Detecting Deception: Studying the Cues People Use to Distinguish Between Truth-Tellers and Liars

Previous research has found that although people are generally not accurate at detecting deception, when people are forced to process videos or stories intuitively, they are better at distinguishing between lies and truths (Albrechtsen, Meissner, & Susa, 2009). The current study incorporates an open-ended measure to learn more about what types of specific cues influence participants’ judgments of lies and truths. Seventy-one participants viewed 16 video clips, some truths and some lies. Participants were then asked to determine whether the video clip was a truth or a lie and to write down any deception cues they noticed that helped them make their decision. Some of the categories used to code these cues include: non-verbal, verbal story content, overall tone, delivery, and emotional delivery. Participants also responded to a scale measuring the extent to which they rely on intuition when making judgments. Results show that overall accuracy for lie detection is not significant, consistent with previous research. As we complete the coding of the cue listings, we expect that those who are more accurate in lie-detection will notice more deception-relevant cues than participants who are less accurate at lie detection, and that participants who rely more on intuition will be more accurate in detecting lies. This research combines individual difference measures of use of intuition, along with open-ended assessments of the cues that participants use, which has not yet been done in previous research, and will help us to learn more about how people distinguish between lies and truths