Investigators who conduct interviews for a living, and researchers who study ways to uncover fraudulent statements agree that there are six areas on which to focus when identifying fraudulent statements. Whether under oath, answering questions during a job interview, providing details about an insurance claim or recounting events relating to an accident or a crime, certain characteristics of deception are universal.
During the next three Newsletters, these characteristics (interactive style, voice changes, facial expressions, body movements, psychophysiology or the way the mind and body interact and content of the statement) will be described in more detail. Having more awareness of each of these characteristics will help an interviewer formulate a judgment as to whether deception is present.
Interactive Style
In a 2008 Cornell University Department of Communications study, researchers Hancock, Curry and Goorha found the following linguistic style characteristics among liars:
- Speaks more words in deceptive remarks versus fewer words when being truthful.
- Asks more questions when relating deceptive information.
- Uses fewer first person singular words (I or me) and more second (you) and third person (he, she and they) pronouns when being deceptive.
- More likely to use words that relate to the senses (see, touch and listen).
Other studies have confirmed the foregoing along with distinct linguistic styles of deception. Interestingly, researchers also learned that when persons not trained in interviewing were empowered with these descriptions their ability to identify false statements increased significantly.
Voice Changes
Liars use convincing verbal cues and strategies to support and reinforce their lie. A seminal study of deceptive voice patterns was conducted in 1997 by researchers Anolli and Ciceri at Catholic University in Italy (“The Voice of Deception: Vocal Strategies of Naive and Able Liars”). They brought together, refined and confirmed decades of prior studies of others through their own research. As a result, they identified three types of liars by voice:
- “Good Liars” are few and far between. These are the folks who can control their emotions while speaking deceptively, and, as a result, few deceptive signals are heard. They lie for a living and are the most successful liers, they speak eloquently and in a convincing fashion and they are intelligent and typically do not possess a moral compass. Many in this category fit the classic definition of sociopath, and according to Harvard psychologist Dr. Martha Stout, roughly one in 25 Americans is a sociopath.
- “Tense Liars” are more commonplace. They have more difficulty in controlling their emotions and thus their voice. A trained interviewer can spot deceptive verbal cues usually 3 out of 4 times from this group.
- “Overcontrolled Liars” are the most commonplace. These are the individuals whose lies are frequently discovered. This group lacks adequate voice control even to the untrained ear. They are unnecessarily verbose, they frequently pause or hesitate and they use words that do not fit the topic.
The differences among these three groups is driven by emotional control or lack thereof. Many people with whom you come in contact will fall into category 2 or 3. Pay attention during the course of your day-to-day activities, on and off the job, when you are out socially and at home, as to how people around you exhibit one or more of these vocal traits. See if you can spot the truth, a lie or a statement somewhere in between.
Next month the Newsletter will continue to describe two more characteristics that will help you be a better lie spotter – facial expressions and body movements.
Research North, Inc. (RNI), is a professional private detective service providing support to the business community, the insurance industry and individuals in Michigan and Wisconsin since 1981. The company also offers pre-employment background checks to small and medium sized businesses through a subsidiary called Backgroundcheckswork.com that is fully staffed by professional investigators who are retired from law enforcement.
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