Othello error in practice. The phrase Othello error was first used in the book "Telling Lies" by Paul Ekman in 1985. The name was coined from Shakespeare's play "Othello", which provides an "excellent and famous example" of what can happen when fear and distress upon confrontation do not signal deception. In Shakespeare's "Othello", Othello falsely believes that his wife, Desdemona, has been cheating on him with another man. There, upon confronting his wife, Desdemona, about her love for another, she cries and denies, all the while aware that her mien will be taken as evidence of guilt by her jealous husband. Seeing
Othello be greatly acclaimed as Othello, although the role continued to be played by such performers as Donald Sinden at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1979–1980, Paul Scofield at the Royal National Theatre in 1980, Anthony Hopkins in the "BBC Television Shakespeare" production (1981), and Michael Gambon in a stage production at Scarborough directed by Alan Ayckbourn in 1990. Gambon had been in Olivier's earlier production. In an interview Gambon commented "I wasn't even the second gentleman in that. I didn't have any lines at all. I was at the back like that, standing for an hour. [It's] what I used