The Truth About Body Language & Deception: Notes On Interrogation

I'm am very grateful to all the subscribers of "The Interview Room." I get the best ideas for sections of the e-zine such as "Humor innthe Room" and my monthly articles from questions asked by ournsubscribers as well as students in the classroom. One of you fellow subscribers passed along an article to me last month aboutnnonverbal behavior and deception. After reading the article I wasnamazed at the amount of gross misrepresentations and errorsnabout body language behaviors identified as reliable signs ofndeception. I would estimate that roughly about 50% of what thenarticle claimed as deception were in fact common stress cues. Early in my career as an investigator I had bought into these samenprinciples. It wasn't until I began to search in earnest fornsupporting documentation did I learn about the enormous amountnof erroneous content in many such courses. First let's make a distinction here between stress and deceptionnbehaviors. Anyone can be under stress, show numerousnprofound signs of stress and not be deceptive. Would anyone bensurprised if a rape victim would show stress during her interview? What about witnesses to a homicide or perhaps a survivor anhorrible vehicle crash? Would any of member of the militaryndemonstrate stress signs when discussing the firefight they havenjust survived? Just the presence of stress symptoms alone is NOTnindicative with someone who is lying. Did you interview for you current job? Where you a little stressed out? Was it because younwere lying? The most common mistake involving the analysis ofnbody language is identifying common signs of stress as cues tondeceit. One of the gross errors I found in the article involved the level orndegree of eye contact a person maintains during an interview asnbeing a reliable marker of deception. Eye contact in and of itselfnis one of if not the least reliable signs of deception. Numerousnempirical studies have supported this conclusion yet there are stillnmany training programs on interview and interrogation that stillnprofess that poor eye contact is a positive sign of deception. Andecrease in eye contact can occur when people are embarrassednabout a topic, can be a sign of disgust, and can even be culturallynmotivated. Research has shown that in general, introverted ornemotional subjects do tend to decrease eye contact when beingndeceptive. Conversely, extroverted or non-emotionalnpersonalities which is frequently found about psychopaths as wellnas very ego dominant personalities show a increase in eyencontact when being deceptive - these subjects literally have moreneye contact with their interviewer when they are lying and less eyencontact while being honest. Finally, does crossing of the arms or legs mean a person isnclosed to communication or being deceptive? The answer is yesnsometimes however arm or leg crossing also happens whennpeople are embarrassed, cold, self conscious, emotionallynwithdrawn, boredom, or even in depression. The famous defensenatto ey Gerry Spence tells of an incident he had involving a juro who sat in the jury box for the whole trial with his arms crossed. Spence related that he had attended a training seminar on bodynlanguage and deception that taught all arm and leg crossingnshowed deception or closed attitude. Spence questioned thenmale juror after the trial about his thoughts about the trial and hisnopinion about Spence and his case. The juror was quite open andnreceptive. When Spence asked why he sat with his arms crossednin the obvious closed rejection posture, the juror purportedlynanswered that he was a big man with a fat belly and that was ancomfortable posture for him. It's about time we started questioning some of the contents ofnsome of our interview and interrogation courses and the empiricalnaccuracy of the claims they make. You should always bensuspicious of such programs which claim that any behavior is annabsolute sign of deception because no such cues exist. There arenalso times when a behavior cue that is often associated as sign ofndeception can be a normal behavior for a truthful person. As anstudent in these programs I challenge you to start asking fornempirical proof. Don't settle for "it always works." Ask whatnclinical research has been conducted and is their other supportingnresearch conducted by other behavioral scientists that havenconfirmed the same findings. We miss 50% the lies that happennright in front of us because of the propagation of "urban legends"nin interview and interrogation training programs.nn© 2005 by Stan B. Walters "The Lie Guy®"