Lie Detection Research: Faking Liars for the Truth
Can you detect a lie? How? What techniques or technology can detect lies?
Is there a physical "tell" that identifies liars? Does that work across cultures?
Do facial twitches and fleeting facial expressions reveal hidden emotions? If so, does identifying those hidden emotions reveal a liar?
Do the brain's electrical impulses reveal lies? Or is the key to detecting deception in the words a liar uses?
Deception detection research works to answer these, and many more questions. The Holy Grail of credibility assessment is a technology or technique that can perfectly reveal the truth or falseness of any person's statements.
This quest has been pursued for hundreds of years. In the last century or so, there have been multiple approaches to this search. Many technologies claimed to detect lies and then faded away. Researchers carry out studies to test theories, techniques, and technologies. Progress is made.
However, a fatal weakness in much deception detection research is the lack of real-life liars to practice on. Most research on lie detection uses volunteers (typically first year college students enrolled in Psychology 101) who are assigned a role to play in the research. These untrained and naive subjects are not acceptable as "liars" for the purposes of testing technology or techniques. Why not?
The practical uses of lie detection in the real world are high-stakes. Government agencies want to identify hostile operators attempting to enter their country, infiltrate their infrastructure, or existing members who may pose a threat to their operations. Law enforcement and court systems want to learn the truth to identify criminals and exonerate the innocent. High-stakes real-life liars are unlikely to be 19-year-old college students. A typical intelligence operative's entire life, his "cover", is a lie. From name and background to nationality and intent, everything he says is a lie. This cover allows him to carry out his nefarious operation. He comes into contact with government representatives many times in his operational life. And he lies. And is not detected. The operative has practiced his lies, had training in simulations to practice his lies. This is a typical high-stakes liar.
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Any proposed deception detection technology or technique must be effective against this sort of high-stakes liar.
How can we replicate these high-stakes liars for deception detection research?
See my paper at the attached link for a proposed solution.
Mr Clizbe, I've been trying to tag you on others articles, but LinkedIn don't allow me to tag you. Just wanted you to be aware of a potential shadow banning. Cheers
Empowering businesses to Harness their Greatest Asset - People | Behavioural Analyst Specialising in Human Potential.
3 年Kent Clizbe Thanks for sharing this very detailed and objective research paper. It will not surprise you that I totally agree with you premise and positioning especially in regard to the quick fix solutions out there from the technologically wobbly Silent talker to the equally wobbly ( and potentially dangerous) binary nature of the microexpression/emotion paradigm as hawked around the web by people who really should know better. No system to test and educate will be 100% because humans are complex, irrational and contrary. However,I really like your proposals whilst you cannot definitively replicate the gain/loss stress of real high stakes situations you are getting as close s you could. If you have a week or two spare we could have a chat about all this!