Word.ws English Dictionary

Othello error

Othello error noun: an erroneous conclusion that someone is lying based on signs of stress.

Noun

Othello error (plural Othello errors)

  1. An erroneous conclusion that someone is lying based on signs of stress.
    • Out of such turmoil, it must be expected that some significant percent of Othello errors (false positives) will subsequently be improperly scored as hits when innocent subjects "confess" in return for a reduced charge.1995, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting, National Academy of Arbitrators, →ISBN
    • The relatively low accuracy rates for detecting truths in CQT polygraph research (discussed before) is perhaps the result of the Othello error (Ofshe & Leo, 1997).2011, Klaus Fiedler, Social Communication, →ISBN, page 327

Examples of Othello error in a sentence

  • Ekman said the Othello error stems from a truthful person being afraid of not being believed.2013, Kelly D. Harrison, Forensic Interviewing: For Law Enforcement, →ISBN, page 75:
  • The Othello error is a common occurrence in traditional lie detection, which departs from the stress-based approach to lying.2014, Timothy R. Levine, Encyclopedia of Deception, →ISBN, page 740:

Forms of Othello error

pluralOthello errors

Origin of Othello error

From Shakespeare's play Othello, in which the title character misinterprets his wife's distress as proof of her infidelity.

Questions about Othello error

What does Othello error mean?
Othello error means an erroneous conclusion that someone is lying based on signs of stress.
How do you use Othello error in a sentence?
Ekman said the Othello error stems from a truthful person being afraid of not being believed.
What part of speech is Othello error?
Othello error is a noun.
What is the plural of Othello error?
The plural of Othello error is Othello errors.

Words near Othello error in the dictionary

  1. OTH-B
  2. othala
  3. othalanga
  4. othalas
  5. Othello
  6. Othello error
  7. Othello errors
  8. Othello syndrome
  9. Othelloesque
  10. othematoma
  11. othematomata

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Othello error (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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