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Difficulties with deception detection may leave older adults especially vulnerable to fraud. Interoception, i.e., the awareness of one’s bodily signals, has been shown to influence deception detection, but this relationship has not been examined in aging. The present study investigated effects of interoceptive accuracy (IAcc) on deception detection in 76 young (18-34 years) and 74 older (53-82 years) adults. Participants completed a heartbeat-counting task to determine IAcc. Deception detection was assessed across two distinct and ecologically valid task: i) a lie detection task in which they made veracity judgments of genuine and deceptive individuals pleading for the safe return of a loved one, and ii) phishing email detection to capture accuracy in online deception detection. Multilevel logistic regression models showed lower IAcc in older than young participants. Among both young and older adults, greater IAcc was associated with greater lie detection accuracy. Furthermore, with greater chronological age among older adults, greater IAcc was associated with better accuracy in both detecting deceptive people and identifying fraudulent phishing emails. These findings support IAcc as a relevant factor for interventions aimed at enhancing deception detection abilities in aging.

Although poor deception detection accuracy is thought to be an important risk factor for fraud among older adults, this link has not been explicitly studied. Using a cross-sectional design, older and young adults viewed and made judgments of real, high-stakes truths and lies with financial consequences. Older (vs. young) adults exhibited a greater truth bias when evaluating individuals pleading for help in finding a missing relative, which was associated with greater donations to deceptive pleaders. However, all participants were highly vulnerable to fraud. Future research should consider both risk and protective factors affecting financial fraud across the lifespan.

While research suggests that telling lies can distort memory for the truth, the effects of receiving feedback about the believability about one's lies are not known. We hypothesised that participants who exaggerated the number of stolen items (vs. told the truth) in a mock insurance claim and then received feedback that their statement was believable (vs. not believable) would incorporate this lie into memory. In a two-phase between-subjects design, participants saw images of an office pre- and post-theft and were randomly assigned to report the number of stolen items accurately (truth-tellers) or exaggerate (liars). They were then randomly assigned to receive feedback that their statement was believable or not. Approximately two weeks later, participants' recall of the theft was measured. Liars and truth-tellers recalled a similar number of stolen items, but liars had less accurate recall for exactly which items were stolen. Liars (vs. truth-tellers) also made more omission errors. The majority of participants who fabricated additional stolen items (65.7%) incorporated one or more of these (false) items into their memory. Results suggest that source monitoring errors may lead fabricated details to be incorporated into memory. Although no effects of believability feedback were observed, recommendations for future researchers are discussed.

Despite women experiencing and reporting more pain than men, women receive less intensive and effective treatment for their pain. The current work leverages the well-developed social psychological literature on gender stereotypes, specifically stereotypes of emotionality, to understand gender biases in pain care. Specifically, gender stereotypes about emotionality may generate beliefs that women dramatize, overemphasize, or even fabricate their experiences of pain relative to men. This mistrust in women’s experiences of pain could undermine efficacy and equality of care. Research needs to directly examine the role of provider stereotype endorsement in pain care disparities, how these stereotypes influence patient–provider interactions, and whether these stereotypes may be implicit in health care policies. Established interventions and potential policy reform could combat gender-emotionality stereotypes and thereby mistrust of women’s reports in the context of pain treatment.

Recent research suggests that people experience distinct physiological reactions to lies versus truths. It is unclear, however, if this experience is incorporated into greater truth-lie judgment accuracy. We hypothesized individuals with high interoceptive accuracy—those with greater access to bodily experiences and stronger physiological responses to emotional stimuli—might be particularly likely to accurately discriminate high-stakes, emotional lies and truths. Participants (n = 71) completed two study sessions: the first assessed their interoceptive accuracy with heartbeat detection measures and the second assessed their deception detection ability while measuring their physiological reactivity. Interoceptive accuracy was associated with a greater difference in vasoconstriction to liars (vs. truth-tellers), suggesting that interoception was positively associated with physiological sensitivity to deception. Interoceptive accuracy, however, was unrelated to deception detection accuracy. While better interoception provides enhanced physiological signals that could better discriminate lies from truths, it does not improve deception detection accuracy.

Humans consistently face the challenge of discerning liars from truth-tellers. Hundreds of studies in which observers judge the veracity of laboratory-created lies and truths suggest that this is a difficult task; in this context, lie-detection accuracy is notoriously poor. Challenging these findings and traditional methodologies in lie-detection research, we draw upon the somatic marker hypothesis and research on interoception to find that: (a) people experience physiological reactions indicating increased sympathetic arousal while observing real, high-stakes lies (vs. truths), and (b) attending to these physiological reactions may improve lie-detection accuracy. Consistent with the tipping point framework, participants demonstrated more physiological arousal and vasoconstriction while observing real crime liars versus truth-tellers, but not mock crime liars versus truth-tellers (Experiment 1; N = 48). Experiment 2 replicated this effect in a larger sample of participants (N = 169). Experiment 3 generalized this effect to a novel set of stimuli; participants demonstrated more physiological arousal to game show contestants who lied (vs. told the truth) about their intention to cooperate in a high-stakes economic game (N = 71). In an intervention study (Experiment 4; N = 428), participants were trained to attend to their physiological signals; lie-detection accuracy increased relative to a control condition. Experiment 5 (N = 354) replicated this effect, and the addition of a bogus training condition suggested that increased accuracy was not simply attributable to self-focused attention. Findings highlight the limitations of relying on laboratory-created lies to study human lie-detection and suggest that observers have automatic, physiological reactions to being deceived. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

What does it take to gain and maintain power? Aristotle believed that power was afforded to individuals that acted in virtuous ways that promote the greater good. Machiavelli, nearly 2,000 years later, argued to great effect that power could be taken through the use of manipulation, coercion, and strategic violence. With these historical perspectives as a conceptual foundation, we validate a 2-factor measure of theories of power (TOPS; Study 1), which captures lay theories of how power is gained and maintained among family members, at work, and in international politics (Study 2). We differentiate TOPS from other established measures of power, highlighting that these beliefs about power are conceptually distinct from widely used measures of dominance and prestige, and uniquely predict social outcomes. Turning to social class, we find that participants who make upward social comparisons perceive themselves to be of lower class and endorse less collaborative and more coercive theories of power, relative to those who make downward comparisons and report themselves to be higher in the class hierarchy (Studies 3a and 3b). Building upon these findings, we identify theory of power endorsement as a correlate of interpersonal trust, and a mediator of how lower class individuals, who endorse less collaborative views of power, report less trust of institutions and individuals (Study 4). Theories of power provide a novel construct for understanding power dynamics at multiple levels of analysis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Psychopathic individuals are characterized as “intra-species predators”—callous, impulsive, aggressive, and proficient at interpersonal manipulation. For example, despite their high risk for re-offending, psychopathic offenders often receive early release on parole. While reputed to be social chameleons, research suggests that even naive observers can accurately infer high levels of psychopathic traits in others with very brief exposures to behavior, but accuracy degrades with extended observation. We utilized a lens model approach to examine the communication styles (emotional facial expressions, body language, and verbal content) of offenders varying in levels of psychopathic traits using “thin slice” video clips of psychological assessment interviews and to reveal which cues observers use to inform their evaluations of psychopathy. Psychopathic traits were associated with more (a) Duchenne smiles, (b) negative (angry) emotional language, and (c) hand gestures (illustrators). Further, psychopathy was associated with a marked behavioral incongruence; when individuals scoring high in psychopathic traits engaged in Duchenne smiles they were also more likely to use angry language. Naive observers relied on each of these valid behavioral signals to quickly and accurately detect psychopathic traits. These findings provide insight into psychopathic communication styles, opportunities for improving the detection of psychopathic personality traits, and may provide an avenue for understanding successful psychopathic manipulation.

[EN]For security and justice professionals (e.g., police officers, lawyers, judges), the thousands of peer-reviewed articles on nonverbal communication represent important sources of knowledge. However, despite the scope of the scientific work carried out on this subject, professionals can turn to programs, methods, and approaches that fail to reflect the state of science. The objective of this article is to examine (i) concepts of nonverbal communication conveyed by these programs, methods, and approaches, but also (ii) the consequences of their use (e.g., on the life or liberty of individuals). To achieve this objective, we describe the scope of scientific research on nonverbal communication. A program (SPOT; Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques), a method (the BAI; Behavior Analysis Interview) and an approach (synergology) that each run counter to the state of science are examined. Finally, we outline five hypotheses to explain why some organizations in the fields of security and justice are turning to pseudoscience and pseudoscientific techniques. We conclude the article by inviting these organizations to work with the international community of scholars who have scientific expertise in nonverbal communication and lie (and truth) detection to implement evidence-based practices., [ES]Para los profesionales de la seguridad y la justicia (policías, abogados, jueces), los miles de artículos revisados por pares sobre comunicación no verbal representan fuentes importantes de conocimiento. Sin embargo, a pesar del alcance del trabajo científico realizado sobre este tema, los profesionales pueden recurrir a programas, métodos y enfoques que no reflejan el estado real de la ciencia. El objetivo de este artículo es examinar (i) los conceptos de comunicación no verbal transmitidos por estos programas, métodos y enfoques, pero también (ii) las consecuencias de su uso (por ejemplo, sobre la vida o la libertad de las personas). Para lograr estos objetivos, describimos el alcance de la investigación científica sobre la comunicación no verbal. Se examina un programa (SPOT: Evaluación de pasajeros mediante técnicas de observación), un método (BAI: Entrevista de análisis de conducta) y un enfoque (sinergología) que contradicen el estado de la ciencia. Finalmente, presentamos cinco hipótesis para explicar por qué algunas organizaciones en los campos de la seguridad y la justicia están recurriendo a la pseudociencia y a las técnicas pseudocientíficas. Concluimos el artículo invitando a estas organizaciones a trabajar con la comunidad académica internacional especializada en la investigación sobre comunicación no verbal y detección de mentiras (y verdad) para implementar prácticas basadas en la evidencia.

The tipping point framework of lie detection posits that people can, and do, accurately detect deception. This framework pinpoints three circumstances that aid accuracy: (i) using methods of measurement that circumvent controlled, conscious cognition; (ii) when individual differences or situational factors portend potent risks to lie detection failure, such as in high-stakes or threatening settings; and (iii) when factors diminish concern over the relationship or reputation costs of asserting that someone has lied. We thus depict a psychological system that registers lie detection consistently in nonconscious reactions (e.g., brain based, bodily, indirect social evaluations) and that allows information into consciousness to inform overt assessments of lies when the costs of failing to detect deception exceed those of signaling distrust.

Instantaneous first impressions of facial trustworthiness influence the manner in which observers evaluate ensuing information about stranger targets [e.g. Porter, S., & ten Brinke, L. (2009). Dangerous decisions: A theoretical framework for understanding how judges assess credibility in the courtroom. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 14, 119–134. doi:10.1348/135532508X281520]. In two studies, we examined the association between perceptions of general trustworthiness and honesty assessments in an extremely high-stakes sample – individuals publicly pleading for the return of a missing relative, half of whom had killed the missing individual. In Study 1, observers (N = 131) provided trustworthiness ratings – either before or after viewing and evaluating the honesty of videotaped or audio-only pleas – for a still image that depicted a neutral expression on the face of each pleader. In Study 2, observers (N = 220) evaluated the sincerity of audio pleas paired either with an untrustworthy-looking t...

Is human nature good or evil? Light or dark? Machiavelli described human nature as selfish and greedy. Abraham Lincoln appealed to the better angels of our nature. Drawing on primate research and human personality science we provide insight into this centuries-old debate. Latent profile analyses of self-reports from two general population samples (Total N = 36,788) uncovered distinct personality subtypes, a “dark” trait profile (Machiavellian, narcissistic, psychopathic traits), a “light” trait profile (Kantianism, humanism, faith in humanity), and a “middle” subtype threading between the other two. The light subtype evidenced affiliative interpersonal functioning and greater trust in others, as well as higher life satisfaction and positive self-image. The dark subtype reflected interpersonal dominance, competitiveness, and aggression. In both general population samples, the dark trait subtype was the least prevalent. However, in a third sample of U.S. Senators (N = 143), based on observational data, the dark subtype was most prevalent and associated with longer tenure in political office, though less legislative success. Results suggest that human nature reflects both light and dark features, serving affiliative (pro-social) and dominance (pro-self) functions, with subtype prevalence varying considerably based on profession.

Research suggests that dishonest acts may be embodied. That is, when a person anticipates or acts dishonestly, the choice or behavior is not only reflected in the mind but also in the brain and body. While recent summaries of virtuous acts suggest that truth, altruism, and fairness confer a suite of psychological and health benefits to the benefactor, we suggest that lying, cheating, and stealing may do the opposite. We review research literatures on the neuroscience, psychophysiology, and endocrinology of dishonesty and suggest that, over time, dishonest behavior may be bad for our health.

© 2015, © The Author(s) 2015. What qualities make a political leader more influential or less influential? Philosophers, political scientists, and psychologists have puzzled over this question, positing two opposing routes to political power—one driven by human virtues, such as courage and wisdom, and the other driven by vices, such as Machiavellianism and psychopathy. By coding nonverbal behaviors displayed in political speeches, we assessed the virtues and vices of 151 U.S. senators. We found that virtuous senators became more influential after they assumed leadership roles, whereas senators who displayed behaviors consistent with vices—particularly psychopathy—became no more influential or even less influential after they assumed leadership roles. Our results inform a long-standing debate about the role of morality and ethics in leadership and have important implications for electing effective government officials. Citizens would be wise to consider a candidate’s virtue in casting their votes, which might increase the likelihood that elected officials will have genuine concern for their constituents and simultaneously promote cooperation and progress in government.

Corporate corruption has recently called attention to the relevance of psychopathic personality traits—the absence of conscience, remorse, or scruples—in business settings; yet, little is known about how these personality traits affect business practices. We present two studies testing whether psychopathic personality traits are related to social perspective and cognitive decision-making biases relevant to negotiation, and whether those traits affect outcomes in a negotiation simulation. Psychopathic personality features were associated with a competitive world-view, including selfish social motivations and illusions of conflict with others. In mixed-motive negotiations, psychopathic traits predicted greater personal monetary gains when success favored competitive actions, but predicted monetary loss when success depended on cooperation. Results suggest that psychopathic personality traits can both bolster and hinder success in business.

This study differentiated between the language of deceptive and genuine pleaders who were pleading for the return of a missing loved one during a televised press conference. The Wmatrix linguistic analysis tool was used to examine the language of 78 pleaders. Approximately half (n = 35) of these individuals were deceptive and were responsible for the disappearance. Transcripts of the pleas were analyzed for various linguistic cues, and a separate analysis was conducted across gender. Results revealed that deceptive pleaders used the word ‘they,’ singular indefinite pronouns (e.g., ‘anybody,’ ‘somebody’), and exclusivizers/particularizers (e.g., ‘just’) significantly more than genuine pleaders, while genuine pleaders used more temporal words (e.g., ‘days,’ ‘weeks’), and the word ‘we’ more frequently in their pleas. Specific gender differences were also revealed across credible and deceptive pleaders. Our analysis of linguistic differences across pleader veracity provides an enhanced understanding of the ve...

It is widely assumed that psychopathic personality traits promote success in high-powered, competitive contexts such as financial investment. By contrast, empirical studies find that psychopathic leaders can be charming and persuasive, but poor performers who mismanage, bully, and engage in unethical behavior. By coding nonverbal behaviors displayed in semistructured interviews, we identified the psychopathic, Machiavellian, and narcissistic tendencies in 101 hedge fund managers, and examined whether these traits were associated with financial performance over the course of 10 diverse years of economic volatility (2005-2015). Managers with greater psychopathic tendencies produced lower absolute returns than their less psychopathic peers, and managers with greater narcissistic traits produced decreased risk-adjusted returns. The discussion focuses on the costs of Dark Triad traits in financial investment, and organizational leadership more generally.

We examined the relation between emotion and susceptibility to misinformation using a novel paradigm, the ambiguous stimuli affective priming (ASAP) paradigm. Participants (N = 88) viewed ambiguous neutral images primed either at encoding or retrieval to be interpreted as either highly positive or negative (or neutral/not primed). After viewing the images, they either were asked misleading or non-leading questions. Following a delay, memory accuracy for the original images was assessed. Results indicated that any emotional priming at encoding led to a higher susceptibility to misinformation relative to priming at recall. In particular, inducing a negative interpretation of the image at encoding led to an increased susceptibility of false memories for major misinformation (an entire object not actually present in the scene). In contrast, this pattern was reversed when priming was used at recall; a negative reinterpretation of the image decreased memory distortion relative to unprimed images. These findings suggest that, with precise experimental control, the experience of emotion at event encoding, in particular, is implicated in false memory susceptibility.

a b s t r a c t The Dangerous Decisions Theory (DDT; Porter & ten Brinke, 2009) posits that instantaneous perceptions of trustworthiness based on a stranger's face influence the manner in which ensuing information about the target is processed. This study tested a bi-directional DDT model, proposing that information concern- ing a target's moral behavior could distort eyewitness memory for the individual's facial trustworthiness. Participants (N = 141) viewed a target individual's face (previously rated as appearing "neutral" on trust- worthiness) and then were exposed to one of the three vignettes describing the target's behavior (either immoral, morally neutral, or altruistic). Following a delay, observers were asked to identify the target individual on a facial morph video (continuously ranging in levels of perceived trustworthiness). Results indicated that behavioral information varying in morality influenced facial recognition memory; specifi- cally, faces were recalled as having less trustworthy features following a disclosure of immoral/criminal behavior.

According to the dangerous decisions theory (Porter, S., & ten Brinke, L. (2009). Dangerous decisions: A theoretical framework for understanding how judges assess credibility in the courtroom. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 14(1), 119–134), intuitive evaluations of facial trustworthiness influence the interpretation of evidence presented in courtroom settings. This study examined the role of individual differences in this process. Participants were presented with crime narratives, accompanied by a photograph of the supposed defendant that was previously rated as highly trustworthy or untrustworthy. Following presentation of the evidence in each case, participants rated the defendant's culpability and then completed questionnaires assessing potential biases. Participants endorsing justice–fairness were more likely to exonerate an untrustworthy-looking defendant, but less likely to exonerate a trustworthy-looking one. Individuals who held a strong racial bias, by contrast, were less likely to be influ...

Although the ability to detect deception is critical in many professional contexts, most observers (including professional lie-catchers) are able to identify deceivers at the level of chance only. Further, almost all studies of deception detection have used low-stakes deception scenarios in determining deceptive behavior and training effectiveness. We evaluated the effectiveness of a comprehensive, empirically based full-day training workshop in improving the ability of 42 legal and mental health professionals to detect extremely high-stakes emotional lies. Their ability to discriminate sincere and insincere pleaders was measured at baseline and post-training. Overall, accuracy increased significantly from M = 46.4 to 80.9%. We cautiously suggest that training professionals to apply empirically validated methods to deception detection can increase their ability to correctly discriminate between liars and truth-tellers. Strategies to facilitate the detection of deception via the development of training pro...

People are regularly asked to report on their likelihoods of carrying out consequential future behaviors, including complying with medical advice, completing educational assignments, and voting in upcoming elections. Despite these stated self-predictions being notoriously unreliable, they are used to inform many strategic decisions. We report two studies examining stated self-prediction about whether citizens will vote. We find that most self-predicted voters do not actually vote despite saying they will, and that campaign callers can discern which self-predicted voters will not actually vote. In study 1 (n = 4,463), self-predicted voters rated by callers as “100% likely to vote” were 2 times more likely to actually vote than those rated unlikely to vote. Study 2 (n = 3,064) replicated this finding and further demonstrated that callers’ prediction accuracy was mediated by citizens’ nonverbal signals of uncertainty and deception. Strangers can use nonverbal signals to improve predictions of follow through on self-reported intentions—an insight of potential value for politics, medicine, and education.

Deception evolved as a fundamental aspect of human social interaction. Numerous studies have examined behavioral cues to deception, but most have involved inconsequential lies and unmotivated liars in a laboratory context. We conducted the most comprehensive study to date of the behavioral consequences of extremely high-stakes, real-life deception--relative to comparable real-life sincere displays--via 3 communication channels: speech, body language, and emotional facial expressions. Televised footage of a large international sample of individuals (N = 78) emotionally pleading to the public for the return of a missing relative was meticulously coded frame-by-frame (30 frames/s for a total of 74,731 frames). About half of the pleaders eventually were convicted of killing the missing person on the basis of overwhelming evidence. Failed attempts to simulate sadness and leakage of happiness revealed deceptive pleaders' covert emotions. Liars used fewer words but more tentative words than truth-tellers, likely relating to increased cognitive load and psychological distancing. Further, each of these cues explained unique variance in predicting pleader sincerity.

Deception—a fundamental aspect of human communication—often is accompanied by the simulation of unfelt emotions or the concealment of genuine emotions to correspond to the false message. We investigated the consequences of extremely high-stakes emotional deception on the engagement of particular facial muscles, posited by Darwin [Darwin, C. (1872/2005). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. In J. D. Watson (Ed.), Darwin: The indelible stamp (pp. 1066–1257) Philadelphia: Running Press] to reveal the false face. The videotaped facial actions of a sample of individuals ( N =52) emotionally pleading to the public for the return of a missing relative—half of whom eventually were convicted of murdering that person—were coded frame by frame (30 frames/s for a total of 23,622 frames). Findings support the view that emotional "leakage," particularly via those facial muscles under less cortical control, is a byproduct of the overextended cognitive resources available to convey elaborate lies. Specifically, the "grief" muscles ( corrugator supercilii , depressor anguli oris ) were more often contracted in the faces of genuine than deceptive pleaders. Subtle contraction of the zygomatic major (masking smiles) and full contraction of the frontalis (failed attempts to appear sad) muscles were more commonly identified in the faces of deceptive pleaders. Thus, while interpersonal deception often is highly successful, signs of covert emotional states are communicated clearly to the informed observer.

Purpose. There is major disagreement about the existence of individual differences in deception detection or naturally gifted detection ‘wizards’ (see O'Sullivan & Ekman, 2004 vs. Bond & Uysal, 2007). This study aimed to elucidate the role of a specific, and seemingly relevant individual difference – emotional intelligence (EI) and its subcomponents – in detecting high-stakes, emotional deception. Methods. Participants (N= 116) viewed a sample of 20 international videos of individuals emotionally pleading for the safe return of their missing family member, half of whom were responsible for the missing person's disappearance/murder. Participants judged whether the pleas were honest or deceptive, provided confidence ratings, reported the cues they utilized, and rated their emotional response to each plea. Results. EI was associated with overconfidence in assessing the sincerity of the pleas and greater self-reported sympathetic feelings to deceptive targets (enhanced gullibility). Although total EI was not associated with discrimination of truths and lies, the ability to perceive and express emotion (a component of EI), specifically, was negatively related to detecting deceptive targets (lower sensitivity [d′]). Combined, these patterns contributed negatively to the ability to spot emotional lies. Conclusions. These findings collectively suggest that features of EI, and subsequent decision-making processes, paradoxically may impair one's ability to detect deceit.

Emotional deception is a common behaviour that can have major consequences if undetected. For example, the sincerity of an offender's expressed remorse is an important factor in sentencing and parole hearings. The present study was the first to investigate the nature of true and false remorse. We examined facial, verbal and body language behaviours associated with emotional deception in videotaped accounts of true personal transgressions accompanied by either genuine or falsified remorse. Analyses of nearly 300,000 frames indicated that descriptions of falsified remorse were associated with a greater range of emotional expressions. Further, sequential analyses revealed that negative emotions were more commonly followed by other emotions-rather than a return to neutral emotion-in falsified versus sincere remorse. Participants also exhibited more speech hesitations while expressing deceptive relative to genuine remorse. In general, the results suggest that falsified remorse may be conceived as an emotionally turbulent display of deliberate, falsified expressions and involuntary, genuine, emotional leakage. These findings are relevant to judges and parole board members who consider genuine remorse to be an important factor in sentencing and release decisions.

Darwin (1872) hypothesized that some facial muscle actions associated with emotion cannot be consciously inhibited, particularly when the to-be concealed emotion is strong. The present study investigated emotional “leakage” in deceptive facial expressions as a function of emotional intensity. Participants viewed low or high intensity disgusting, sad, frightening, and happy images, responding to each with a 5 s videotaped genuine or deceptive expression. Each 1/30 s frame of the 1,711 expressions (256,650 frames in total) was analyzed for the presence and duration of universal expressions. Results strongly supported the inhibition hypothesis. In general, emotional leakage lasted longer in both the upper and lower face during high-intensity masked, relative to low-intensity, masked expressions. High intensity emotion was more difficult to conceal than low intensity emotion during emotional neutralization, leading to a greater likelihood of emotional leakage in the upper face. The greatest and least amount of emotional leakage occurred during fearful and happiness expressions, respectively. Untrained observers were unable to discriminate real and false expressions above the level of chance.

There is little support for the long-standing assumption that judges and jurors can accurately assess credibility. According to Dangerous Decisions Theory (DDT; Porter & ten Brinke, Legal and Crimi...

In this paper, we provide our view of the current understanding of high-stakes lies often occurring in forensic contexts. We underscore the importance of avoiding widespread pitfalls of deception detection and challenging prevailing assumptions concerning strategies for catching liars. The promise and limitations of each of non-verbal/body language, facial, verbal/linguistic, and physiological channels in detecting deception are discussed. In observing the absence of a single cue or behavioural channel that consistently reveals deception, a holistic approach with concurrent attention to multiple channels of a target's behaviour (ideally videotaped for review) and changes from baseline behaviour is recommended whenever possible. Among the best-validated cues to be considered together include: illustrators, blink and pause rate, speech rate, vague descriptions, repeated details, contextual embedding, reproduction of conversations, and emotional ‘leakage’ in the face. While advocating a reliance on empirical evidence, we observe that few studies of high-stakes deception yet have been conducted. Further, some manifestations of lying are highly idiosyncratic and difficult to address in quantitative research, pointing to the need for keen observation skills, and psychological insight. A recurring theme is the need for the field to devise innovative approaches for studying high-stakes lies to promote ecological validity. Ultimately, such work will provide a strong foundation for the responsible application of deception research in forensic and security settings.

The discrimination of genuine and falsified emotional displays is critical in many contexts, including healthcare, forensic, and airport security settings. Previous research has demonstrated that comprehensive (two-day) empirically based deception detection training can lead to moderate gains in judgment accuracy. However, for many professional groups such extensive training is not feasible due to time and resource limitations. In the present study, we evaluated the effectiveness of brief (three-hour) training. N = 26 (13 females, 13 males) healthcare professionals with experience in evaluating the validity of medical claims participated in the training workshop. Their performance on two deception detection tasks was measured pre- and post-training; the participants attempted to discriminate: (1) videotaped truthful and fabricated stories concerning emotional events and (2) sincere and falsified emotional facial expressions. Results indicated that participants' overall accuracy on both tasks increased mod...

Cette etude a examine (prospectivement) l'impact du contenu emotionnel de scenes visuelles sur la precision de la memoire et la susceptibilite a l'information trompeuse au fil du temps. Apres avoir regarde une image photographique tres positive et une autre tres negative, la moitie des participants (N = 80) a recu de l'information trompeuse au sujet de celles-ci. Ensuite, ces derniers ont repondu a des questions portant sur les details des images. Une semaine ou un mois plus tard, on a pose aux participants, qui ne s'y attendaient pas, des questions sur les images. Dans l'ensemble, les souvenirs des participants ayant recu de l'information trompeuse etaient de beaucoup moins exacts que ceux des autres, une tendance qui s'est maintenue dans les suivis, une semaine et un mois plus tard. Toutefois, pour tous, l'exactitude des souvenirs a diminue avec le temps. Par rapport aux images positives, les negatives ont ete associees a une plus grande susceptibilite aux faux souvenirs en ce qui a trait a un important detail trompeur donne aux deux seances. Ainsi, comparativement a une emotion positive, une emotion negative augmente specifiquement la suggestibilite en presence d'une information trompeuse majeure.

Defendants commonly claim amnesia for their criminal actions especially in cases involving extreme violence. While some claims are malingered or result from physiological factors, other cases may represent genuine partial or complete amnesia resulting from the psychological distress and/or extreme emotion associated with the perpetration of the crime. Fifty Canadian homicide offenders described their memories of their homicide, a non-homicide violent offense, and their most positive adulthood life experience. Self-reported and objective measures of memories for these events revealed that homicides were recalled with the greatest level of detail and sensory information. Although dissociative tendencies were associated with a self-reported memory loss, objective measures of memory quality did not reflect this perceived impairment, suggesting a failure of meta-memory. Recollections of positive life events were superior to those of non-homicidal violence, possibly due to greater impact and meaning attached to such experiences. Findings suggest that memory for homicide typically is enhanced by the powerful emotion associated with its perpetration.

Little is known about the characteristics of homicides committed by more than one perpetrator. This study examined the crime, victim, and perpetrator characteristics of individual homicides ( n = 84) versus multi-perpetrator homicides ( n = 40), according to official file information from two Canadian federal penitentiaries. Compared to multiple perpetrators, individual perpetrators were more likely to be older and to target female victims, and their homicides were more likely to contain reactive, sexual, and sadistic elements. Multi-perpetrator homicides tended to involve younger offenders, male victims, and instrumental motives. Psychopathic offenders were likely to act alone in committing sexual homicides and to involve an accomplice in other types of murders, but they typically committed gratuitous violence against women regardless of whether they acted alone or with a co-perpetrator. The findings indicate that individual and multi-perpetrator homicides have distinctive dynamics and can be differentiated during investigations.

Purpose. Numerous wrongful convictions have brought into question the ability of judges and juries to accurately evaluate the credibility of witnesses, including defendants. Dangerous decisions theor y( DDT) offers at heoretical framework to build our understanding of the decision-making process that can culminate in such injustices. Arguments. According to DDT ,t he reading of ad efendant’ sf ace and emotional expressions pla ya major role in initiating as eries of ‘dangerous’ decisions concerning his/her credibility .S pecifically ,p otent judgments of trustworthiness occur rapidly upon seeing ad efendant’ sf ace ,s ubjectively experienced as intuition. Originally evolved to reduce the danger to the observer ,t he initial judgment –w hich ma yb eu nreliable –w ill be enduring and have ap owerful influence on the interpretation and assimilation of incoming evidence concerning the defendant. Ensuing inferences will be irrational, but rationalized by the decision maker throug hh is/he rs ubjective schemas about trustworthiness and heuristics for identifying deceptiv eb ehaviour .F acilitated by a high level of motivation, an on-critical, tunnel vision assimilation of potentially disconfirming or ambiguous target information can culminate in am istaken evaluation of guilt or innocence. Conclusions. Empirically based education and responsibl ee xper tt estimon yc ould serve to reduce such biases and improve legal decision-making.

Purpose. This study investigated the influence of psychopath ya nd sex offender subtype on criminal history, probability of being granted conditional release ,a nd performance while on conditional release in ad iverse group of violent offenders. We predicted that psychopathic sexual offenders would be associated with relatively prolific violent and sexual offending, ah igh probability of successful conditional release applications despite their past behaviour (resulting from ‘putting on ag ood show’ in a parole hearing), and poor performance in the community. Methods. Information was gathere dv ia ac orrectional file review of 310 Canadian male federal offenders. Offenders wer ec ategorized into groups based on their sexual offence histor y( non-sex offender ,r apist, child molester ,o rm ixed rapist/molester) and Psychopath yC hecklist –R evised (PCL-R; Hare, 2003) ratings. Their offences (sexual, violent, or non-violent) and their complete conditional release histories wer ec oded. Results. Psychopath yw as associated with more violent and non-violent, but not sexual, offences. As ignificant interaction between psychopath ya nd offender subtype revealed that psychopath yw as associated with ag reater number of sex offences within child molesters. High-psychopath yo ffenders (both sexual and non-sexual offenders) wer ea bout 2.5 times more likely to be granted conditional release than nonpsychopathic offenders. Conclusions. Psychopath yi sa ssociated with more prolific sexual offending among child molesters and –d espite their extensiv ec riminal histories and high recidivism rate –a great proficiency in persuading parole boards to release them into the community. Specialized education and training in dealing with psychopathic offenders is urgently needed.

Despite a large body of false memory research, little has addressed the potential influence of an event's emotional content on susceptibility to false recollections. The Paradoxical Negative Emotion (PNE) hypothesis predicts that negative emotion generally facilitates memory but also heightens susceptibility to false memories. Participants were asked whether they could recall 20 "widely publicised" public events (half fictitious) ranging in emotional valence, with or without visual cues. Participants recalled a greater number of true negative events (M=3.31/5) than true positive (M=2.61/5) events. Nearly everyone (95%) came to recall at least one false event (M=2.15 false events recalled). Further, more than twice as many participants recalled any false negative (90%) compared to false positive (41.7%) events. Negative events, in general, were associated with more detailed memories and false negative event memories were more detailed than false positive event memories. Higher dissociation scores were associated with false recollections of negative events, specifically.

The widespread supposition that aspects of facial communication are uncontrollable and can betray a deceiver's true emotion has received little empirical attention. We examined the presence of inconsistent emotional expressions and “microexpressions” (1/25–1/5 of a second) in genuine and deceptive facial expressions. Participants viewed disgusting, sad, frightening, happy, and neutral images, responding to each with a genuine or deceptive (simulated, neutralized, or masked) expression. Each 1/30-s frame (104,550 frames in 697 expressions) was analyzed for the presence and duration of universal expressions, microexpressions, and blink rate. Relative to genuine emotions, masked emotions were associated with more inconsistent expressions and an elevated blink rate; neutralized emotions showed a decreased blink rate. Negative emotions were more difficult to falsify than happiness. Although untrained observers performed only slightly above chance at detecting deception, inconsistent emotional leakage occurred in 100% of participants at least once and lasted longer than the current definition of a microexpression suggests. Microexpressions were exhibited by 21.95% of participants in 2% of all expressions, and in the upper or lower face only.

Although trustworthiness judgments based on a stranger's face occur rapidly (Willis & Todorov, 2006), their accuracy is unknown. We examined the accuracy of trustworthiness judgments of the faces of 2 groups differing in trustworthiness (Nobel Peace Prize recipients/humanitarians vs. America's Most Wanted criminals). Participants viewed 34 faces each for 100 ms or 30 s and rated their trustworthiness. Subsequently, participants were informed about the nature of the 2 groups and estimated group membership for each face. Judgments formed with extremely brief exposure were similar in accuracy and confidence to those formed after a long exposure. However, initial judgments of untrustworthy (criminals') faces were less accurate (M = 48.8%) than were those of trustworthy faces (M = 62.7%). Judgment accuracy was above chance for trustworthy targets only at Time 1 and slightly above chance for both target types at Time 2. Participants relied on perceived kindness and aggressiveness to inform their rapidly formed intuitive decisions. Thus, intuition plays a minor facilitative role in reading faces.

According to a long-standing clinical tradition, sexually traumatic experiences are processed and recalled differently from other experiences, often leading to memory impairment. In this study, we compared the characteristics of traumatic memories for sexual violence and two other types of emotional experiences. N=44 women recruited from a local sexual trauma agency were asked to recall and describe three autobiographical events: sexual abuse/assault, a non-sexual trauma, and a positive emotional event. The characteristics of the three memory types were compared on both subjective and objective measures. Further, the potential influences of level of traumatic impact and dissociation were assessed. Results indicated that memories for sexual trauma were not impaired or fragmented relative to other memories. Instead, memories for sexual trauma were associated with a remarkably high level of vividness, detail, and sensory components. Further, high levels of traumatic impact were not associated with memory impairment. Implications for the ongoing traumatic memory debate are discussed.

The successful detection of deception is of critical importance to adaptive social relationships and organizations, and perhaps even national security. However, research in forensic, legal, and social psychology demonstrates that people are generally very successful deceivers. The goal of the current research was to test an intervention with the potential to decrease the likelihood of successful deception. We applied findings in the architectural, engineering, and environmental sciences that has demonstrated that enriched environments (vs. scarce ones) promote the experience of comfort, positive emotion, feelings of power and control, and increase productivity. We hypothesized that sparse, impoverished, scarcely endowed environments (vs. enriched ones) would decrease the ability to lie successfully by making liars feel uncomfortable and powerless. Study 1 examined archival footage of an international sample of criminal suspects (N = 59), including innocent relatives (n = 33) and convicted murderers (n = 26) emotionally pleading to the public for the return of a missing person. Liars in scarce environments (vs. enriched) were significantly more likely to reveal their lies through behavioral cues to deception. Study 2 (N = 79) demonstrated that the discomfort and subsequent powerlessness caused by scarce (vs. enriched) environments lead people to reveal behavioral cues to deception. Liars in scarce environments also experienced greater neuroendocrine stress reactivity and were more accurately detected by a sample of 66 naive observers (Study 3). Taken together, data suggest that scarce environments increase difficulty, and decrease success, of deception. Further, we make available videotaped stimuli of Study 2 liars and truth-tellers.

In the wake of corporate transgressions and scandals, how do apologizers’ expressed emotions affect investors’ perceptions of the organization in question? We analyzed the market effects of normative versus deviant facial affect expressed during apologies for corporate wrongdoing. Archival data revealed that the expression of deviant affect was associated with decreased investor confidence in the form of negative stock market returns; adverse financial effects persisted up to three months post-apology. Moreover, this effect was exacerbated when a company representative with greater responsibility within the organization delivered the apology. Experimental data further revealed that third parties interpreted deviant affect (smiling) as a signal of insincerity, which reduced their confidence in these representatives’ organizations. Ultimately, we find that subtle emotion expressions are detected by stakeholders, signal insincerity, and have important consequences for organizations. We suggest that organizations must carefully consider the nonverbal behavior of apologetic representatives in the wake of transgressions.

To maximize survival and reproductive success, primates evolved the tendency to tell lies and the ability to accurately detect them. Despite the obvious advantage of detecting lies accurately, conscious judgments of veracity are only slightly more accurate than chance. However, findings in forensic psychology, neuroscience, and primatology suggest that lies can be accurately detected when less-conscious mental processes (as opposed to more-conscious mental processes) are used. We predicted that observing someone tell a lie would automatically activate cognitive concepts associated with deception, and observing someone tell the truth would activate concepts associated with truth. In two experiments, we demonstrated that indirect measures of deception detection are significantly more accurate than direct measures. These findings provide a new lens through which to reconsider old questions and approach new investigations of human lie detection.

“Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers”—Leonardo da Vinci da Vinci’s sage observation may be conceptualized as a guide for applied researchers; the most meaningful psychological research addresses an interesting topic with both basic and applied relevance. Once identi fi ed, the phenomenon of interest should be studied both in the lab—offering a high level of internal validity—and in the “ fi eld”, lacking experimental control but offering more realism, and not rushing to scienti fi c judgment based on or the other (Yuille, 1996 , present volume). Subsequently, converging empirical fi ndings from the lab and fi eld should be responsibly applied in the legal context (e.g., Paz-Alonso, Ogle, & Goodman, present volume; Yuille, 1989 ) . One program of research exemplifying these principles is outlined in this chapter: detecting deception. A key role of judges and jurors at trial is to decide whether various witnesses are lying or telling the truth (see Seniuk, present volume). But is it possible to determine accurately whether a witness is providing an honest and accurate version of events, an unintentionally mistaken memory, or lying through his/her teeth? This issue is not trivial; in an adversarial system, most trials feature contradictory testimony by witnesses (see Connolly & Price, present volume; also see Fisher, Vrij, & Leins, present volume, for research focusing on contradictory statements within witnesses). In increasingly common “he said, she said” cases, there is little or no evidence other than con fl icting stories told by a complainant and defendant, and decision-making is guided almost entirely by credibility assessments (e.g., Porter, Campbell, Birt & Woodworth, 2003 ) . For example, the judge in the Air India mass murder case ( R. v. Malik & Bagri , 2005 ) concluded that the case was reduced to a credibility contest: “... the determination of