Behavioural Cues and Emotional Leakage Associated with Deception
A question that has interested professional lie detectors and laypersons alike for centuries has been “is there a discernible way of distinguishing between people who are telling the truth and those who aren’t?” This is an especially important question when put in to the context of the legal system where a person’s guilt or innocence is at stake or where an accused could be falsely convicted or exonerated. The nature of lying is two-pronged, whereby morality and self-service collide; how we feel about deception is highly dependent upon the reason for telling the lie. Everyone lies. In fact, people lie on average twice a day (DePaulo, Kashy, Kirkendol, Wyer, & Epstein, 1996) and would rather do so in an effort to censor themselves, then to express their true thoughts for fear of not being perceived in a positive light by others. We tell psychological lies for a number of reasons: to embellish or protect ourselves, to avoid tension or conflict in social interactions, or minimize hurt feelings (DePaulo, Kashy, Kirkendol, Wyer, & Epstein, 1996).
However, forensic context lies are likely to be “high-stakes”, which carry extreme consequences both for the liar and the target of the lie; for example, lying to conceal infidelity or in the context of violent crime, terrorism, governments, and business/corporations (ten Brinke, L. & Porter, S., 2011). Moreover, contrary to white lies, most high-stakes lies are accompanied by evolutionary developments of unconscious communication of covert information (speech, body language and facial expressions) as well as powerful emotions (such as fear, remorse, anger, or excitement) that must be hidden and/or feigned in a convincing way (ten Brinke, L., Porter, S., & Baker, A., 2011). Darwin hypothesised that some facial expressions associated with strong emotional responses were not under voluntary control, could not be completely inhibited and cannot be engaged intentionally during emotional stimulation, forming the
However, forensic context lies are likely to be “high-stakes”, which carry extreme consequences both for the liar and the target of the lie; for example, lying to conceal infidelity or in the context of violent crime, terrorism, governments, and business/corporations (ten Brinke, L. & Porter, S., 2011). Moreover, contrary to white lies, most high-stakes lies are accompanied by evolutionary developments of unconscious communication of covert information (speech, body language and facial expressions) as well as powerful emotions (such as fear, remorse, anger, or excitement) that must be hidden and/or feigned in a convincing way (ten Brinke, L., Porter, S., & Baker, A., 2011). Darwin hypothesised that some facial expressions associated with strong emotional responses were not under voluntary control, could not be completely inhibited and cannot be engaged intentionally during emotional stimulation, forming the
Cited: Darwin, C. (1872). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. DePaulo, B. M., Kashy, D. A., Kirkendol, S. E., Wyer, M. M., & Epstein, J. A. (1996). Lying in everyday life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 979–995 Porter S., ten Brinke L (2010) The truth about lies: What works in detecting high-stakes deception? Legal and Criminological Psychology 15: 57–75. ten Brinke, L. & Porter, S. (2011, in press). Cry me a river: Identifying the behavioural consequences of extremely high-stakes interpersonal deception. Law and Human Behavior. ten Brinke, L., Porter, S., & Baker, A. (2011, in press). Darwin the detective: Observable facial muscle contractions reveal emotional high-stakes lies. Evolution and Human Behavior. http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/lie-detection-misconceptions-pitfalls-and-opportunities-for-improvement.html