From The Miracle at Speedy Motors, by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon, 2008):
Mma Ramotswe steered the van past a particularly large hole in the road. "Well, Rra," she said, "I have always followed a very simple rule in these matters. When I want to find something out, I usually ask somebody directly. That is the best way to get information: you ask for it and it is given to you."
Mr. Polopetsi smiled. "But do people always tell you the truth?"
Mma Ramotswe peered over the top of her steering wheel. "Not always. But then you can tell when they're telling lies. If you watch people when they talk to you, you can tell." (pp. 68-69)
It looks as if Mma Ramotswe and I suffer from a similar misconception. A couple of months ago I blogged about my dislike of hunches as a narrative device ("Today's Filthy Word: Hunch," November 26, 2008) and about the various ways detectives/sleuths/amateurs could more scientifically determine that someone is lying, rather than simply having a hunch about it.
It turns out that I was wrong about some of the things I said (and I adjusted the blog entry to make it more accurate). My misconceptions were brought to my attention by the very perceptive Patricia Rockwell, a fabulous lady and Ph.D. in Communication who generously agreed to do a Guest Blog on this very topic. So, without further ado, I am delighted to introduce:
STEREOTYPES ABOUT LIARS' NONVERBAL BEHAVIORS
by Patricia Rockwell
Mystery writers should know how liars typically behave--even if their detectives don't. Here are a few commonly held beliefs about liars' nonverbal behaviors and an indication whether or not these beliefs are justified based upon scientific research.
STEREOTYPE #1: Liars can't maintain eye contact.
Not true! Liars usually can maintain eye contact with ease. Why? First, most liars know that people expect truth tellers to exhibit good eye contact, so liars work hard to maintain it. Second, maintaining eye contact is relatively easy. Liars only have to tip their heads toward the listener and aim their eyes in the listener's general direction and they give the appearance of good eye contact. Now, if your sleuth really wants to check to see if a suspect is lying, s/he should look more closely at the potential liar's eyes. Liars generally blink more and have more pupil dilation than do truth tellers. These are two behaviors that are much harder to control than eye contact, and are therefore far better clues to deception than decreased eye contact.
STEREOTYPE #2: Liars exhibit nervous mannerisms.
Partially true. Yes, liers do tend to exhibit a lot of nervous mannerisms, but not necessarily the ones you might think. Most liars can easily control movements of their face and hands. Most nervous behaviors exhibited by liars tend to occur in the lower part of the body--the feet and legs. Why? Again, as with eye contact, liars know that nervous behaviours are a telltale sign of lying, and liars try hard to avoid the most common ones--facial expressions and hand gestures. If liars are experiencing any anxiety about their lying (some aren't), they may "leak" this nervousness elsewhere in the body--typically in their feet or legs. So, if your sleuth can peek under the table at the suspect's lower body, s/he may get much more reliable data to indicate the suspect is lying than by merely observing the person's upper torso.
STEREOTYPE #3: Liars speak with many pauses.
True! But there are more deception clues associated with liars' speech than just pausing. Yes, your detectives should consider if the suspect pauses during a sentence, but more importantly, have your sleuths listen for pauses at the beginnings of sentences, particularly if the sentence is in response to a question. Researchers call this a "response latency," and this type of pause is notoriously longer for liars than truth tellers. Why? It's obvious. Liars need more time to fabricate answers or to be certain the answers they give will "fit" with the lies they have already told.
STEREOTYPE #4: Liars' voices become higher pitched.
Often true. Not always, but particularly for inexperienced liars, voices may rise in pitch. Why? Nervousness increases tension in the vocal folds, and the tighter the vocal folds, the higher the pitch of the voice. Whereas liars can usually control eye contact and hand gestures, they cannot do much to control the pitch of their voices. Also, if their nervousness is enough to make their pitch rise, liars cannot typically "will" it down.
In general, where nonverbal cues of lying are concerned, sleuths are well advised to pay more attention to vocal cues rather than visual cues because the voice is considered much "leakier" and less controllable than the face or the body. A clever sleuth might run a test to see if a suspect's voice changes in any way when the suspect is confronted with incriminating evidence. One caveat: Your detective should avoid appearing suspicious, because researchers have found that liars tend to increase their deceptive efforts when they encounter suspicion. Finally, always remember that these rules are not written in stone, but are just generalizations. There are liars out there who will not fit any of these stereotypes.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR/AUTHOR: Patricia Rockwell is a recently retired Communication professor. She received her B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Arizona. While at the University of Arizona, she was a member of a research team studying deception for the U.S. Department of Defense. She has taught at various institutions, the last thirteen years at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Patricia has published dozens of peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals about her favorite research topics of deception, vocal behavior, and sarcasm. Her book about sarcasm, Sarcasm and Mixed Messages: The Ambiguous Ways People Use Language, was published by Edwin Mellen Press in 2006. She served as Editor of the Louisiana Communication Journal for eight years. Patricia has two blogs:
Communication Exchange (http://communicationexchange.blogspot.com) is devoted to discussing communication-related topics.
Subjective Soup (http://subjectivesoup.blogspot.com) is a personal diary blog.
Patricia Rockwell can be reached at Par2323 AT aol DOT com. (Change AT to @, and DOT to .)
Great post! Thanks for shedding light on lying.
Just by the by, there's an interesting book, Faking It (by William Ian Miller), that explores the subject of . . . that's right . . . faking it (which may not the same as lying, but is definitely a "kissing cousin").
Posted by: Ann | January 16, 2009 at 01:48 PM