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Presentation - How to spot a liar
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Deception detection: using illustrator and adaptor gestures to distinguish between truthtellers and liarsIntroduction:
Research into deception detection tends to focus on questions that will raise cognitive load more in liars than in truth tellers, which is done by making the interview setting more difficult for interviewees and manipulating questions asked (Vrij et al, 2011). Lying is more cognitively demanding than truth telling (Vrij et al, 2008), which is why you can differentiate between a liar and a truth teller. This is bec
story that is believable and making sure they are consistent with what they say and remember what they have said in case they are being followed up on it (Vrij et al, 2011).
By raising cognitive load through asking interviewees to tell their stories in reverse order and by asking them to maintain eye contact results in preventing them from recalling events from a schema (Gilbert and Fisher, 2006) and if they maintain eye contact it is off-putting when trying to construct a lie.
By manipulating questions, for example by asking unanticipated questions, it can raise cognitive load as liars often plan their lies, which is more difficult to see then when they lie when they are put under pressure (De Paulo et al, 2003). Another way is by asking the same question twice as liars will have to remember what they said before and stay consistent and that is then a chance when they may lie un
(2003) argues that the relationship between deception and non-verbal behaviour is weak. This is due to cues being reliant on the situational context and the individual and some cues may not be identified by the researcher (Caso et al, 2006).
When looking at deception detection and hand movements there are self-adaptor gestures that are used to gratify the self or bodily needs (Ekman & Friesen, 1969) and Illustrator gestures which adapt or supplement what is being said verbally (Caso et al, 2006). De Paulo et al (2003) claimed that self-adaptor gestures are not associated with deception. This may be due to the fact that these gestures reflec
environment and not a deception study (De Paulo, Kashy, Kirkendol, Wyer & Epstein, 1996). De Paulo et al (2003) also concluded that illustrator gestures decrease when people lie. This is due to the fact that cognitive load results in neglecting body language, reducing overall movement (Ekman & Friesen, 1972).
This study aims to look at the difference between truth tellers and liars by observing self-adaptor gestures and illustrator gestures that are displayed.
Methods Results
Participants
The participants included one female adult and one male adult. The participants were recruited via an opportunity sampling. Overall, there were more self-adapting and less illustrator gestures in the interview with the liar than the truth teller. As seen in Table 1 (below), types of self-adapting gestures commonly shown in the liar’s interview were itching their head, neck, face and arms. Th
The participants were staff from the University of Hertfordshire. shown much more regularly in the liar’s interview to the truth teller’s interview. Self-adapting gestures the truth teller showed were playing with their hands and pulling up sleeves. The truth teller exhibited more illustrator gestures, like popping open prosec
whereas the liar showed very basic illustrator gestures, like distance from the stage. These gestures are used commonly when describing a concert setting. Also shown in Table 1 is the time for which the interviewees were talking. As seen, there is a difference of 57 s
Design of time they spent telling the interviewer their answer. This difference could be due to the liar needing more prompts and time to think about their answer compared to the truth teller.
Qualitative research was used to accumulate more information which would provide more in-depth information that would be
observed and analysed. A semi-structured interview was used so that the interviewer would be able to engage within the Table 1: Amount and types of gestures shown in the two interviews.
discussion and ask follow-up questions to prompt for further details if needed. The semi-structured interview took place in an
observational laboratory to allow for the behaviour of the participants to be recorded and noted down so that they could be
analysed later.
Data collection
The topic which the interview was going to be about was chosen between the participants. The two participants who were the
interviewees discussed amongst themselves of who would be the truth-teller or the liar when answering questions. The topic
guide was established to allow for open-ended questions to be asked as this would allow the interviewer to ask follow-up
questions. Follow up questions would prompt for more detailed answers. Two similar interviews were conducted, once with the
participant as the truth-teller and once with the participants as the liar. The interviews lasted on average for 6.45 minutes.
Altogether, there were five observers. This included one timer-observer, the timer would record how long the interviewees
The gesture rates show the average amount of self-adapting or illustrator gestures the interviewees performed each minute they were talking. Table 2 (below) shows the gestures rates for both types for each interview. The truth-teller averaged 1.86 self-adapting
responded to the main questions from the topic guide. This was timed from when the interviewee started speaking to when the
stopped speaking. The timer did this for both interviews. The response times for the questions for both interviews were then minute whereas the liar averaged 6.20. This could be due to the liar having to think more and develop the lie. For the illustrator gestures, the truth teller performs 5.91 gestures per minute compared to the liar who had 5.47. As the truth teller is re-living the e
added to get the total amount of time the interviewees spoke for. Two observers focused on identifying the illustrator gestures their minds, they may perform more illustrator gestures.
which were used to illustrate a visual image of what the interviewees are verbally stating. On the first watch of the recording,
the observers watched the recordings and noted down the number of illustrator gestures they had observed. On the second
watch, the observers noted down the type of illustrator gestures the interviewee displayed. These gestures include hand
gestures, such as by indicating the size or shape of the object, etc. The illustrator observers discussed their observations of the
interviews after completing them individually to ensure that they received similar results.
The other two observers were looking for self-adaptor gestures which are gestures made to satisfy the self or the body by self-
comforting. The self-adaptor observers watched the recording twice. On the first watch, the observers tallied down the number
of self-adaptor gestures they observed. On the second watch, the observers noted down the type of self-adaptor gestures
displayed by the interviewee. These gestures could include touching their hair, scratching their head, fiddling with hands, playing There were some gestures that did not fit within these brackets such as general movements of the hands when interviewees were thinking. These did not fit the description of a self-adapting nor
with accessories, etc. The self-adaptor observers discussed their observations of the interviews after completing them an illustrator gesture.
individually to ensure that they received similar results.
Data analysis Discussion:
The data collected includes the total number of self-adaptor gestures and the total number of illustrator gestures displayed by
the interviewees. Interviewee one was truth-teller and interviewee two was the liar. Within interview one, the total number of The aim of this study was to outline the distinctions between liars and truth tellers through observing illustrator and self-adapting gestures. The findings of this study demonstrated that liars are more likely to use self-adapting gestures whilst truth tellers will opt for il
self-adaptor gestures displayed was 12 and the total number of illustrator gestures displayed was 38. In interview two, the total
number of self-adaptor gestures displayed was 34 and the total number of illustrator gestures displayed was 30. The data
According to Gilbert and Fisher (2006) prompting interviewees to tell their stories in reverse order and maintaining eye contact will aid in deception detection. This study found this to be true as in the liars’ case when asked to repeat a story in an altered order
presents that the truth-teller displayed fewer self-adaptor gestures and fewer illustrator gestures whereas the liar presented
stuttering and long pauses. Unanticipated questions and asking the same question twice are also important as it puts the interviewee under pressure (De Paulo et al, 2003), in most cases an individual who is telling the truth will have no issues when recalling a part o
more self-adaptor gestures and more illustrator gestures (as presented in Table 1). The calculated gesture rates for the self-
adaptor gestures and illustrator gestures were higher for interview two (as presented in Table 2). The gesture rate was calculated however signs will start to show on a liar, and likewise to asking the same question twice, the liar may begin to change their story, or answer with things unrelated to the topic.
by dividing the number of gestures by the total time the interviewee spent speaking in minutes.
The findings also showed that the liars’ ‘story’ was shorter than the truth tellers’ story, which opposes the ideology that truth telling is faster than lying (Verschuere et al, 2018). The reasoning for this may be that the liar answers in less detail, as we know, lying is
spend less time answering in hopes of not getting caught out whereas truth tellers are more susceptible to including unnecessary detail (Vrig, 2010).
In future it would be interesting to see this study performed on people with different ethnic backgrounds as eye contact, body language and gestures all hold different meanings. An example being some middle-eastern countries who deem eye contact between op
African, Asian and some Latin countries avoiding eye contact is a sign of respect for elders/bosses (Thompson, 2017). Previous research has found that children as young as 4 pay attention to the accuracy of statements (Vanderbilt et al 2014; Nguyen et al 2016), in
would be interesting to see how they can distinguish between adults lying and telling the truth.
References:
Caso, L., Maricchiolo, F., Bonaiuto, M., Vrij, A., & Mann, S. (2006). The impact of deception and suspicion on different hand movements.
Journal of Nonverbal behavior, 30 (1), 1-19, 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., DePaulo, B.M., Lindsay, J.L., Malone, B.E., Muhlenbruck, L., Charlton, K., & Cooper, H. (2003). Cues to deception. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 74–118, Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1969). The repertoire o
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1972). Hand movements. Journal of Communication, 22, 353–374, Gilbert, J.A.E., & Fisher, R.P. (2006). The effects of varied retrieval cues on reminiscence in eyewitness memory. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20, 723–739., Vrij, A., Granhag, P. A., Mann, S., & Leal, S. (2011). Outsmarting the liars: Toward a cognitive lie detection approach. Current Directions in Psychological Scien
R., Leal, S., Milne, B., & Bull, R. (2008). Increasing cognitive load to facilitate lie detection: The benefit of recalling an event in reverse order. Law and Human Behaviour, 32, 253–265.
Bariso, J. (2015) An FBI Agent's 8 Ways to Spot a Liar. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/an-fbi-agent-s-8-ways-to-spot-a-liar.html, Verschuere, B., Köbisa, N., Meyer, Y., Rand, D., Shalvia, S. (2018) Taxing the Brain to Uncover Lying? Meta-analyzing the Effect of Imposing Cognitive Load on the Reaction-Time Costs of Lying. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition Volume 7, Issue
S., Granhag, P. (2010) Getting into the Minds of Pairs of Liars and Truth Tellers: An Examination of Their Strategies The Open Criminology Journal, 3, 17-22, Thompson, S. (2017). Cultural Differences in Body Language to be Aware of. Retrieved from https://virtualspeech.com/blog/cultural-differences-in-body-language, Vanderbilt KE, Heyman GD, Liu D. (2014) In the absence of conflicting testimony young ch
Sci. 17(3):443-51., Nguyen SP, Gordon CL, Chevalier T, Girgis H (2016). Trust and doubt: An examination of children's decision to believe what they are told about food. J Exp Child Psychol.144:66-83
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