A “weapon focus” effect in children

In this paper we examined beliefs about deception held by legal professionals. Three groups of presumed expert lie-catchers were investigated: police officers ( n =104), prosecutors ( n =158), and judges ( n =251). The experts' beliefs about deception were remarkably inconsistent with the general pattern resulting from studies mapping actual cues to deception. For example, a majority of police officers believed there is a strong relationship between (a) deceptive behaviour and gaze aversion and (b) deceptive behaviour and an increase in body movements. The scientific literature does not support this view. Furthermore, all three professional groups believed that truthful consecutive statements are more consistent than deceptive, and that it is easier to detect deception in interactive than non-interactive contexts. Research on deception shows the opposite. For five of the seven investigated items we found significant between-group differences. Both the genesis and the implications of these differences are discussed. Judging from self-ratings, the presumed experts admitted knowing close to nothing about scientific research on deception.     

Screening law enforcement cadets with the MMPI: An analysis of adverse impact

The MMPI was investigated for adverse impact against Blacks and Hispanics in a simulated employment selection procedure. Law enforcement academy cadets, who had received no preemployment psychological screening, took the MMPI on their first training day. The sample consisted of 184 males and 87 females with a mean age of 25.8 years. Twenty-five subjects were Black; 35 were Hispanic; and the remainder were white. Two clinical psychologists conducted a blind sort of the profiles, judging each as “acceptable” or “unacceptable” for employment as a law enforcement officer. Significant agreement was found for clinicians' judgments of suitablitity with no significant difference being found for either their overall acceptance rates or their acceptance rates for the different racial/ethnic groups. Also, there was no violation of the four-fifths rule. Analysis of variance found significant variability between groups on scales L and 6 (Pa) of the MMPI.     

Parents’ and non-parents’ beliefs about the cues to deception in children

Previous research has suggested that certain groups of experts are better at detecting deception than others. A possible explanation for this finding is that some expert groups have different beliefs about the cues to deception. This study investigated these beliefs in one such expert group, namely parents. Four different scenarios were presented, each scenario depicting a deception for a child at a different age. For each one, participants were asked to indicate whether behaviours would occur more or less frequently during deception. Some differences were found between parents and non-parents for overall beliefs, however there were few differences in their awareness of situational variations, with all participants being aware that deceptive behaviour could change across situations. Results are discussed in terms of the relationship between beliefs and expertise as well as the importance of direct versus indirect experience in the formation of beliefs about the cues to deception.     

Validation of a Short Form of the Marlowe-Crowne for Use with Law Enforcement Personnel

This study cross-validates a 13-question version of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale proposed by Reynolds (1982), using law enforcement professionals (n?=?241). A rational is offered for the importance of scales of this nature being used to assess honesty, social desirability and self-deception. External validity indicators including concurrent measures of aggression and prejudice as well as prehire MMPI scales K and L on a subset of this sample (n?=?70) are reviewed. Correlations between the 13-question version of the Marlowe-Crowne and external measures demonstrate robust effect sizes and statistical significance. Comparisons are also examined between officer scores and students from another cross-validation study of the 13-question short form of the Marlowe-Crowne (Zook & Sipps, 1984). Conclusions are made in consideration of the importance of honesty in law enforcement testing as well as the need for better means of accounting for variance due to social desirability in testing. Future directions for research are suggested.     

An investigation into the usefulness of the MMPI and MMPI-2 in municipal and state police candidate selection

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the later revision (MMPI-2) have been two of the most frequently employed instruments in the selection of law enforcement officers (Bartol, 1996). In this study, the following three sets of data were collected and analyzed: municipal law enforcement officer candidates tested with the MMPI, municipal law enforcement officer candidates tested with the MMPI-2, and state police trooper candidates tested with the MMPI-2. These three data sets were evaluated for their effectiveness at predicting “pass/fail” status on police candidate interview using multiple linear regression. A combination of subscales were found to be associated with classification as either pass or fail on interview.     

The role of deception in P300 memory detection

Purpose. P300 memory detection test is a neuroscientific procedure to assess memories stored in the brain. P300 memory detection can and is currently applied to assess criminal suspects on recognition of critical crime information. Contrasting memory detection with lie detection, researchers have argued that P300 memory detection does not involve deception. We empirically investigated this argument by manipulating deception between groups. Methods. Thirty‐four community volunteers participated in a P300 memory detection test, answering either deceptively (deceptive condition) or truthfully (truth condition) to their own name. Results. P300 memory detection was significant in the truth condition, indicating that deceptive responding is not a prerequisite for valid P300 memory detection. However, there were clear indications that deceptive responding improved memory detection. Conclusions. Deception seems involved in the P300 memory detection test; and deceptive responding may add to test accuracy.     

Detecting deception in suspects: verbal cues as a function of interview strategy

Research on deception has consistently shown that people are poor at detecting deception, partly due to lack of consistent cues to deception. This research focuses on eliciting verbal cues to deception when questioning suspects who deny crime and how such cues differ due to type of questioning. An experiment examined verbal differences between innocent and guilty mock suspects (N=96) as a function of veracity and interview style (Free recall, Probes, or Free recall plus Probes). Guilty (vs innocent) suspects omitted more crime-relevant information and their statements were more likely to contradict the evidence, showing that statement–evidence inconsistency was a cue to deception. This cue to deception was more pronounced when the interview contained probes. Lie-catchers (N=192) obtained an accuracy rate higher than chance (61.5%) for detecting deceptive denials. Implications for further research on verbal cues to deception are discussed.     

The Impact of Beliefs Concerning Deception on Perceptions of Nonverbal Behavior: Implications for Neuro-Linguistic Programming-Based Lie Detection

Regularly employed in a forensic context, the Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) model purports that the behavioral distinction between somebody who is remembering information and somebody who is constructing information lies in the direction of their eye movements. This strategy reflects numerous current approaches to lie detection, which presume that nonverbal behavior influences perceptions and judgments about deception. The present study emphasized a reverse order by investigating whether beliefs that an individual is deceptive influence perceptions of the respective individual’s nonverbal behavior as indicated by observed eye movement patterns. Sixty participants were randomly assigned to either a group informed that right eye movements indicate constructed and thus deceptive information or a group informed that left eye movements indicate constructed and thus deceptive information. Each participant viewed six investigative interviews depicting the eye movement patterns of mock suspects labeled as deceptive or truthful. The interviews were structured according to different right/left eye movement ratios. Results revealed that participants reportedly observed the deceptive suspects displaying significantly more eye movements in the direction allegedly indicative of deception than did the truthful suspects. This result occurred despite the fact that the actual eye movement ratios in both deceptive/truthful sets of interviews were identical and the eye movements were predominantly in the opposite direction of that allegedly indicative of deception. The results are discussed in the context of encoding-based cognitive-processing theories. Limitations on the generality of the results are emphasized and the applicability (or lack thereof) of NLP-based lie detection in forensic contexts is discussed.     

‘Wasn't me!’ A field study of the relationship between deceptive motivations and psychopathic traits in young offenders

Purpose. Evaluating truthfulness is an integral part of any forensic assessment. Unfortunately, the motives underlying the use of deceptive strategies by offenders and how these may be mediated by personality are not well established, particularly in adolescent samples. Accordingly, the aim of the present study was to identify different deception‐related motivations in a sample of juvenile offenders, with special emphasis placed on the relationship between these motivations and psychopathic traits. Methods. Archived file and videotaped information for 60 Canadian federal juvenile offenders were reviewed in order to identify real‐life (spontaneous) patterns of deceptive motivations. Results. It was found that there were significant differences between the low, medium, and high groups across psychopathic traits for the motivations of (1) lies to obtain a reward; (2) to heighten self‐presentation; and (3) for duping delight. Conclusions. Not only were juvenile offenders found to lie for a variety of reasons, but also psychopathy was found to mediate the specific motivational patterns leading to offender perpetrated deception. The relevance of these findings to the assessment of truthfulness in offender populations is discussed.     

Automation of a screening polygraph test increases accuracy

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of automating the Relevant–Irrelevant (RI) psychophysiological detection of deception test within a mock-screening paradigm. Eighty participants, recruited from the local community, took part in the study. Experimental design was a 2 (truthful/deceptive) by 2 (human/automation) factorial. Participants in the deceptive conditions attempted deception on two items of an employment application. Examinations conducted with the automated polygraph examination were significantly more accurate than examinations conducted by the human polygraph examiner. Statistical analyses revealed different patterns of physiological responses to deceptive items depending upon the automation condition. Those results have potentially interesting theoretical implications. The results of the present study are clearly supportive of additional efforts to develop a field application of an automated polygraph examination.     

Cold‐blooded lie catchers? An investigation of psychopathy,emotional processing,and deception detection

Purpose. The process of catching liars is challenging, though evidence suggests that deception detection abilities are influenced by the characteristics of the judge. This study examined individual differences in emotional processing and levels of psychopathic traits on the ability to judge the veracity of written narratives varying in emotional valence. Methods. Undergraduate participants (N= 251) judged the veracity of 12 written narratives (truthful/deceptive) across three emotional categories: positive, negative, and neutral events. Levels of psychopathy were assessed to investigate its relation to accuracy and cue use. Results. Overall accuracy was close to chance, although participants were more accurate in determining the veracity of truthful relative to deceptive narratives. Accuracy was impaired for emotional (positive and negative) relative to neutral narratives. Psychopathy was not associated with levels of overall accuracy, but related to discriminative ability, and differential use of cues in decision making. Reported cue use also differed across emotional narrative conditions. Conclusions. We speculated that an emotive truth bias may have detracted judges from attending to valid cues that are indicative of the deceptive nature of stimuli because they were distracted by the emotional content of the report. Implications for deception detection in forensic settings are discussed.     

Law enforcement officer seniority and PAI variables in psychological fitness for duty examinations

Sixty-two police officers were administered the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) during employer referred psychological Fitness for Duty Examinations (FFDEs). PAI scores were analyzed as a function of the length of time the officers had worked within law enforcement occupations. PAI subtest scales ARD, ARD-P, ARD-T and DEP scores all produced significant positive correlations between both the amount of time spent on the current police job and the total time served as a police officer within a bivariate Pearsonr correlation matrix. Implications for an understanding of psychometric test results within the FFDE context and the evolution of law enforcement officer personality patterns are discussed. Author Note: At the time this research was done, Beth Caillouet was with Matrix, Inc. She is now a graduate student in psychology. Cary Rostow, Ph.D., is a police psychologist and president of Matrix, Inc., and Robert Davis, Ph.D., is executive vice-president and director of science, research, and development for Matrix, Inc., Baton Rouge, LA.     

Incremental validity of MMPI and MMPI-2 clinical scales in detecting malingering

The efficacy of the F scale and F-K index in detecting faking of a mental illness was investigated for both the MMPI and MMPI-2. A total of 72 undergraduate students completed the MMPI and 74 completed the MMPI-2 after receiving instructions to feign severe mental illness. Student responses were analyzed against MMPI (n=180) and MMPI-2 (n=76) data obtained from psychiatric inpatients diagnosed with severe mental illnesses. Multiple regression analysis of the validity scales and F-K index indicate that the F scale is the best predictor of malingering both for the MMPI (r=64) and MMPI-2 (r=.74) and the two samples combined (r=.71). The Si and D scales accounted for statistically significant, yet small, amounts of incremental validity. The presence of a “sawtooth” pattern did not add any incremental validity. Though an F scale cut-off score of T>109 resulted in an 85.9% classification accuracy rate, it appears that categorizing scores into one of five ranges results in better classification accuracy than a single cut-off score.     

Cold-blooded women can detect lies with greater accuracy than other women

Lies are notoriously difficult to detect. But it appears that some people are better at accomplishing this task than others even though the factors contributing to deception detection accuracy are not well understood. This study explored the influence of empathy on the detection of deception as a function of the detectors’ gender while dark personality traits were statistically controlled. Eighty men and 80 women were requested to judge whether individuals viewed in videos were giving their true opinion or not on current debatable issues (50% truthful and 50% deceptive narratives). Judges were divided into four groups according to their gender and their degree of empathy, as assessed using the Questionnaire Measure of Emotional Empathy. It was found that women with lower levels of empathy distinguished false from true opinions better than women with higher empathy, whereas no such difference was found in men. These results suggest that the degree of empathy in women influences their ability to detect deception and supports recent studies showing that emotional skills negatively affect deception detection ability. We suggest that less empathic women are less affected by emotional contagion and thus may be more able to focus on non-emotional cues that might reveal deception.     

The serpent beguiled me and i did eat: Entrapment and the creation of crime

This paper examines the legitimacy of pro-active law enforcement techniques, i.e. the use of deception to produce the performance of a criminal act in circumstances where it can be observed by law enforcement officials. It argues that law enforcement officials should only be allowed to create the intent to commit a crime in individuals who they have probable cause to suppose are already engaged or intending to engage in criminal activity of a similar nature.     

SCAN as an investigative tool

Scientific content analysis (SCAN) is a technique that claims to enable the detection of deception in written statements. The underlying assumption is that statements of self-experienced events differ in several ways – such as liveliness and concreteness – from imaginary statements. It is used in many countries as an investigative tool. Nevertheless, little research on the reliability and validity of the SCAN technique is available. In this paper, two studies are presented. The first study focuses on the accuracy of SCAN to detect deception by three groups of raters with a different level of experience. This study shows a lack of validity of SCAN. Study 2 investigated the inter-rater reliability as a possible explanation for the poor validity results, and found little agreement between raters in identifying SCAN criteria. Overall, results indicate that the psychometric qualities of SCAN as an investigative tool is insufficient for use in police practice.     

A Sequence Analysis of Nonverbal Behaviour and Deception

The ability to correctly interpret nonverbal communication (NVC) is an important ability in everyday interactions, which may use NVC techniques to identify the concealment of information. In the present study, a novel approach was used to understand NVC. Behaviour sequence analysis identified specific sequences of behaviours that indicate psychological distress caused by deception. The study involved the analysis of 55 videos of real criminals and high-power individuals that were filmed fabricating statements, which were later exposed as being untruthful at the time of being filmed. In addition, 53 clips of criminals making truthful statements were also analysed as a contrast group. Results indicated clear differences between honest and deceptive responses, such as furrowing of eyebrows in the deceptive sequences occurring more often than honest statements. In addition, sequences of behaviours were shown in the present data set, which could indicate a new method for analysing NVC and detecting psychological distress caused by deception. The possible implications and applications for police and forensic investigation are also outlined.     

US police officers’ knowledge regarding behaviors indicative of deception: Implications for eradicating erroneous beliefs through training

Abstract

The current study surveyed a random sample of Texas law enforcement officers (n?=?109) about their knowledge regarding behaviors indicative of deception. The officers were not highly knowledgeable about this topic, overall performing at a chance level in assessing how various behavioral cues relate to deception. Confidence in one's skill was unrelated to accuracy, and officers who reported receiving the most training and utilizing these skills more often were more confident but no more accurate in their knowledge of the behaviors that typically betray deception. The authors compare these results to previous studies that have examined officers’ beliefs in other countries and discuss the implication of these results in terms of developing future training programs that may debunk the common misconceptions that officers possess.     

Understanding markers of trust within the online stolen data market: An examination of vendors’ signaling behaviors relative to product price point

Research Summary

The current study examined 1055 stolen data products across 40 vendors on the Open and Dark Web to determine whether different product- and vendor-level behaviors predicted vendors’ trustworthiness as reflected in their product price point. Understanding the mechanisms that convey trust in the underground marketplace is crucial as it could help law enforcement target serious actors and disrupt the larger marketplace. Findings suggest the online stolen data market may resemble an uninformative cost condition where buyers are unable to accurately differentiate credible sellers due to the obscure nature of signaling behaviors.

Policy Implications

Law enforcement would benefit from designing fake shops and deceptive forum posts that transmit mixed signals to complicate market participants’ process of interpreting trust signals as intended. These interventions would generate high levels of risk that encourage both buyers and sellers to exit the online illicit marketplace without needing law enforcement arrests. Law enforcement could also target prominent market facilitators to generate a larger disruption that prevents actors from continuing their illicit behavior.