often that she just doesn't care. Especially with strangers. BlueAndOrangeMorality, indeed.

* In ''Fanfic/TheApprenticeTheStudentAndTheCharlatan'', anyone who is proficient in energy-sensing, under the justification that the way the body reacts when lying gives off enough of a flare in energy to be detected, and thus exposed. Nova Shine gets the most opportunity to show it off, even to the point of teaching it to Twilight so she can be absolutely sure he is telling the truth when he's clearing up a serious misunderstanding.

* In ''Fanfic/RisingOfTheSleepingSoldier'', having been raised as a royal in [[DarkAgeEurope a rather cutthroat world]], Alucard is able to tell when someone is lying to him or is hiding their true intentions through wording, tone and very subtle gestures. He was able to tell that his escort was lying about him as to why he was not allowed in the library and could see that Malty had malicious intentions right from the get-go.

* In ''Film/{{Memento}}'', Leonard learned to do this before his injury while working as an insurance claims investigator. As such, it is extremely difficult to deceive him in a face to face conversation. [[spoiler:Or so he believes.]]

* ''Film/{{Cypher}}'': Morgan Sullivan's last mission is to a maximum security data bunker. While waiting for a data transfer to take place, the systems administrator conversationally brags/complains how he was the best at spotting moles and detecting lies, before he was obviated by [[LieDetector high-tech biometric monitoring]] and stuck in a dead end job. He then proceeds to demonstrate with a casual interrogation of Sullivan.

* The entire premise behind ''Film/DakotaSkye''. She not only can tell when someone's lying, but she also sees the truth in her mind (at least, as far as the speaker knows it). So when a history teacher blatantly lies about UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus and UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson, she sees in her mind what he's not saying about them. The main reason she's attracted to Jonah is because he ''never'' lies to her, even about things that almost every other guy would lie about, if only to make her feel better.

** It is physically impossible to lie to Galadriel unless you are magically stronger than her. Even lies of omission are impossible, because she reads thoughts.

** The Bene Gesserit develop latent psychic abilities in humans alongside {{Charles Atlas Superpower}}s; one outcome of this is "Truthsayers", people trained to detect lies. Some, like the Lady Jessica, can only detect the intent to deceive but are not able to reveal the actual truth. Some, like Paul, his sister Alia, and later his son Leto, can fully unmask any lies merely through observing their subject. This difference becomes a plot point in the first novel when [[spoiler:Dr. Yueh]] manages to conceal his planned treachery from Jessica by leading her limited Truthsense on a carefully designed RedHerring, counting on himself being BeneathSuspicion due to supposedly unbreakable mental conditioning.

* A rear-echelon officer in Creator/DerekRobinson's novel ''A Good Clean Fight'' has a rare form of synesthesia which causes him to smell rotten flesh whenever he is told a falsehood. This talent causes one of the secondary conflicts and leads to [[EverybodyDiesEnding the novel's abrupt resolution.]]
* ''Literature/TheNaturals'': Lia can always tell when people are lying, making her extraordinarily useful when [[FBIAgent interviewing suspects]]. She can't usually tell why they're lying, though — that's where our heroine come in.

* The most powerful mages in the ''Literature/SagaOfRecluce'' can tell if someone is lying, since magic is based on manipulating Order and Chaos and lying is a chaotic act.

* Link, the BigBad in the Literature/BelisariusSeries, is a supercomputer from the future able to judge absolutely whether someone is lying. This is not the same thing as being able to judge whether they are being ''deceitful'', however, a distinction which costs it dearly.

** It's not exactly a lie detector, but wizards have a special ability called a soulgaze that allows them to look into people's eyes and see their inner self. It doesn't give specific information, but a deep understand of what the person you're talking to is like and is capable of is a great way to work out exactly how trustworthy they are. It also only works once, so the information gathered is not necessarily going to be up to date, as people change over time. Of course, the soulgaze allows the ''other person'' to look into the Wizards soul just as easily, which can be helpful for building trust or quite problematic if it happens on accident.

** Force-sensitives have some insight on the emotional states of the people to whom they are speaking. They can feel when someone flinches or has an emotional reaction, even when those are carefully hidden. However, they have more trouble when the person they're speaking to is of an unfamiliar alien species, and it's ''very'' hard to tell if someone with a massive degree of self-control is lying. This is used the most in 'Literature/SurvivorsQuest'', during the GambitPileup in the first third of the book, when everyone is hiding something.

* In the ''Literature/WearingTheCape'' series, a secondary character known as [[MeaningfulName Veritas]] has the ability to detect the truth of anything, whether spoken, written, recorded etc. This proves a vital plot-point when he allows the main character to determine who the real villain is via a phone conversation.

* Treecats in the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' universe have this as an ability based on the fact that they're telepaths and empaths. The combination makes it quite impossible for someone to lie to them. Honor eventually develops a very similar if not quite as well rounded ability.

* It is Bianchon's role in the plot to discover whether Dinah de La Baudraye in cheating on her husband in Honoré de Balzac's ''La Muse du département''.

* The Trout Of Truth in the ''Monster Hunters'' series has this ability, and will eat (and then spit out) anyone who lies in its presence. Very unusually, it sense not whether the subject ''believes'' what they're saying is true, but whether it actually ''is'' true. This leads to its use as a way to sort out new Hunter cadets into Banishers and Nethermancers. You stand on the shore of the Lake, shout out "I am a Banisher!". If the monster eats you, you're a Nethermancer. If it doesn't, you're a Banisher.

* The chief mate of the ''Current of Faith'' from ''Literature/TheReader2016'' is this, at least when he's on board, because he can speak to the trees that make up the hull and they tell him truth from lies.

* This is, essentially, the role played in courts by ghatti in the ''Ghatti's Tale'' series, to sit in on hearings and speak up (through a telepathically bonded human interpreter) when a witness attempts to lie. They actually had some difficultly understanding the concept of a lie at first, as they are incapable of lying, most likely for the same reason as the Clan in ''Literature/EarthsChildren'', namely, they have a gestural language, in which lying would be impossible.

* In ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', Hannibal warns Clarice "don't lie, or I'll know". She never tests him on it, but seems to assume he can.
* Eddie from ''Literature/TheSpeedOfSound'' can always tells when someone's lying. He makes a buzzer sound when people say things that aren't true, although Dr. Fenton tries to discourage him from doing it.
* ''Literature/HiveMind2016'': Downplayed with Lucas. Part of his imprint involves being able to read a person's reactions, so he can generally tell when somebody is lying. This is more of a problem than an advantage, as Amber can more-easily tell if somebody is lying by reading their thoughts, but Lucas can use this on Amber when she knows something that he shouldn't.

* The short-lived Lifetime Network series ''Series/AngelasEyes'' was based around the concept of detecting lies via body language.

* Of all the unlikely people, Spike from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' demonstrates a mild version of this on occasion. As Buffy says at one point, "I can't fool myself. Or Spike, apparently." Later on he easily sees through Willow's pretense that she is coping after Oz leaves. And he accuses Buffy (and, by extension, all Slayers) of having a secret death wish in season five. On ''Series/{{Angel}}'', Spike is the first person to suspect Eve of being up to something beyond being the Senior Partners' liaison.
* ''Series/TheBoys2019'': Homelander can use his SuperSenses to detect if someone's heartrate and respiration have gone up. While that's useful as a lie detector, as always context is everything. For instance in "The Self-Preservation Society", Homelander cites Starlight's accelerated heartrate as proof of her guilt but she's just terrified, as anyone would be if a psycho with superpowers was shouting in their face.
* Kiera Cameron in ''Series/{{Continuum}}'' can detect lies though in a sense her ability works more like a traditional lie detector. The combination of the CMR computer chip in her brain and the cameras in her eyes read respiration, heart rate, body temperature changes, etc. and tell her when someone's reactions are abnormal. This means that she can nearly always tell when someone is lying (or even just withholding information) but she doesn't exactly know what the truth is or what information is being withheld.

* Matt Murdock in ''Series/Daredevil2015'', like in the comics, can tell when someone's lying based on their heartrate. We see it in the very first episode, where he realizes Karen is innocent of the murder she's been framed for based on her heart rate. When Foggy finds out the truth about Matt, he's pissed off and sees this ability of Matt's as a blatant invasion of privacy.

** Sue Landers, a minor character and office worker, is revealed to have the power to tell when someone is lying. Unfortunately, it's revealed because Sylar is standing in her office, lying about why he has come to see her. He kills her and touches her brain, thus absorbing her lie-detection ability; unlike Matt, though, he can't dig around in the person's head for the truth. Ironically, Sylar's known to lie his way out of situations, but gets violent when discovering that he's being lied to.

* ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'': Kahlan is trained to detect lies from studying people's faces and tones of voice, even without her Confession power. Mord-Sith give her trouble though, due to their own training.

* ''Series/LieToMe'' is about a behavioral scientist who studies facial expressions, body language, and so on to determine if people are lying. The rest of the main cast uses the same science, and one is a "natural" who can do it without training. The show is based on the work of real life psychologist Paul Ekman, but its accuracy and usefulness is exaggerated for the sake of fiction. Ekman advises using a high-speed video camera to detect microexpressions (as they last fractions of a second) and notes other explanations for microexpressions, whereas characters in ''Lie to Me'' almost always detect them with the naked eye and rarely address explanations other than lying.

* Patrick Jane on ''Series/TheMentalist'' is shown to have these sorts of abilities; either by feeling pulses, or by outright hypnosis. He also has a trick where he deduces the location of hidden objects. In one episode, an agent comments that a suspect must be an amazing liar because the man was able to tell a lie to Patrick and Patrick did not spot it right away.

** Also referenced in "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective", where it appears private eye Marty Eels is a living lie detector, able to use his apparent uncanny skills to extract the location of some stolen jewels from Eddie Dial, one of two criminals who robbed a jewelry store, and killed a security guard and store manager in doing so. Monk then discovers that Marty is actually faking it: he knew about it all along as his mother, a quality control operator, overheard Dial and his partner Vic Blanchard talk about the crime while on hold to buy plane tickets, and fed all the information to Marty.

* ''Series/ShadowAndBone'': An almost literal case, as Heartrenders can tell when a person is lying by the variations in their pulse and heartbeat, just like a real life polygraph.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Ryan, Clark's little brother figure who can read minds, and Chloe in one episode, after being exposed to the experimental Levitas which caused those around her to tell the truth. Neither worked on Clark. Pete calle Chloe the Living Lie Detector.

** The apostle Peter displayed this ability at least once, challenging a couple who were lying about the amount they were donating to the congregation (the amount itself wasn't important, but the fact that they lied about it was). Notably, both the man and the wife died instantly on this being revealed.

* Some folktales and apocryphal stories tell of ancient civilizations who used this trope to catch criminals. In one version, suspects in a crime are told that an enchanted donkey has the power to sense liars, and will bray when one pulls its tail (another version has a rooster that will crow if the same thing happens). All of the suspects are sent into a darkened room one at a time and told to pull the tail as a means of establishing guilt. It's [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] in that the donkey is just a regular donkey--the local justices actually coat the tail with gunpowder, reasoning that only the guilty party would avoid pulling it and thus be the only person with clean hands (the innocent do pull it because they know the donkey won't bray when they do).

** Noble members of the Sidhe House ''Gwydion'', part of the Seelie Court, in ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheDreaming'' have the inborn ability to always sense when someone is lying or speaking an untruth. (Unless blocked by Unseelie magics.) This means they're usually honest themselves. This would have made them a natural choice for the role of judges, if their House didn't also have this tiny problem with suffering from bad temper. A pissed off Gwydion Sidhe knight determined to smite a filthy liar is someone to avoid.

** The title character of the fourth game, Apollo Justice, is [[HyperAwareness very good at spotting]] the CharacterTics that indicate deceit. It's a somewhat subconscious ability, so he isn't always aware that he's doing it; he has the aid of a special bracelet which feels tighter when he tenses up, letting him know when to hyperfocus on what someone's just said.
*** Trucy Wright has a similar ability, only she doesn't have the benefit of Apollo's bracelet. This is appropriate, since she's actually his half sister.

** Satori Komeiji, as a satori, has perpetually-on telepathy, and always knows what other people are actually thinking, which doesn't make them favorably inclined to her, so she's isolated herself from most everyone but her pets. Her sister Koishi ''used'' to have perpetually-on telepathy, but willingly crippled the power because she hated being hated... removing her capacity for conscious thought in the process.
* According to pre-release materials for the cancelled ''[[Franchise/MegaMan Rockman Online]]'', Duo and his kind are this, as are the mass produced copies of him. It's also noted that the copies have less control over themselves than the original, and will reflexively throw a punch at anyone who so much as slightly fibs to them.

* The FanGame ''VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpaAnother2'' has Kokoro Mitsumi, the [[TheAce Ultimate]] Psychologist. She's able to instantly tell whether a person is lying from their expression and voice, but because of her StoryBreakerPower, after the first trial she swears to no longer cooperate with the others unless absolutely necessary [[GenreSavvy knowing that her talent would make her an obvious target for a prospective killer]].

* ''VideoGame/AITheSomniumFiles'' has the main character Kaname Date and his sentient cybernetic eyeball, Aiba. Aiba, among other abilities, can use her thermal imaging to detect the subtle fluctuations in body temperature when someone tells a lie, though this less effective on experienced liars (such as politicians).

* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' has Clementine, who has a natural talent to discern when people are being dishonest. This foreshadows a crucial moment near the end of Season 1 Episode 4, where she will be able to tell if you lie and be heart-broken if you do so. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption None of the other options lead to a better resolution]].

* Biscuit in ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' is a justified instance, due to the Goblins universe being governed by ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' mechanics; Sense Motive (the skill which lets you know when someone is lying) is based off a characters wisdom, and creatures gain a bonus to wisdom as they age. Biscuit, being [[Really700YearsOld over 600 winters old]], has a considerable bonus to his wisdom....

* ''Webcomic/UnOrdinary'': Nadia uses her ability to tell wether or not someone is telling the truth when her bosses, the Authorities, are having someone questioned. If a person lies they can be carted off for "re-education".

** It is this, plus her lack of emotional connection with Zuko, which allowed her to be rational about his presence in the Western Air Temple. She could tell he was being sincere when he offered to help Aang, and complained that the others were the blind ones for allowing their emotions to cloud their judgement. A point which they then only reinforce by attempting to deny it.

** Carried over into ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' with Aiwei, a truth-seer who acts as an advisor in the metalbending city, creating a city without lies. (In fact, it's a bit of a running gag for him to point out everyone's lies.) [[spoiler:Unfortunately, as Mako points out, being the only truth-seer in the city means no-one can tell when [[TreacherousAdvisor he's lying]], which he can cover just by changing things to make it look like he's not. As an added bonus, Aiwei can deduce people's thoughts [[HeKnowsTooMuch if they know too much]], which makes deceiving him all the more difficult]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode, "The Late Mr. Kent". In it, Clark interviews a man on death row who claims he is innocent. Clark uses his super-hearing to measure the man's heartrate and his super-vision to check the man's eye movement, and both remain steady, indicating that he is telling the truth. However, Superman does not take that as conclusive evidence, but just as something that prompts him to investigate the story further.

* The Alchemist from ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' can tell whenever someone is lying. It's not always as useful as you'd think however, as he quickly discovered when trying to assist Hank with his "case" of Dermott's missing sister (who as it turns out was just stuck in traffic). They discover a deeper mystery brewing under the surface, but Al can't make heads or tails of the conflicting witness accounts because none of them adds up and yet ''no one is lying''. [[spoiler:He was simply missing a single but critical fact: Dermott's "sister" was really his mother who had given birth to him as a teenage pregnancy, and the woman whom he thought to be his mother was his grandmother who had orchestrated the cover-up. Dermott's father is really RUSTY.]]

* Scott Adams, creator of ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'', claims his training in being a hypnotist gives him the ability to tell when most people are lying. Along with complete mastery of persuasion. According to his blog he tried to tell them that when he was called for jury duty, and they patiently explained to him that ''that's not how that works''.

** He's probably referring to Dr. Ekman who, in fact, advises the use of a high speed video camera (microexpressions lasts less than a second) and says that everything else should be ruled out before deciding that a statement is a lie.

* There are classes that teach you what people do when they lie. So they're being taught how to become a living lie-detector. Unfortunately, most people are only slightly better than chance at determining truth from falsehoods. Since most judgments never go challenged, people also tend to think of themselves as much better at detecting lies than they actually are. Police, citizens, and a coin all scored close enough to each other to not be considered statistically significant despite the officers having had training.

** Also, this often does not help you distinguish what is fact from what is ''believed'' to be fact. When your body language tells "truth", it merely confirm the person's ''belief'' in that statement, not its factual veracity. A die-hard Flat-Earth theorist could swear to the Earth being flat with his last breath and no lie detector, living or otherwise, would ever so much as twitch.

* Here's a tip: if you want to tell if someone is lying, look at their eyes. If they glance away just before, during or directly after a statement there's a chance they're lying. Liars have trouble looking their interrogators in the face and will try and divert their gaze when they can. This is harder with women (who tend to be more socially adept than men) and easier with children ([[ChildrenAreInnocent who are obviously more naïve and inexperienced than adults]]). But it can backfire too -- many people are aware of this test, and will therefore make absolutely sure to look their questioner right in the face. Of course, if they suddenly stare directly after a conversation of only occasional glances, that's a giveaway as well. As with a polygraph test, the thing you're really looking for is a sudden change. And autistic people tend to have trouble with eye contact in general, so it won't work on them. Plus eye contact is considered rude or aggressive in many cultures, so they might just be uncomfortable.