Lie Detection Chapter 2 PDF

2/6/24 Lie Detection Chapter 2 1 Deception = a deliberate attempt to create in another a belief which the communicator believes to be untrue (Vrij, 2008) 2 Main research questions Do liars and truth tellers differ? Nonverbal behavior Verbal content Physiological patterns How good are people at disti...

2/6/24 Lie Detection Chapter 2 1 Deception = a deliberate attempt to create in another a belief which the communicator believes to be untrue (Vrij, 2008) 2 Main research questions Do liars and truth tellers differ? Nonverbal behavior Verbal content Physiological patterns How good are people at distinguishing between truths and lies? Does the polygraph help detect liars? Are there ways to improve deception detection accuracy? 3 1 2/6/24 Lying in everyday life What types of lies do people tell? Exaggerations Fabrication of new facts Denials of facts Subtle or white lies 4 4 What if we couldn’t lie? The Invention of Lying (2009) 5 5 Why do people lie? Self-oriented Avoid punishment/negative consequences Protecting oneself Create a positive image Other-oriented Protect social relationships 6 6 2 2/6/24 How often do people lie? Difficult to investigate – How would you study this? Diary studies People lie daily Mostly self-oriented lies Mostly rather trival lies 7 7 How do people feel about lying? In a study by Anderson (1968), out of 555 character traits, being a liar was seen as the worst 8 Anderson (1968) Ranking Trait 545 untrustworthy 546 deceitful 547 dishonorable 548 malicious 549 obnoxious 550 untruthful 551 dishonest 552 cruel 553 mean 554 phony 555 liar 9 3 2/6/24 Anderson (1968) Ranking Trait 1 sincere 2 honest 3 understanding 4 loyal 5 truthful Would these results replicate 50 years later? Yes. The results were consistent in a 2018 study by Chandler 10 How do people feel about lying? … the diary studies show that: everyone lies people do not feel very bad when lying 11 How do people feel about lying? The double standard hypothesis We are of two minds about lying One when we are lying One when we imagine being lied to 12 4 2/6/24 Accuracy Are you accurate when determining whether someone is lying to you? What makes this determination easier or more difficult? Does it depend on the circumstance? Or the person? 13 Experimental approach Videotape some participants lying others telling the truth Attitudes, opinions, feelings Mock crimes Videotaped statements are shown to people (lie-catchers) Accuracy is analyzed 14 Accuracy Meta-analysis (Bond & DePaulo, 2006) 384 studies with 24,000 participants Likelihood of correct answer just by guessing = 50% The proportion of correct judgments in study = 54% Police officers no better than lay people Sometimes a truth bias in samples of lay people In contrast, police are guilt-presumptive and overconfident in their true/lie determinations This may be due in part to confirmation bias 15 5 2/6/24 Beliefs about cues to deception Gaze aversion A lot of movement/posture shifting Self-manipulations Stuttering Long pauses 16 Actual cues to deception There is no Pinocchio’s nose Only a few, very weak cues Liars show somewhat: Fewer hand movements Higher pitched voice when lying Somewhat more tense Could be (over)control or task complexity 17 6