Do people behave differently when they are lying compared with when they are telling the truth? The combined results of 1,338 estimates of 158 cues to deception are reported. Results show that in some ways, liars are less forthcoming than truth tellers, and they tell less compelling tales. They also make a more negative impression and are more tense. Their stories include fewer ordinary imperfections and unusual contents. However, many behaviors showed no discernible links, or only weak links, to deceit. Cues to deception were more pronounced when people were motivated to succeed, especially when the motivations were identity relevant rather than monetary or material. Cues to deception were also stronger when lies were about transgressions.

Cues to deception

Interviewing children for investigative purposes is a specialized skill. Professional interviewers need to be able to conduct interviews that bear scrutiny from outside agencies and also serve the best interests of children. In clear, engaging language, this eye-opening book corrects the common misunderstandings about adult-child conversational exchanges and provides guidelines for interviews, based on the most up-to-date research. It also presents a flexible interview protocol that can be tailored to meet individual needs. Topics discussed include: The current child protection crisis The difficulties of investigating alleged abuse cases Children's strengths and weaknesses as interviewees Characteristics of the most respected interview protocols Children's language development and understanding of "interview rules" Ancillary techniques, such as the use of drawings and anatomically detailed dolls How to improve one's decision-making skills How to stay abreast of the latest research and techniques The principles outlined in his book can be generalized to a variety of situations in which the interviewer wishes to gather information untainted by the dynamics of adult-child questioning. Thus, Investigative Interviews of Children will be invaluable not only to child protection workers, lawyers, law enforcement officers, and psychologists, but also to other mental health professionals, educators, and parents.

Investigative Interviews of Children: A Guide for Helping Professionals

The detection of deception is a promising but challenging task. A systematic discussion of automated Linguistics Based Cues (LBC) to deception has rarely been touched before. The experiment studied the effectiveness of automated LBC in the context of text-based asynchronous computer mediated communication (TA-CMC). Twentyseven cues either extracted from the prior research or created for this study were clustered into nine linguistics constructs: quantity, diversity, complexity, specificity, expressivity, informality, affect, uncertainty, and nonimmediacy. A test of the selected LBC in a simulated TA-CMC experiment showed that: (1) a systematic analysis of linguistic information could be useful in the detection of deception; (2) some existing LBC were effective as expected, while some others turned out in the opposite direction to the prediction of the prior research; and (3) some newly discovered linguistic constructs and their component LBC were helpful in differentiating deception from truth.

http://www.iula.upf.edu/materials/050603vazquez.pdf

Automating Linguistics-Based Cues for detecting deception in text-based asynchronous computer-mediated communication

We examined the hypotheses that (1) a systematic analysis of nonverbal behavior could be useful in the detection of deceit and (2) that lie detection would be most accurate if both verbal and nonverbal indicators of deception are taken into account. Seventy-three nursing students participated in a study about "telling lies" and either told the truth or lied about a film they had just seen. The interviews were videotaped and audiotaped, and the nonverbal behavior (NVB) and speech content of the liars and truth tellers were analyzed, the latter with the Criteria-Based Content Analysis technique (CBCA) and the Reality Monitoring technique (RM). Results revealed several nonverbal and verbal indicators of deception. On the basis of nonverbal behavior alone, 78% of the lies and truths could be correctly classi- fied. An even higher percentage could be correctly classified when all three detec- tion techniques (i.e., NVB, CBCA, RM) were taken into account.

/pdf/detecting-deceit-via-analysis-of-verbal-and-nonverbal-2harvvpn2i.pdf

Detecting Deceit via Analysis of Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior

The question of whether discernible differences exist between liars and truth tellers has interested professional lie detectors and laypersons for centuries. In this article we discuss whether people can detect lies when observing someone’s nonverbal behavior or analyzing someone’s speech. An article about detecting lies by observing nonverbal and verbal cues is overdue. Scientific journals regularly publish overviews of research articles regarding nonverbal and verbal cues to deception, but they offer no explicit guidance about what lie detectors should do and should avoid doing to catch liars. We will present such guidance in the present article.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1529100610390861

Pitfalls and Opportunities in Nonverbal and Verbal Lie Detection

The development of the Statement Reality Analysis (SRA) technique is described. The technique is employed to assess the credibility of witness evidence in criminal cases. An expert psychologist is appointed by the court in cases in which a child’s evidence is central in criminal proceedings. The expert interviews the child, other principals in the event, reviews the forensic evidence, attends the trial and then renders an opinion to the court of the credibility of the child’s evidence. Procedures like SRA are employed in both parts of Germany and in Sweden.

Udo Undeutsch

Papers

The Development of Statement Reality Analysis

Courtroom evaluation of eyewitness testimony.