When the long road is the shortcut: a comparison between two coding methods for content-based lie-detection tools

When using a content-based lie detection tool, a decision regarding veracity is made by evaluating the presence of specific content criteria within the interviewee’s account. This evaluation can be achieved either by counting the frequency of occurrence of the criteria (frequency counts; FC) or by using a scale to rate the intensity at which they appear in the entire text (scale rates; SR). In the current study, we compared these two coding methods with respect to their accuracy in determining veracity, and their intercoder and test–retest reliabilities. Fourteen coders coded the presence of perceptual and contextual details in true and false statements, each used the FC method for one set of 30 statements and the SR method for another set of 30 statements. One month later, eight of the coders recoded 28 statements. Results showed a significant advantage for the FC method over the SR method. While the coders perceived the SR method as less time-consuming than the FC method, accuracy level as well as intercoder and test–retest reliabilities were higher for the FC than for the SR method. These findings suggest that when using a content-based lie detection tool, FC coding should be preferred over SR coding.     

Can someone fabricate verifiable details when planning in advance? It all depends on the crime scenario

In the current study we examined the effect of having the opportunity to plan an alibi in advance on the suitability of the verifiability approach in two crime scenarios that differed in their opportunity to carry out innocent activities at the time of the crime. One hundred and two participants imagined being involved in stealing money either from a café at a time when it was open (allows innocent activities) or from a bank at a time when it was closed (does not allow innocent activities). We asked participants about their strategies and difficulties in preparing a verifiable alibi in advance, and to write down their prepared alibis. The participants in both groups found this task difficult and did not differ in the difficulties they experienced, however they differed in their strategies (plans to include true witnesses) and actual success in the task. Participants in the Café scenario provided 30% more verifiable details than the participants in the Bank scenario. Strategies and difficulties mentioned by the participants are presented in the paper, and the implications of the study's results on the application of the verifiability approach are discussed.     

THE HAGUE CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL CHILD ABDUCTION AND THE GRAVE RISK OF HARM EXCEPTION

International child abduction is a problem that affects families around the world. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was instituted to ensure that abducted children are promptly and safely returned home. Although the goal has been met, recent decisions and their use of Article 13(b) have limited the return of children to Israel on the premise that political turmoil and increased incidences of terrorist attacks constitute war. Although few would dispute that the recent escalation of terrorist attacks in Israel is troublesome, these incidences do not rise to the level of war. Such interpretations of Article 13(b) is too broad and undermines the Convention's policies. Unfortunately, in the global post-September 11th climate, terror attacks are inevitable throughout the world. In light of this harsh reality, courts must not be quick to declare that a country is a zone of war absent clear and convincing evidence.     

Emotions in Management and the Management of Emotions: The Impact of Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Politics on Public Sector Employees

Readers are invited to a rendezvous with the meaning of the heart and emotions in public administration. Despite the growing interest in recent years in emotional intelligence within the managerial literature, too little has been written about emotional intelligence within the public sector. This is surprising in light of New Public Management voices that stress flexibility, responsiveness, and a focus on the needs and demands of citizens. The functionality of the heart in a mind‐oriented bureaucracy is analyzed, and a model is suggested for exploring the relationship between emotional intelligence, organizational politics, and employees' performance in public agencies. This model is empirically tested in two Israeli municipalities. The results support a moderating role of emotional intelligence in the relationship between organizational politics and emotional commitment, as well as between organizational politics and employees' absenteeism. Other direct mediating effects of political perceptions and skills are noted. Implications for theory development, future empirical studies, as well as practical recommendations are suggested.     

Rethinking calculation: the popularization of financial trading outside the global centres of finance

Abstract

The paper looks at the popularization of financial trading in Israel. It presents a qualitative analysis of the calculative models and techniques that are promoted by financial trading schools, service firms and books. Broadly, the popularization of trading in this field involves a focus on ‘technical analysis’ (TA) and relies upon a socio-psychological reading of financial charts. Incorporating explicitly non-economic ideas into traders’ calculative logic – including an emic notion of ‘performativity’ – popular TA constitutes an attempt to ‘reverse’ the making of markets: to calculatively trace price formations back to the minds, hearts and arrangement from which they had allegedly sprung as a means of foreseeing their future shape before it fully materializes. Tying the psyche and the market in a calculative loop, popular TA transcends existing social theories of financial calculation. The paper discusses this challenge and its implications for our understanding of the expansion of finance.     

Elaborations on credibility judgments by professional lie detectors and laypersons: strategies of judgment and justification

Abstract

Laypersons and professional lie detectors differ in biases of credibility judgment. The former are biased toward the truth, whereas the latter are biased toward lies. In an attempt to further understand these differences, the present study focused on the process of credibility judgment, rather than on its outcome. Forty-nine professionals (27 officers, 11 interrogators, 11 intelligence and secret services agents) and 40 laypersons (students) read an account of an event, and judged the credibility of the narrator; namely, the likelihood that he had actually experienced the event. Laypersons tended to believe the narrator more than professionals. The two groups also differed from each other in judgmental strategy (heuristic versus systematic) and justification (of either believing or disbelieving the narrator), and in the interpretation of the very same heuristics. Overall, the data showed that in credibility judgment laypersons and professionals process information differently: analyzing the very same statement, the former tended to consider it as true, whereas the latter tended to consider it as false. These data may partially account for the observed biases in credibility judgment of laypersons and professionals.