Exposing Suspects to Their Sketches in Repeated Interviews to Elicit Information and Veracity Cues / Exponiendo en entrevistas repetidas a los sospechosos a sus esquemas para obtener información e indicios de veracidad

Background/Aim: has shown that sketching while narrating facilitates the elicitation of information and verbal veracity cues in single interviews. We examined if these effects are retained when suspects are shown their sketch after one week in a repeated interview. Method: Participants (N = 173) completed a mock mission and then told the truth or lied about it in an immediate interview (interview 1). Participants either verbally reported the mission (Free recall condition) or sketched it while describing what they were sketching (sketch condition). After one week, all participants were asked for a free recall without sketching (interview 2). Half of the participants in the Sketch condition had access to their sketch while they verbally reported the event whereas the remaining half did not access the sketch. Results: Truth tellers provided more information than lie tellers in both interviews, and sketching elicited more information than a free recall but only in Interview 1. Participants who had access to their sketch in interview 2 repeated more information than those who did not have access, but accessing the sketch did not have an effect on veracity cues. Conclusions: Thus, sketching enhanced the elicitation of information in Interview 1 and access to the sketch in interview 2 seemed helpful for recalling previously reported information. (AU)

Antecedentes/objetivo: La investigación ha revelado que el uso de esquemas mientras se lleva a cabo una narración facilita la obtención de información y de indicios verbales de veracidad en una entrevista. Analizamos si estos efectos se mantienen cuando se somete a los sospechosos a su esquema de los hechos en entrevistas repetidas (una semana después). Método: Los participantes (N = 173) completaron una misión simulada y luego contaban la verdad o mentían sobre la misma en una entrevista realizada de modo inmediato (entrevista 1). Los participantes o bien referían verbalmente la misión (condición de recuerdo libre) o la esquematizaban (condición de esquematización). Después de una semana se pidió a todos los participantes un recuerdo libre sin esquematizar (entrevista 2). La mitad de los participantes de la condición de esquematización podían acceder a su esquema mientras referían verbalmente el suceso y la otra mitad no tenía acceso al esquema. Resultados: Los que contaban la verdad daban más información que los que mentían en ambas entrevistas y el esquema facilitaba más información que el recuerdo libre aunque tan solo en la entrevista 1. Aquellos participantes que tenían acceso a su esquema en la entrevista 2 repetían más información que quienes no tenían acceso, aunque el acceso no tenía efecto alguno en indicios de veracidad. Conclusiones: En conclusión, los esquemas incrementaron la obtención de información en la entrevista 1 y el acceso al esquema en la entrevista 2 resultó útil para recordar la información relatada previamente. (AU)

Orienting versus inhibition: The theory behind the ocular-based Concealed Information Test.

When trying to conceal one's knowledge, various ocular changes occur. However, which cognitive mechanisms drive these changes? Do orienting or inhibition-two processes previously associated with autonomic changes-play a role? To answer this question, we used a Concealed Information Test (CIT) in which participants were either motivated to conceal (orienting + inhibition) or reveal (orienting only) their knowledge. While pupil size increased in both motivational conditions, the fixation and blink CIT effects were confined to the conceal condition. These results were mirrored in autonomic changes, with skin conductance increasing in both conditions while heart rate decreased solely under motivation to conceal. Thus, different cognitive mechanisms seem to drive ocular responses. Pupil size appears to be linked to the orienting of attention (akin to skin conductance changes), while fixations and blinks rather seem to reflect arousal inhibition (comparable to heart rate changes). This knowledge strengthens CIT theory and illuminates the relationship between ocular and autonomic activity.

A new theoretical perspective on concealed information detection.

The concealed information test (CIT) was designed to detect concealed knowledge. It does so by measuring differential physiological and behavioral responses to concealed, compared to control, items - i.e., the CIT effect. Although the CIT has gained extensive empirical support in laboratory studies, scientific validity requires also a theoretical understanding of the method's underlying mechanisms. In this article, we present a new theoretical perspective. Specifically, we elaborate and clarify several features of Orienting Response (OR) theory, which has been the dominant theory in this domain. Importantly, we suggest for the first time that the voluntary (rather than the involuntary) OR modulates the CIT effect. Second, we argue that motivational-emotional accounts of the CIT effect are consistent with OR theory and cannot be considered as alternative approaches. Finally, we discuss some more recent developments which highlight the idea that different physiological measures reflect different underlying mechanisms - an idea dubbed as response fractionation.

Mapping Details to Elicit Information and Cues to Deceit: The Effects of Map Richness / Mapeando los detalles para obtener información e indicios de engaño: los efectos de la riqueza del mapa

Background:Investigators often use maps in forensic interviews to verify a route that was taken by a suspect to obtain additional information, and to assess credibility.Method: We examined the effects of the level of map richness on the elicitation of information and cues to deceit. A total of 112 participants completed a mock secret mission and were asked to tell the truth (to a friendly agent) or to lie (to a hostile agent) about it in an interview. In phase 1 of the interview, all participants provided a verbal free recall of the mission. In phase 2, half of the participants were given a detailed map that included all street names and landmarks of the city where they completed the mission (zoomed in to 80%), and the other half were given a less detailed map that included the names of only major streets and landmarks (zoomed in to 60%). All participants were asked to verbally describe the mission and the route taken while sketching on the map. Results: Compared to lie tellers, truth tellers provided more location, action, temporal, and object details and complications in phase 1, and new person, location, action, and object details and complications in phase 2. Map richness did not have an effect on the amount of information elicited and had an equal effect on truth tellers and lie tellers. Conclusions: This initial experiment in this research area suggests that investigators do not have to worry about the exact level of map detailedness when introducing maps in interviews.

Antecedentes: Los investigadores utilizan a menudo mapas en las entrevistas forenses para verificar el camino seguido por un sospechoso para obtener más información y para valorar la credibilidad. Método: Analizamos los efectos del nivel de riqueza del mapa en la obtención de información e indicios de engaño. Un total de 112 participantes simularon participar en una misión secreta, pidiéndoseles que, en una entrevista, dijeran la verdad (a un agente amistoso) o mintieran (a un agente hostil) sobre la misión. En la fase 1 de la entrevista se recabó de los participantes un recuerdo libre de la misión y en la fase 2 se facilitó a la mitad un mapa detallado con los nombres de las calles y puntos de referencia de la ciudad en la que habían llevado a cabo la misión (ampliado hasta el 80%) y a la otra mitad se les dio un mapa menos detallado solo con los nombres de las calles y puntos de referencia principales (ampliado hasta el 60%). Se pidió a los participantes que describieran verbalmente la misión y el camino seguido al tiempo que la proyectaban en el mapa. Resultados: En comparación con los participantes instruidos para mentir, los instruidos para contar la verdad daban más detalles sobre ubicación, acciones, tiempo y objetos y complicaciones en la fase 1 y detalles nuevos sobre personas, ubicaciones, acciones y objetos y complicaciones en la fase 2. La riqueza del mapa no influía en el volumen de información producida y tenía el mismo efecto, tanto en los instruidos para contar la verdad como una mentira. Conclusiones: Este primer experimento en esta área de investigación sugiere que los investigadores no deben preocuparse por el nivel exacto de detalle del mapa cuando introduzcan estos en las entrevistas.

Combining verbal veracity assessment techniques to distinguish truth tellers from lie tellers / Combinando técnicas verbales de evaluación de la veracidad para discriminar testimonios verdaderos de falsos

Cognitive Credibility Assessment (CCA) is a verbal lie detection tool consisting of several interview techniques. These techniques have been examined separately but never together. Reflecting the dynamic nature of CCA we combined several of the techniques (free recall followed by a model statement, followed by a reverse order instruction, and followed by a sketch instruction). We examined the new information provided after each stage of the interview and also compared the information provided in the initial recall with the information provided after the entire interview. A total of 47 truth tellers and 47 lie tellers went on a mission. Truth tellers were asked to report their mission truthfully, whereas lie tellers were requested to lie about several aspects of the mission. We measured the total units of information (total details) provided in the interview and the number of complications reported. The results indicate that the pre-registered hypothesis (Hypothesis 1) was supported for complications. Truth tellers reported more complications than lie tellers in each stage of the interview and the difference was more pronounced after the entire interview than after the free recall. As a conclusion, CCA was an effective lie detection method when complications were taken into account

La evaluación cognitiva de la credibilidad (ECC) es una herramienta verbal de detección de mentiras que incluye varias técnicas de entrevista. Dichas técnicas se han examinado por separado pero nunca juntas. Para reflejar el carácter dinámico de la ECC combinamos varias de las técnicas (recuerdo libre seguido de una declaración tipo, seguido de una instrucción de recuerdo en orden inverso, y de una instrucción para que hagan un sketch -esquema- durante la narración del evento). Analizamos la información nueva proporcionada tras cada etapa de la entrevista y también comparamos la información procedente del recuerdo inicial con la aportada por toda la entrevista. Un total de 47 sujetos que decían la verdad y 47 que mentían fueron enviados a una misión. A los participantes de la condición de testimonio verdadero se les pidió que informaran de su misión de modo veraz, mientras que los de la condición de mentira se les solicitó que mintieran sobre distintos aspectos de la misión. Se midió el total de unidades de información (detalles totales) de la entrevista y el número de complicaciones de las que se informaba. Los resultados mostraron que los participantes de la condición de verdad informaban de más detalles y complicaciones (hipótesis 1) en cada fase de la entrevista siendo las mayores diferencias tras la entrevista global que tras el recuerdo libre. En conclusión, la categoría complicaciones de la ECC es eficaz en la detección de la mentira

El Papel De Las Prácticas De Crianza En La Mentira Antisocial Infantil: Una Revisión Sistemática / The Role Of Parenting Practices On Children’s Antisocial Lies: A Systematic Review

Objetivo: El objetivo principal del presente trabajo es identificar los estilos o prácticas de crianza asociados al desarrollo de la mentira antisocial en niños y adolescentes. Metodología: Se realizó una revisión sistemática mediante el nuevo protocolo PRISMA donde se analizan exhaustivamente trece estudios seleccionados. Resultados: Los estilos de crianza agresivos o caracterizados por una supervisión parental deficiente se relacionaban con un mayor nivel de mentiras antisociales. Se encontraron resultados inconsistentes en cuanto a la influencia de las prácticas de sinceridad/mentira en el comportamiento mentiroso entre el contexto de laboratorio y el natural. Conclusiones: La conducta mentirosa infantil de carácter antisocial se relaciona con una peor adaptación delos menores a la sociedad, por lo que es importante su prevención a través de prácticas de crianza apropiadas. Palabras clave: Mentira antisocial, Desarrollo, Prácticas de crianza, Revisión sistemática, PRISMA, Teoría de la mente y estilos de crianza. (AU)

Objective: The main objective of the present work is to identify parenting styles or practices associated with the development of antisocial lying in children and adolescents. Methodology: A systematic review was carried out using the new PRISMA protocol in which the thirteen studies selected were exhaustively analyzed. Results: Aggressive parenting style and poor parental supervision werere lated to a greater number of antisocial lies. Inconsistent results were found regarding the influence of honesty/dishonesty practices on lying behavior between the laboratory and natural contexts. Conclusions: Antisocial lying behavior is related to a worse adaptation of children to society. Thus, its prevention through positive parenting practices is of crucial importance. (AU)

Improving the quality of sexual history disclosure on sex offenders: Emphasis on a polygraph examination.

The increasing recidivism rate of sex offenders indicates potential problems in existing recidivism programs. The present study was conducted to determine whether the polygraph examination is a useful technique to obtain a sex offender's concealed past sexual history. We collected fifty-two sex offenders' data and analyzed it. Among the 52 participants, the court ordered 26 sex offenders to take the psychiatric evaluation and the polygraph test. The other half were prisoners at the hospital who were currently undergoing treatment. The participants in the polygraph group disclosed more deviant sexual behaviors and paraphilia interests/behaviors than the comparison group. Thus, the polygraph examination is a powerful tool that can encourage sex offenders to disclose hidden information to help create suitable psychological therapy programs for preventing recidivism in the future.

Do people detect deception the way they think they do? replication and extensions / ¿La gente detecta las mentiras tal como cree que lo hace? Replicación y ampliaciones

BACKGROUND: Research shows that people believe deception can be detected from behavioral cues despite their past experience of detecting lies from non-behavioral, contextual information (evidence, third-person reports, etc.). However, in previous research, the question about beliefs was necessarily general, while the question about revealing information was always about a specific lie. In this study, we addressed this problem. METHOD: Participants first indicated how they believed lies can be detected (beliefs; Questionnaire 1 or Q1). Next, they described either how they, in their past, detected a specific lie, several lies, or how they, in general, detect lies in their everyday lives (revealing information; Q2). RESULTS: Regardless of the focus of Q2, and in line with prior research, behavioral cues were reported less often, and contextual indicators more often, in responding to Q2 than in responding to Q1. However, contrary to prior findings, behavioral cues still predominated in the responses to Q2. CONCLUSIONS: We found no evidence that the specific-vs.-general focus of the questions changed the pattern of results, which apparently depended solely on whether participants reported beliefs or revealing information. We provide explanations for the prevalence of behavioral cues in Q2 responses, and make suggestions for future research

ANTECEDENTES: la investigación muestra que las personas creen que la mentira se detecta a partir de claves conductuales pese a haber detectado mentiras en el pasado a partir de información contextual (evidencias, información de terceros...). En dicha investigación previa, la pregunta sobre creencias ha sido general, mientras que la referente a información reveladora ha sido sobre una mentira concreta. Este estudio resuelve este problema. MÉTODO: los participantes indicaron cómo creían que se pueden detectar mentiras (creencias; Cuestionario 1 o C1). Luego describieron cómo, en el pasado, habían descubierto una mentira, varias mentiras, o cómo, en general, suelen detectar mentiras en su vida cotidiana (información reveladora; C2). RESULTADOS: independientemente de la modalidad de C2, y en línea con la investigación previa, las claves conductuales se mencionaron menos, y los indicadores contextuales más, al responder a C2 que a C1. Sin embargo, se mencionaron más indicios conductuales que contextuales incluso en C2. CONCLUSIONES: no hallamos evidencia de que el foco específico o general de las preguntas cambiara el patrón de resultados, que al parecer dependió solo de si se mencionaban creencias o información reveladora. Ofrecemos explicaciones para la prevalencia de claves conductuales en C2 y hacemos sugerencias para la investigación futura

Language does not modulate fake news credibility, but emotion does / El lenguaje no modula la credibilidad de las noticias falseadas, pero la emoción sí

The proliferation of fake news in internet requires understanding which factors modulate their credibility and take actions to limit their impact. A number of recent studies have shown an effect of the foreign language when making decisions: reading in a foreign language engages a more rational, analytic mode of thinking (Costa et al., 2014, Cognition). This analytic mode of processing may lead to a decrease in the credibility of fake news. Here we conducted two experiments to examine whether fake news stories presented to university students were more credible in the native language than in a foreign language. Bayesian analyses in both experiments offered support for the hypothesis that the credibility of fake news is not modulated by language. Critically, Experiment 2 also showed a strong direct relationship between credibility and negative emotionality regardless of language. This pattern suggests that the driving force behind the engagement in an automatic thinking mode when reading fake news is not language (native vs. foreign) but emotionality

La proliferación de noticias falseadas en internet requiere entender qué factores modulan su credibilidad y tomar medidas para limitar su impacto. Una serie de estudios recientes han demostrado un efecto del idioma extranjero en la toma de decisiones: la lectura en un idioma extranjero implica un modo de pensar más racional y analítico (Costa et al., 2014, Cognition). Este modo analítico de procesamiento puede originar una disminución de la credibilidad de las noticias falseadas. En el presente estudio, se realizaron dos experimentos para examinar si las noticias falseadas presentadas a los estudiantes universitarios eran más creíbles en el idioma nativo que en un idioma extranjero. Los análisis bayesianos en ambos experimentos apoyaron la hipótesis de que la credibilidad de las noticias falseadas no se encuentra modulada por la lengua. Por otra parte, en el Experimento 2 se encontró una fuerte relación directa entre la credibilidad y la emotividad negativa sin importar el idioma. Este patrón sugiere que lo que induce la activación del pensamiento automático a la hora de leer noticias falseadas es el grado de emocionalidad, y no el idioma en el que están escritas

The relationship of counterfactual reasoning and false belief understanding: the role of prediction and explanation tasks

The relation between the prediction and explanation of the false belief task (FBT) with counterfactual reasoning (CFR) was explored. Fifty eight 3-5 year-olds received a prediction or an explanation FBT, a belief attribution task and some counterfactual questions of increasing difficulty. Linguistic comprehension was also controlled. CFR highly predicted FBT in the explanation version but not in the prediction one. Additionally, results in the explanation version indicate that CFR underlies achievements prior to the understanding of the representational mind and stimulates the explicitness of the mental domain. This study identifies the conditions under which CFR becomes a fundamental cognitive tool for social cognition. The results obtained contribute to the dialog between the two major theoretical approaches: theory-theory and simulation theory

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The efficacy of using countermeasures in a model statement interview / La eficacia del uso de contramedidas en una entrevista de declaración modelo

In a countermeasures experiment, we examined to what extent liars who learn about the Model Statement tool and about the proportion of complications (complications/complications + common knowledge details + self-handicapping strategies) can successfully adjust their responses so that they sound like truth tellers. Truth tellers discussed a trip they had made; liars fabricated a story. Participants were of Lebanese, Mexican, and South-Korean origin. Prior to the interview they did or did not receive information about (I) the working of the Model statement and (II) three types of verbal detail: complications, common knowledge details and self-handicapping strategies. We found no evidence that liars sounded like truth tellers after being informed about the Model Statement and/or types of detail we examined. Actually, veracity differences were similar across experimental conditions, with truth tellers reporting more detail and more complications and obtaining a higher proportion of complications score than liars

En un experimento de contramedidas examinamos hasta qué punto los mentirosos que reciben información sobre la Declaración modelo y la proporción de complicaciones que presenta (complicaciones / complicaciones + detalles de conocimiento general + estrategias de autoobstaculización) pueden ajustar sus respuestas con éxito para que parezca que dicen la verdad. Los que dicen la verdad declararon sobre un viaje que habían hecho; los mentirosos inventaron una historia. Los participantes eran de origen libanés, mexicano y surcoreano. Antes de la entrevista habían recibido o no información sobre (I) el funcionamiento de la Declaración modelo y (II) tres tipos de detalles verbales: complicaciones, detalles de conocimiento general y estrategias de autoobstaculización. No encontramos evidencia de que los mentirosos se parecieran a los que dicen la verdad después de ser informados sobre la Declaración modelo y los tipos de detalle que examinamos. En realidad, las diferencias de veracidad fueron semejantes en todas las condiciones experimentales: los que decían la verdad informaron con mayor detalle y de más complicaciones y obtuvieron una mayor puntuación en la proporción de complicaciones que los mentirosos

Verbal baselining: within-subject consistency of CBCA scores across different truthful and fabricated accounts / La línea base verbal: la congruencia intrasujeto de las puntuaciones del CBCA en diferentes relatos veraces e inventados

Statement Validity Assessment (SVA) proposes that baseline statements on different events can serve as a within-subject measure of a witness' individual verbal capabilities when evaluating scores from Criteria-based Content Analysis (CBCA). This assumes that CBCA scores will generally be consistent across two accounts by the same witness. We present a first pilot study on this assumption. In two sessions, we asked 29 participants to produce one experience-based and one fabricated baseline account as well as one experience-based and one fabricated target account (each on different events), resulting in a total of 116 accounts. We hypothesized at least moderate correlations between target and baseline indicating a consistency across both experience-based and fabricated CBCA scores, and that fabricated CBCA scores would be more consistent because truth-telling has to consider random event characteristics, whereas lies must be constructed completely by the individual witness. Results showed that differences in correlations between experience-based CBCA scores and between fabricated CBCA scores took the predicted direction (cexperience-based = .44 versus cfabricated =.61) but this difference was not statistically significant. As predicted, a subgroup of event-related CBCA criteria were significantly less consistent than CBCA total scores, but only in experience-based accounts. The discussion considers methodological issues regarding the usage of total CBCA scores and whether to measure consistency with correlation coefficients. It is concluded that more studies are needed with larger samples

El Statement Validity Assessment (SVA) propone que las declaraciones sobre diferentes eventos pueden servir como una línea base intrasujeto de la medida de las capacidades verbales individuales de un testigo al evaluar las puntuaciones del Criteria Based Content Analysis (CBCA). Esto implica que las puntuaciones del CBCA serán congruentes en dos relatos del mismo testigo. Presentamos un primer estudio piloto sobre este supuesto. Se pidió a 29 participantes en dos sesiones que elaboraran un relato verdadero (línea base) y otro inventado, además de un relato verdadero y otro inventado (cada uno en situaciones diferentes), arrojando un total de 116 relatos. Se planteó la hipótesis de una correlación al menos moderada entre la declaración fabricada y la verdadera, que indicaría una consistencia entre las puntuaciones en el CBCA de relatos inventados y experimentados y que las puntuaciones en el CBCA inventadas serían más consistentes porque la verdad incluye las características aleatorias de los hechos, mientras que las mentiras las construye totalmente el testigo. Los resultados mostraron que las diferencias en las correlaciones entre las puntuaciones en el CBCA de relatos experimentados y fabricados iban en la dirección predicha (cvivido = .44 frente a cinventado = .61), pero esta diferencia no fue significativa. Como se predijo, un subgrupo de criterios de CBCA relacionados con los hechos fue menos congruente que las puntuaciones totales de CBCA, pero sólo en los relatos de hechos experimentados. Se discuten las implicaciones metodológicas relacionadas con el uso de las puntuaciones totales del CBCA y si se debe medir la consistencia mediante el coeficiente de correlación. Se concluye que se necesitan otros estudios con muestras más grandes

Neural correlates of anxiety under interrogation in guilt or innocence contexts.

Interrogation elicits anxiety in individuals under scrutiny regardless of their innocence, and thus, anxious responses to interrogation should be differentiated from deceptive behavior in practical lie detection settings. Despite its importance, not many empirical studies have yet been done to separate the effects of interrogation from the acts of lying or guilt state. The present fMRI study attempted to identify neural substrates of anxious responses under interrogation in either innocent or guilt contexts by developing a modified "Doubt" game. Participants in the guilt condition showed higher brain activations in the right central-executive network and bilateral basal ganglia. Regardless of the person's innocence, we observed higher activation of the salience, theory of mind and sensory-motor networks-areas associated with anxiety-related responses in the interrogative condition, compared to the waived conditions. We further explored two different types of anxious responses under interrogation-true detection anxiety in the guilty (true positive) and false detection anxiety in the innocent (false positive). Differential neural responses across these two conditions were captured at the caudate, thalamus, ventral anterior cingulate and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. We conclude that anxiety is a common neural response to interrogation, regardless of an individual's innocence, and that there are detectable differences in neural responses for true positive and false positive anxious responses under interrogation. The results of our study highlight a need to isolate complex cognitive processes involved in the deceptive acts from the emotional and regulatory responses to interrogation in lie detection schemes.

Valoración forense integral del maltrato infantil intrafamiliar / Child abuse due to domestic violence: Integral forensic assessment

El abordaje del maltrato infantil intrafamiliar (MII) es uno de los más complejos en medicina forense. Los objetivos periciales son la evaluación del daño físico-psíquico y de los indicadores de MII, el análisis de credibilidad del testimonio y el estudio de la dinámica familiar. En este artículo se revisa la sistemática de abordaje del MII (fuentes de documentación, evaluación psíquica, recogida del relato y uso de pruebas psicológicas); se propone un modelo de exploración psíquico basado en bloques, se formulan pautas para la determinación del nexo causal entre hechos denunciados y daño detectado, y para el análisis de la credibilidad con el fin de concluir sobre la coherencia del relato. También se describen los principales indicadores de MII. Las conclusiones del informe forense se deben basar en evidencias sólidas ya que una peritación deficiente podría producir daños irreparables en víctimas menores y sus familias

The approach to child abuse due to domestic violence is one of the most complex in forensic medicine. The objectives are the evaluation of the physical-psychological damage and of the indicators of child abuse, the analysis of credibility of the testimony and the study of the family dynamics. In this article, the systematic approach to child abuse is reviewed: sources of documentation, psychological evaluation, story gathering and use of psychological tests. A model of psychological exploration based on blocks is proposed, guidelines for the determination of the causal relationship between allegation of ill-treatment and damage detected are formulated, and recommendations for the analysis of credibility in order to conclude on the coherence of the story are suggested. The main indicators of child abuse are also described. The conclusions of the forensic report must be based on solid evidence, since poor evaluation could cause irreparable damage to children and their families

Applying the verifiability approach to deception detection in alibi witness situations.

The application of alibi witness scenarios to deception detection has been overlooked. Experiment 1 was a study of the verifiability approach in which truth-telling pairs completed a mission together, whereas in lying pairs one individual completed this mission alone and the other individual committed a mock theft. All pairs were instructed to convince the interviewer that they completed the mission together by writing individual statements on their own followed by a collective statement together as a pair. In the individual statements, truth-telling pairs provided more checkable details that demonstrated they completed the mission together than lying pairs, whereas lying pairs provided more uncheckable details than truth-telling pairs. The collective statements made truth-telling pairs provide significantly more checkable details that demonstrated they were together in comparison to the individual statements, whereas no effect was obtained for lying pairs. Receiver Operating Characteristic curves revealed high accuracy rates for discriminating between truths and lies using the verifiability approach across all statement types. Experiment 2 was a lie detection study whereby observers' abilities to discriminate between truths and lies using the verifiability approach were examined. This revealed that applying the verifiability approach to collective statements improved observers' ability to accurately detect deceit. We suggest that the verifiability approach could be used as a lie detection technique and that law enforcement policies should consider implementing collective interviewing.

When and Why Being Ostracized Affects Veracity Judgments.

Ostracism-being ignored and excluded by others-is a ubiquitous experience with adverse effects on well-being. To prevent further exclusion and regain belonging, ostracized individuals are well advised to identify affiliation partners who are sincerely well-disposed. Humans' ability to detect lies, however, is generally not very high. Yet, veracity judgments can become more accurate with decreasing reliance on common stereotypic beliefs about the nonverbal behavior of liars and truth-tellers. We hypothesize that ostracized (vs. included) individuals base their veracity judgments less on such stereotypical nonverbal cues if message content is affiliation-relevant. In line with this hypothesis, Experiment 1 shows that ostracized (vs. included) individuals are better at discriminating affiliation-relevant lies from truths. Experiments 2 and 3 further show that ostracized (vs. included) individuals base their veracity judgments less on stereotypical nonverbal cues if messages are of high (but not low) affiliation relevance.

Use of a Bogus Pipeline to Detect Men's Underreporting of Sexually Aggressive Behavior.

Researchers rely on men's self-reports of sexually aggressive behavior to identify the prevalence and correlates of men's perpetration (i.e., their use of verbal or physical coercion to obtain sex from a nonconsenting partner). However, results from research based on men's self-reported sexual perpetration are suspect because men may intentionally conceal their sexually aggressive behavior. The current study used a Bogus Pipeline (BPL) methodology to determine whether young, community men (N = 93) intentionally underreport their use of sexually aggressive strategies on two self-report measures of perpetration. Compared with men in a Standard Testing (ST) condition, men in an experimental BPL condition-who believed that the honesty of their responses was being monitored-had 6.5 times greater odds of endorsing the use of illegal sexual assault strategies on a widely used measure. Indeed, over a third of men in the BPL condition admitted to using such strategies. However, there was no significant difference in men's reports of verbally coercive strategies in the BPL versus the ST condition on the same measure. There were also no significant differences in reporting on the other, less commonly used measure of sexual aggression as a function of condition. Based on these preliminary findings, men's use of sexual assault strategies may be far more common than is suggested by most self-report studies. Self-reports of verbal coercion, however, may be more trustworthy.

Being accurate about accuracy in verbal deception detection.

PURPOSE: Verbal credibility assessments examine language differences to tell truthful from deceptive statements (e.g., of allegations of child sexual abuse). The dominant approach in psycholegal deception research to date (used in 81% of recent studies that report on accuracy) to estimate the accuracy of a method is to find the optimal statistical separation between lies and truths in a single dataset. However, this method lacks safeguards against accuracy overestimation. METHOD & RESULTS: A simulation study and empirical data show that this procedure produces overoptimistic accuracy rates that, especially for small sample size studies typical of this field, yield misleading conclusions up to the point that a non-diagnostic tool can be shown to be a valid one. Cross-validation is an easy remedy to this problem. CONCLUSIONS: We caution psycholegal researchers to be more accurate about accuracy and propose guidelines for calculating and reporting accuracy rates.

Visual presentation modality's superiority in the detection of concealed information: A comparison of the efficiencies of the P300-based Complex Trial Protocol in visual versus auditory modalities.

Some studies have shown a superiority of visual vs. auditory item presentation in the Complex Trial Protocol (CTP), which is a countermeasure-resistant version of the P300-based Concealed Information Test (CIT). But those studies used elaborately- rehearsed autobiographical information as stimuli, instead of incidentally-acquired crime-related information. Thus, the relative superiority of the visual as opposed to the auditory modality in detecting episodic crime-related information is still unknown. The present study also improved on the usual mock crime scenario by adding a mock disposal task between a mock theft and administration of a CTP test to increase stimulus saliency. In this CTP, the probe and the irrelevant items were presented visually or acoustically on alternating trials, while target and non-target stimuli were simultaneously presented in visual and auditory modalities. The results showed that the P300 amplitude differences of probe minus irrelevant items presented in the visual modality were significantly larger compared to the auditory modality, and the detection rate of the guilty participants was also significantly higher for the visual (14/16) versus auditory modality (5/16). These results suggest a superiority of visual vs. auditory presentation when a CTP is used to detect crime-related information in a mock crime scenario.

Reading Lies: Nonverbal Communication and Deception.

The relationship between nonverbal communication and deception continues to attract much interest, but there are many misconceptions about it. In this review, we present a scientific view on this relationship. We describe theories explaining why liars would behave differently from truth tellers, followed by research on how liars actually behave and individuals' ability to detect lies. We show that the nonverbal cues to deceit discovered to date are faint and unreliable and that people are mediocre lie catchers when they pay attention to behavior. We also discuss why individuals hold misbeliefs about the relationship between nonverbal behavior and deception-beliefs that appear very hard to debunk. We further discuss the ways in which researchers could improve the state of affairs by examining nonverbal behaviors in different ways and in different settings than they currently do.