Truth Serums: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

The common term "truth serum" refers to any number of sedative/hypnotic drugs which are used to induce honesty in a subject. In fact, truthfulness is not guaranteed by the use of such drugs; while a person under the influence of a truth serum may become talkative, or may experience reduced inhibitions or even hallucinogenic fantasies, they are still quite capable of lying. For this reason, and the obvious human and civil rights issues (which are similar to those regarding torture), any statements obtained in this manner are inadmissible in court. Or, they're really disgusting concoctions used in [[Initiation Ceremony|crossing the line ceremonies]]. The best that modern pharmacology can come up with is amobarbital (better known as sodium amytal) and is not all that useful at all.

 

May overlap with [[I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You]]

 

* In Peorth's introductory arc in ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'', Urd gives her sisters a drug that will make them confess to any misdeeds they have ever committed in order to find out about an incident that made Peorth hate Belldandy. When Skuld takes it, she [[Ocular Gushers|tearfully]] confesses to a variety of minor misdeeds such as eating all the ice cream. When Belldandy takes it, ''[[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|nothing happens]]''.

* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', in one of the later chapters, as Negi {{spoiler|was running away from his cute students who want to know the name of the girl he likes using every means necessary}}, He got an injection of "truth serum" up his... "back side". It still didn't work.

** The drug compels the subject to answer the IQ tests truthfully, making sure they don't deliberately answer questions wrong, in case a child had found out what happens to those whose {{spoiler|intelligence quotient is higher than what Government regula­tions allow: they are killed}}.

* Played fairly straight in the first book of the ''Blood of Kerensky'' trilogy set in the ''[[BattleTech]]'' universe during Phelan's interrogation by the Clans. Of course, the procedure (complete with IV drip for the truth drugs and sensors to monitor the subject's vital signs) was still involved enough to suggest that even ([[Zeerust|presumably]]) 31st-century medical science might be able to make this kind of thing ''effective'', but not exactly ''safe''.

* In the ''[[X Wing Series]]'', it is mentioned that CorSec officers undergo a chemical interrogation as part of their training. When it was done to Corran Horn, he ended up confessing to every childhood misdeed committed in his entire life, which would have been amusing had the interrogator not provided a transcript to his father (A fellow officer).

* [[Simon R. Green]]'s ''[[Hawk And Fisher]]'' series contains a scene in which murder suspects are interrogated under a truth spell. The spell doesn't prevent them from withholding information or answering in a deceptive way, though, so all of them get away with saying "no" when asked if they committed the murders. {{spoiler|Turns out there are two murderers, each of whom committed a different murder; when Hawk asks each of them if they killed Blackstone ''and'' Bowman, both murderers were able to truthfully answer no.}}

[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]

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