Showing papers by "Aldert Vrij published in 1996"

Lay persons’ and police officers’ beliefs regarding deceptive behaviour

Abstract: Research on the detection of deception, via non-verbal cues, has shown that people's ability to successfully discriminate between truth and deception is only slightly better than chance level. One of the reasons for these disappointing findings possibly lies in people's inappropriate beliefs regarding ‘lying behaviour’. A 64-item questionnaire originally used in Germany, which targets participants' beliefs regarding truthful and deceptive behaviour, was used. The present study differed from previous research in three ways: (i) instead of a student population, police officers and lay people were sampled, (ii) both people's beliefs regarding others' deceptive behaviour and their beliefs regarding their own deceptive behaviour were examined, and (iii) both non-verbal cues to, and content characteristics of, deceptive statements were examined. Results were consistent with previous studies, which found significant differences between people's beliefs regarding deceptive behaviour and experimental observations of actual deceptive behaviour. Further, police officers held as many false beliefs as did lay people and finally, participants were more accurate in their beliefs regarding their own deceptive behaviour than they were in their beliefs regarding others' behaviour.

Lie experts' beliefs about nonverbal indicators of deception

Abstract: Beliefs about behavioral clues to deception were investigated in 212 people, consisting of prisoners, police detectives, patrol police officers, prison guards, customs officers, and college students. Previous studies, mainly conducted with college students as subjects, showed that people have some incorrect beliefs about behavioral clues to deception. It was hypothesized that prisoners would have the best notion about clues of deception, due to the fact that they receive the most adequate feedback about successful deception strategies. The results supported this hypothesis.

Insight into behavior displayed during deception

Abstract: Previous research suggests that liars are not aware that they tend to decrease their movements during deception. Moreover, it is unclear how liars will behave if someone informs them about their behavioral rigidity during deception, and to what extent several processes (tension, attempted behavioral control, and cognitive effort) are associated with deception. In the present experiment, subjects were interviewed twice. During one interview, they told the truth, and during the other interview, they lied. In the information-present condition, before both interviews, subjects were told that deception is usually associated with a decrease in movements. In the information-absent condition, no information was given. The results revealed that whereas subjects believed that they increased their movements during deception, a decrease in movements, in fact, occurred. Provision of information about deceptive behavior had no effect. The results also showed that a decrease in movements was associated with attempted control and cognitive load processes, and occurred independently from the tension experienced by deceivers.

Reducing Ethnic Prejudice Through Public Communication Programs: A Social-Psychological Perspective

Abstract: Television programs aimed at countering ethnic prejudice generally do not have the desired effect, possibly because relevant theoretical insights have been ignored when such videos are designed. Theoretically, three factors appear relevant: (a) stressing similarities between ethnic minorities and the majority population, (b) exposure to many ethnic minorities, and (c) providing explicit information about the aims of the communication. In the present experiment, the effects of specially constructed videos based on these theoretical perspectives were examined. White Dutch participants (N = 261) were assigned to one of eight experimental conditions or to the control condition. Those in the experimental conditions were exposed to a TV spot about ethnic minorities before completing a questionnaire about attitudes toward ethnic minorities. Participants in the control condition completed this questionnaire without watching a TV spot. The eight experimental conditions were formed by the systematic crossi...

Physical effort of police officers as a determinant of their behavior toward criminals

Abstract: The influence of police officers' physical effort on their (a) perceptions of criminals and (b) shooting behavior during confrontations with criminals was examined in 2 experiments. On the basis of emotion theory and attribution theory (Schachter, 1964; Zillmann, 1978, 1983) and Kahneman's (1973) variable-allocation capacity model, it was hypothesized that physical effort would result in the underestimation of criminal aggression, less aggressive feelings toward the criminal, and decreased willingness to shoot the criminal. These hypotheses were supported.

Detection of false statements in first and third graders:the development of a nonverbal detection instrument

Abstract: Interaction processes between interviewers and interviewees are not constrained to a verbal exchange of information. There will always be an exchange of information on the basis of the nonverbal behavior displayed by the parties as well (Vrij, 1991; Vrij & Winkel, 1991). Verbal information refers to the content of the interview, nonverbal information refers to the way the spoken information is presented: the gestures that accompany speech, head movements, trunk movements, gaze aversion, smiling, variation of pitch of voice, speech rate, speech disturbances (repetions of words, omissions of words) etc. Therefore, in order to detect false statements of children three different types of detection instruments are possible: a "verbal detection instrument" (referring to the analysis of the verbal content of statements), a "nonverbal detection instrument" (referring to the analysis of nonverbal behavior displayed by children) and a "combination instrument" (referring to the analysis of both verbal and nonverbal information). Social psychological literature revealed several verbal detection instruments (Gardner, 1987; Steiler, 1989; Undeutsch, 1989; Wegener, 1989; Yuille & Cutshall, 1989), although nonverbal detection instruments and combination instruments are not available yet.

Coping with burglary: the effects of a police service on victims' emotional readjustment

Abstract: Becoming a victim of crime "forces" individuals to come to terms with the event and its consequences. Victimisations or stressors result in coping processes. Two dimensions are discernable, namely problem and emotion focused coping. The first concept refers to, either cognitive or behavioral, activities aimed at "eliminating" the stressor as such. A central question here is how to prevent a re-occurrence of the event. One could think of taking all sorts of preventive measures reducing the future likelihood of becoming a victim again of this event or something similar. Emotion focused coping relates to activities aimed at controlling the emotional impact of the event, like feelings of fear and concern about crime or anger. Psychological distress is generally considered to be a central and dominant response to victimisations (Cook, Smith, & Harrell, 1987). Emotion focused coping is aimed at countering this. A central issue here thus is how to manage these emotions or how to reduce them to a psychologically tolerable level.