Interviewing to Detect Deception
Source: Economic & Social Research Council (UK)

The first major aim of the research is to investigate truth tellers and liars verbal and nonverbal responses under varying interview style conditions. (For example, in Study 2 participants will be asked to recall the event either in chronological order or in reverse order). The interview styles are derived from police practice and deception theory, and the outcomes of this first part of the project will result in a theoretical contribution to knowledge about deceptive responses. In the first part of Studies 1 to 3, a total of 230 college students lie or tell the truth about an event while they are interviewed under different interview style conditions. In Study 4, videotapes of real-life police interviews with suspects who lie or tell the truth will be used. The verbal and nonverbal responses of the liars and truth tellers will be analysed. The second major aim of the project is to investigate whether different interview styles affect police officers ability to detect deceit. In the second part of each study, a total of 455 police officers will watch the videotaped interviews (derived from Part One of the project) and will be asked to indicate for each interview whether the statement was truthful or not. The interview styles will be designed either to make lying more difficult for the participant or to result in more accurate observations by the police officers of the liars and truth tellers. Both will increase police officers ability to detect deceit.

+ Full Report (PDF; 342 KB)
+ Non-technical summary (PDF; 242 KB)

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