Forensic Psychology Flashcards
What are the 3 approaches to detecting deception?
- Behavioural markers (non-verbal)
Body language
Commonly reported signs of nervousness include gaze aversion and increased body movements - Speech analysis (verbal)
Reduced detail in speech content
Errors in speech content (contradicting themselves etc) - Physiological markers
How good are normal people at detecting deception?
Not very well. Marginally better than chance
Only 57%
How good are police, customs officers etc at detecting deception?
56%
No better than ordinary people
How well do secret service agents do at detecting deception?
64%
How well do CIA agents go at detecting deception?
74%
Even the best spies aren’t the best at detecting.
Why no better for professionals?
Due to person detecting being passive with a lack of interaction (this isn’t the case)
Stakes aren’t high enough - no reasons for the suspects to be nervous if the lies don’t matter to them.
Relying on the wrong cues.
Or giving incorrect explanation for behaviours. Eg. Lying or worried about proving innocence
There are no definite signs of lying!!!!
What happens to emotions when lying?
Higher voice pitch
Micro-expressions: tiny giveaways in facial expressions
What is the cognitive effects when lying?
More errors made -(Lying is mentally harder so need to keep track)
Less detail in what is being said as well as more structure.
Explain attempted behaviour control
People are more rigid and have less expression in an attempt to counteract nervous behaviour.
Can lie detecting be improved by training people to look for specific markers?
By being trained to ignore gaze aversion, monitor pauses and errors and looking for foot and leg movements etc.
Small improvement of 4%
How can active interviewing techniques be used to improve lie detection?
Active interactions have been shown to be effective.
- Increase cognitive load
- Strategic use of information- can reveal information at various times during the interview
What is thought to be the non-verbal signs of lying?
Signs of nervousness
Gaze aversion
Increased body movements
Fidgeting
What is thought to be the verbal signs of lying?
Reduced detail in speech content
Errors in speech
What are some ways to increase cognitive load?
Reverse order: when someone isn’t relying on genuine memories, this is difficult
Maintain eye contact: telling them they have to maintain eye contact
Increase the amount of information generated: increase the amount of info expected. Give an example from other witness in unrelated case
Different reporting modes: getting them to tell the story in drawings
What does increasing ones cognitive load lead to?
Increased frequency of errors and pauses
Better lie detection
What are some drawbacks to increasing cognitive load?
May increase the amount of inaccurate information generated by truth tellers during interview.
Especially when memory is poor
Effectiveness may depend on working memory capacity of the person being interviewed (ineffective for high wmc liars and problematic for low wmc truth tellers)
Unanticipated questions?
Liars prepare well for interviews - this benefit is reduced for unanticipated questions
Increases errors and lie detection
Why do people think they are worse liars that they actually are? (Reading)
They overestimate the extent to which their own thoughts, emotions and other mental states are transparent to others
Illusion of transparency
Also easier to detect serious lies and these serious lies are more likely to come to mind instead of the little with lies that have been told
What is the ostrich effect? (Reading)
Lies remain unnoticed because people do not attempt to detect them because they do not want to know the truth.
Why?
Lie may be more pleasant than the truth
Fear the consequences of the truth
They don’t know what to do with the truth
SUE technique?
Strategic use of evidence technique.
When investigators possess critical and possibly incriminating background information they can exploit these differential truth tellers and liars strategies by introducing the evidence during the interview in a strategic manner
What difference did they find between truth tellers and liars with the SUE technique
Truth tellers: forthcoming
Liars: avoidant
How much better at detecting lies were those with SUE training?
85% vs. 56%
