Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-03T23:29:38.971Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Practitioners' beliefs about deception

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Leif A. Strömwall
Affiliation:
Researcher at the Department of Psychology Göteborg University
Pär Anders Granhag
Affiliation:
Göteborg University, Sweden
Maria Hartwig
Affiliation:
Göteborg University, Sweden
Pär Anders Granhag
Affiliation:
Göteborgs Universitet, Sweden
Leif A. Strömwall
Affiliation:
Göteborgs Universitet, Sweden
Get access

Summary

The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of research on beliefs about deception – especially practitioners' beliefs. Specifically, we will outline which beliefs on deception professionals hold and compare these with what is known about actual (objective) differences between liars and truth-tellers. Then we will discuss how these beliefs have arisen, why they survive, how they spread, and to what they might lead. Finally, we will suggest how one might come to terms with misconceptions and false beliefs.

In the present chapter we define belief as a (strong or weak) feeling or conviction that something is true or real. The beliefs that a person holds, irrespective of whether these are correct or not, are often reflected in his or her behavioural disposition (Eichenbaum and Bodkin, 2000). Since beliefs often guide action, it is important to study people's beliefs about deception in order to learn more about why people fail and succeed in their endeavour to catch lies.

In the deception literature, there are an abundance of studies on deception detection accuracy. Many studies report low accuracy in human lie detection (Kraut, 1980; Vrij, 2000). The most commonly given reason for the low accuracy is that there is a mismatch between what actually is indicative of deception and what people believe is indicative of deception (Vrij, 2000).

Beliefs about deception

How does one find out people's beliefs about deception?

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allwood, C. M., and Granhag, P. A. (1999). Feelings of confidence and the realism of confidence judgements in everyday life. In P. Juslin and H. Montgomery (eds.), Judgement and decision making: Neo-Brunswikian and process-tracing approaches (123–46). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Ainsworth, P. B. (1995). Psychology and policing in a changing world. Chichester: Wiley
Akehurst, L., Köhnken, G., Vrij, A., and Bull, R. (1996). Laypersons' and police officers' beliefs regarding deceptive behaviour. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 10, 461–713.0.CO;2-2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, D. E., DePaulo, B. M., Ansfield, M. E., Tickle, J. J., and Green, E. (1999). Beliefs about cues to deception: Mindless stereotypes or untapped wisdom?Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 23, 67–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, J., Kelly, K. A., and Weaver, K. (2004). Attitudes, norms, and social groups. In M. B. Brewer and M. Hewstone (eds.), Social Cognition (pp. 244–67). Oxford: Blackwell
DePaulo, B. M., Lindsay, J. J., Malone, B. E., Muhlenbruck, L., Charlton, K., and Cooper, H. (2003). Cues to deception. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 74–118CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DePaulo, B. M., and Pfeifer, R. L. (1986). On-the-job experience and skill at detecting deception. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 16, 249–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeTurck, M., Harszlak, J., Bodhorn, D., and Texter, L. (1990). The effects of training social perceivers to detect deception from behavioural cues. Communication Quarterly, 38, 189–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eichenbaum, H., and Bodkin, J. A. (2000). Belief and knowledge as distinct forms of memory. In D. L. Schacter and E. Scaryy (eds). Memory, brain, and belief (pp. 176–207). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Einhorn, H. J. (1982). Learning from experience and suboptimal rules in decision making. In D. Kahneman, P. Slovic, and A. Tversky (eds.), Judgement under uncertainty: heuristics and biases (pp. 268–83). Cambridge: Cambridge University PressCrossRef
Ekman, P. (2001). Telling lies: Clues to deceit in the marketplace, politics and marriage. New York: Norton
Ekman, P., O'Sullivan, M. (1991). Who can catch a liar?American Psychologist, 46, 913–20CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ekman, P., and O'Sullivan, M., and Frank, M. G. (1999). A few can catch a liar. Psychological Science, 10, 263–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, M. G., and Feeley, T. H. (2003). To catch a liar: Challenges for research in lie detection training. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 31, 58–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, C., and Gaskell, G. (1990). The social psychological study of widespread beliefs. Oxford. Clarendon Press
Gilovich, T. (1991). How we know what isn't so: The fallibility of human reason in everyday life. New York: Free Press
Gilovich, T., Vallone, R., and Tversky, A. (1985). The hot hand in basketball: On the misperception of random sequences. Cognitive Psychology, 17, 295–314CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, N. J., and Fleisher, W. L. (2002). Effective interviewing and interrogation techniques. London: Academic Press
Granhag, P. A., Andersson, L. O., Strömwall, L. A., and Hartwig, M. (2004). Imprisoned knowledge: Criminals' beliefs about deception. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 9, 103–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granhag, P. A., Strömwall, L. A., and Hartwig, M. (in press). Granting asylum or not? Migration Board personnel's beliefs on deception. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Greuel, L. (1992). Police officers' beliefs about cues associated with deception in rape cases. In F. Lösel, D. Bender, and T. Bliesener (eds.), Psychology and Law – International Perspectives (pp. 234–9). Berlin: Walter de GruyterCrossRef
Gudjonsson, G. H. (2003). The psychology of interrogations and confessions: A handbook. Chichester: Wiley
Hartwig, M., Granhag, P. A., Strömwall, L. A., and Andersson, L. O. (2004). Suspicious minds: Criminals' ability to detect deception. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 10, 83–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartwig, M., Granhag, P. A., Strömwall, L. A., and Vrij, A. (2004). Deception detection via strategic disclosure of evidence. Manuscript submitted for publication
Hess, J. E. (1997). Interviewing and interrogation for law enforcement. Cincinnati: Anderson Publishing
Hogarth, R. M. (2001). Educating intuition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Inbau, F. E., Reid, J. E., and Buckley, J. P. (1986). Criminal interrogation and confessions. Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins
Inbau, F. E., Reid, J. E., Buckley, J. P., and Jayne, B. C. (2001). Criminal interrogation and confessions. Gaithersburg: Aspen Publishers
Kassin, S. M., and Fong, C. T. (1999). ‘I'm innocent!’: Effects of training on judgments of truth and deception in the interrogation room. Law and Human Behaviour, 23, 499–516CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Köhnken, G. (1987). Training police officers to detect deceptive eyewitness statements. Does it work?Social Behaviour, 2, 1–17Google Scholar
Kraut, R. E. (1980). Humans as lie detectors. Some second thoughts. Journal of Communication, 30, 209–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraut, R. E., and Poe, D. (1980). Behavioral roots of person perception: The deception judgements of customs inspectors and laymen. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 784–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lord, C. G., Ross, L., and Lepper, M. R. (1979). Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 2098–109CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, J. M., and Michaud, D. L. (1992). Criminal interrogation. Denver: Apache Press
Mann, S., Vrij, A., and Bull, R. (2004). Detecting true lies: Police officers' ability to detect suspects' lies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 137–49CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Masip, J., and Garrido, E. (2001, June). Experienced and novice officers' beliefs about indicators of deception. Paper presented at the 11th European Conference of Psychology and Law, Lisbon, Portugal
Miller, G. R., and Stiff, J. B. (1993). Deceptive communication. Newbury Park, CA: Sage
Nevid, J. S. (2003). Psychology: Concepts and applications. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Nisbett, R. E., and Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norwick, R. J., Kassin, S. M., Meissner, C. A., and Malpass, R. A. (2002, March). ‘I'd know a false confession if I saw one’: A comparative study of college students and police investigators. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the American Psychology–Law Society in Austin, Texas
Porter, S., Woodworth, M., and Birt, A. R. (2000). Truth, lies and videotapes: An investigation of the ability of federal parole officers to detect deception. Law and Human Behavior, 24, 643–58CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rabon, D. (1992). Interviewing and interrogation. Durham: Carolina Academic Press
Snyder, M., and Cantor, N. (1979). Testing hypotheses about other people: The use of historical knowledge. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 15, 330–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strömwall, L. A., and Granhag, P. A. (2003). How to detect deception? Arresting the beliefs of police officers, prosecutors and judges. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 9, 19–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strömwall, L. A., Hartwig, M., and Granhag, P. A. (2004). To act truthfully: Nonverbal behavior during a police interview. Manuscript submitted for publication
Taylor, R., and Vrij, A. (2001). The effects of varying stake and cognitive complexity on the beliefs about the cues to deception. International Journal of Police Science and Management, 3, 111–23Google Scholar
Tversky, A., and Kahneman, D. (2002). Extensional versus intuitive reasoning: The conjunction fallacy in probability judgements. In T. Gilovich, D. Griffin, and D. Kahneman (eds.), Heuristics and biases: The psychology of intuitive judgement (pp. 19–48). Cambridge: Cambridge University PressCrossRef
Victory, P. (2002). Justice and truth: The Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven. London: Sinclair-Stevenson
Vrij, A. (1993). Credibility judgements of detectives: The impact of non-verbal behavior, social skills and physical characteristics on impression formation. Journal of Social Psychology, 133, 601–11CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vrij, A. (2000). Detecting lies and deceit. The psychology of lying and the implications for professional practice. Chichester: John Wiley
Vrij, A. (2003). We will protect your wife and child, but only if you confess. In P. J. van Koppen and S. D. Penrod (eds.), Adversarial versus inquisitorial justice: Psychological perspectives on criminal justice systems (pp. 55–79). New York, NJ: Kluwer AcademicCrossRef
Vrij, A., and Graham, S. (1997). Individual differences between liars and the ability to detect lies. Expert Evidence: The International Digest of Human Behaviour, Science and Law, 5, 144–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vrij, A., and Mann, S. (2001a). Telling and detecting lies in a high-stake situation: The case of a convicted murderer. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 15, 187–2033.0.CO;2-A>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vrij, A., and Mann, S. (2001b). Who killed my relative? Police officers' ability to detect real-life high-stake lies. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 7, 119–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vrij, A., and Semin, G. R. (1996). Lie experts' beliefs about nonverbal indicators of deception. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 20, 65–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vrij, A., and Taylor, R. (2003). Police officers' and students' beliefs about telling and detecting trivial and serious lies. International Journal of Police Science and Management, 5, 1–9Google Scholar
Wagenaar, W. A., van Koppen, P. J., and Crombag, H. F. M. (1993). Anchored narratives. The psychology of criminal evidence. New York: St Martin's Press
Walker, C., and Starmer, K. (eds.). (1999). Miscarriages of justice: A review of justice in error. London: Blackstone Press
Zuckerman, M., DePaulo, B. M., and Rosenthal, R. (1981). Verbal and nonverbal communication of deception. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 14, 1–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuckerman, M., Koestner, R., and Driver, R. (1981). Beliefs about cues associated with deception. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 6, 105–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zulawski, D. E., and Wicklander, D. E. (1993). Practical aspects of interview and interrogation. Boca Raton: CRC Press

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×