Forensic Psyc Lie Detection

Question 1

Definition of Deception

Answer 1

“A successful or unsuccessful deliberate
attempt, without forewarning, to create
in another a belief which the
communicator considers to be untrue”

Question 2

Types of Lies (DePaulo et al., 1996)

Answer 2

• Outright lies
• Exaggerations
• Subtle lies

Question 3

Reasons to Lie

• 5 reasons (Vrij, 2000):

Answer 3

–To gain personal
advantage
–To avoid punishment
–To make a positive
impression on others
–To protect themselves
from embarrassment/
disapproval
–For the sake of social
relationships
• Self-oriented vs.other-oriented

Question 4

Frequency of Lying

Answer 4

• American diary study: college students
told 2 lies/day and community
members told 1 lie/day. Most lies were
self-serving (DePaulo, 1996)

Question 5

• Frequency of lying depends on:

Answer 5

1. The personality and gender of the liar
2. The situation in which the lie is told
3. People to whom the lie is told

Question 6

1. The personality and gender of the liar:

Answer 6

– Extroverts lie more than introverts
– Frequency of lies similar between
men and women
–Women tell more social lies
–When dating, women lie to improve
physical appearance, men lie to
exaggerate earning potential

Question 7

2. The situation in which the lie is told:

Answer 7

– 90% lie to prospective date

– 83% lie to get a job

Question 8

3. People to whom the lie is told:

Answer 8

– Lowest rate of lying with spouses
(1/10 interactions- mostly subtle)
– Highest rate of lying with strangers
– College students lie frequently to
their mothers (almost 50% of
conversations!)

Question 9

Three ways to catch a liar

Answer 9

1. Observe their verbal and nonverbal
   behaviour*
2. Analyse the content of what they say*
3. Examine their physiological responses

Question 10

Behavioural Indicators of Deception

Answer 10

• Some verbal and nonverbal cues are more
likely to occur during deception than others,
depending on:
1. Emotion
2. Content complexity
3. Attempted behavioural control

Question 11

Behavioural Indicators of Deception
1. Paul Ekman’s emotional
approach:

Answer 11

– Deception results in
different emotions: guilt,
fear, excitement (duping
delight)
– Strength of emotion
depends on personality of
liar and circumstances of lie
– Emotions may influence the
liar’s NVB
NVB during deception should
show signs of stress
compared to baseline of
typical NVB

Question 12

Behavioural Indicators of Deception

2. Content complexity:

Answer 12

lying can be
difficult to do
• People engaged in cognitively complex
tasks exhibit different nonverbal
behaviours

Question 13

3. Liars may attempt to control their

behaviour

Answer 13

in order to avoid getting
caught
• When liars do this, they sometimes
overcontrol themselves, resulting in
behaviour that looks rehearsed and
rigid, and speech that sounds too
smooth
• Nonverbal behaviour is more difficult
to control than verbal behaviour:

Question 14

Behavioural Indicators of Deception:
Verbal and Nonverbal Cues to Lying
Meta-analyses by Sporer & Schwandt (2006; 2007)
• Verbal cues:

Answer 14

1. Higher pitch of voice
2. Increased response latency
3. Increased errors in speech
4. Shorter length of description

Question 15

• Nonverbal Cues:

Answer 15

5. Decreased nodding
6. Decreased foot and leg movements
7. Decreased hand movements

• Liars do not seem to show signs of
nervousness such as gaze aversion &
fidgeting
• Professional lie detectors’ ability to accurately
classify truth and lies is about 55%
• Analyses of nonverbal behaviour are not
accepted as evidence in criminal courts

Question 16

• Microexpressions:

Answer 16

: A fleeting facial expression
discordant with the expressed emotion and usually
suppressed within 1/5 to 1/25 of a second
• It is difficult to control facial communication and it
can betray a deceiver’s true emotion to a trained
observer (Ekman, 1992)
• Inconsistent emotional leakage occurred in 100% of
participants at least once. Negative emotions were
more difficult to falsify than happiness (Porter & ten Brinke, 2008)

Question 17

Content Indicators of Deception

Statement Validity Assessment (SVA)

Answer 17

Developed in Germany to determine the credibility of
child witnesses’ testimonies in trials for sexual
offences
• Extended to adults and other types of cases
• SVA accepted in other European courts, but not UK
courts. Opinion in US is divided.
• Has been presented in expert testimony in US, but
main role in guiding police investigations and
decisions of prosecutors

Question 18

Statement Validity Assessment

• Consists of three major elements:

Answer 18

1. Semi-structured interview
2. Criteria-based content analysis (CBCA) of
   transcribed version of statement given during
   the interview
3. Evaluation of the CBCA outcome via a set of
   questions (validity check-list)

Question 19

CBCA: The Content Analysis

Answer 19

Based on the “Undeutsch hypothesis”:
–A statement derived from memory of an
actual experience differs in content and
quality from a statement based on
invention and fantasy (Undeutsch, 1987)
• Trained evaluators judge the presence or
absence (or strength) of 19 criteria
• The presence of each criterion strengthens the
hypothesis that the account is based on
genuine experience
• But, absence of a criterion does not
necessarily mean the statement is fabricated
(Vrij, 2005)

Question 20

CBCA Criteria

• General Characteristics

Answer 20

1. Logical structure
2. Unstructured production
3. Quantity of details

Question 21

CBCA Criteria Specific Contents

Answer 21

4. Contextual embedding
5. Descriptions of interactions
6. Reproductions of conversation
7. Unexpected complications during the
   incident
8. Unusual details
9. Superfluous details
10. Accurately reported details misunderstood
11. Related external associations
12. Accounts of subjective mental state
13. Attribution of perpetrator’s mental state

Question 22

CBCA Criteria

• Motivation-Related Content

Answer 22

14. Spontaneous corrections
15. Admitting lack of memory
16. Raising doubts about testimony
17. Self-deprecation
18. Pardoning the perpetrator

Question 23

CBCA Criteria • Offence-Specific Elements

Answer 23

19. Details characteristic of the offence

Question 24

Why Are These Criteria Absent?

Answer 24

1. Lack of imagination in inventing relevant
   characteristics
2. Do not realise judgements based on these
   characteristics, so don’t include them
3. Lack knowledge to incorporate certain
   criteria
4. Difficult to incorporate some criteria
5. Wary of including details in case they forget
6. Wary of including details that can be checked
7. Wary of including certain characteristics in
   case their stories sound less credible
   From Vrij (2000)

Question 25

Validity Check List

Answer 25

Finally, to standardise CBCA findings, evaluators
consider alternative interpretations:
– Psychological characteristics (age, verbal and
social skills)
– Interview characteristics (types of questioning)
– Motivation to report
– Investigative questions (consistency with other
evidence)

Question 26

Does SVA Work?

Answer 26

• Vrij (2005) reviewed first 37 experimental and
field studies on CBCA
• Field studies:
• Statements made by persons in actual cases of alleged
sexual abuse
• Clear forensic relevance, but difficult to establish
ground truth
• Experimental studies:
• Statements of participants who lied or told the truth for
the experiment
• Easy to establish veracity of statement, but differ from
real-life situations

• Results depend on methodological factors
• Field studies comparing children’s statements in
“confirmed”, “unconfirmed”, and “doubtful” cases
yield mixed results
• Experimental studies yield fewer differences
between liars and truth-tellers, but all in expected
direction
• Criterion 3 received the most support: in 80%
of studies truth tellers included more details
• Criteria 4 and 6 also received strong support:
in 69% of studies truth tellers included more
contextual embedding and reproductions of
conversation

• Cognitive criteria (1-13) received more
support than motivational criteria (14-18)
• In 92% of experimental studies, truth tellers
received higher CBCA scores than liars
• Trained evaluators often achieve above chance
classifications
• For experimental studies, Vrij (2005) reported:
– Overall accuracy of 55%-90%
– Accuracy for truths of 53%-91%
– Accuracy for lies of 35%-100%
• Truth bias: CBCA is “truth verifying method”
not “lie-detection technique

Question 27

Some Concerns About SVA

Answer 27

• No formal decision rules, profiles for truth or
deception, or cut points
• Criteria should be given different weight (Sporer)
• Different types of lies (from subtle to outright) may
yield different levels/kinds of characteristics
• SVA assessments are subjective and inter-rater
reliability can be low, even after extensive training
• CBCA assessments of written statements are time consuming & even training may not improve accuracy
(Akehurst et al., 2004)
• Encourages short-cuts (e.g., SCAN)

Question 28

Accuracy Rates of Professional Lie

Catchers

Answer 28

Nonverbal
Behaviour
Truth=55% Lie=55%
CBCA 76% 68%
• Chance rate = 50%
• Nonverbal behaviour: Average scores of
9 studies (mostly lab studies)
• CBCA: Based on 13 lab studies
• Recent evidence suggests that higher
accuracy rates by combining nonverbal
and CBCA

Question 29

A Whole Approach to Detecting Deception

Answer 29

• DePaulo et al. (2003) examined 158(!) cues to
deception:
– Are liars less forthcoming?
– Do liars tell less compelling tales?
– Are liars less positive and pleasant?
– Are liars more tense?
– Do lies include less ordinary imperfections
and more unusual details?
• They found evidence for all 5 of these cues in
deceptive statements
• However, many behaviours showed no
discernable links, or only weak links, to
deception
• Also, no clear cut points or profile for lies and
liars

Question 30

Difficulties in Detection of Deception

Answer 30

1. Lie detection is difficult and there is no
   give-away cue
2. Othello Error: Truth tellers may show
   similar behaviour to liars because they,
   too, may experience emotions, may have
   to think hard, or may have to control
   themselves.
3. Adequate comparisons between truthtelling
   and lie-telling are not made (e.g.,
   small talk vs. interrogation)
   4.Observers seem to have incorrect beliefs
   about how liars behave and people,
   including police officers, are taught wrong
   cues
   5.Liars can use countermeasures (e.g., can
   train themselves to beat techniques).
   6.Deception research is often conducted in
   university labs and the stakes aren’t high
   enough. It’s hard to establish ground truth
   in field studies
4. The Brokaw hazard: Individual differences
   in emotional expression, vocal and body
   movement characteristics.
5. Individual differences in ability to control:
   Some people are ‘natural liars’, or have
   trained themselves to be very effective
   liars.
6. Cultural differences in nonverbal behaviour

Question 31

Guidelines for Catching a Liar

Answer 31

If focusing on verbal and nonverbal:
1. Be suspicious – put aside your truth bias
2. Probe – keep on asking questions
3. Do not reveal important information
4. Be informed
5. Ask liars to repeat what they have said
before
6. Watch and listen carefully and abandon
stereotypes
7. Compare liars’ behaviour with their natural
behaviour