Researchers make breakthrough into understanding how people behave when they lie

People should concentrate on a single 'cue' to tell if someone is lying

A psychology lecturer is making breakthroughs leading towards a clearer understanding of how humans tell lies (University of Huddersfield)

Researchers have developed a clearer understanding of how humans tell lies and how their deceptions can be detected.

Dr Chris Street, an investigative psychology lecturer at the University of Huddersfield and lead author of the study, said it has traditionally been said we should trust our hunches and unconscious knowledge of body language to detect whether someone is lying or not.

However, Dr Street’s research suggests people are better off consciously relying on a single “cue” to tell if someone’s nose is growing, such as whether or not a person is “plainly thinking hard”.

To analyse how people lie to the most accurate extent possible, Dr Smith developed an experiment in which participants were not aware they were taking part in an analysis at all.

To do this, Dr Smith and his colleague, Dr Daniel Richardson of University College London, devised a deception of their own, the results of which are published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.

Hiring a film studio in London, the researchers persuaded passers-by to be interviewed for a “documentary” on tourism.

The participants were told by research assistants, placed outside the studio, that the film makers were running out of time and asked if, in addition to describing genuine travel experiences, they would talk about places they had not actually visited.

The speakers were then interviewed by a director who, they believed, was unaware they had agreed to lie on film.

"The idea was that they were lying to someone that they could potentially deceive. They were lying on behalf of another person, but the lie was spontaneous and told with an intention to mislead," said Dr. Street.

The filmed interviews gave researchers a bank of material showing how people behave when they are lying. The material will be made available to other researchers in what is still a relatively new field of human lie detection.

"There has been a push in the literature suggesting that indirect lie detection works and the reason is that it is unconscious - so people should not be making reasoned judgments but relying on their gut feeling," said Dr. Street.

"But if our account is correct, that is a very bad way to go."

Instead, Dr Smith's research revealed, it is better “focus on the content of the tale people are selling us, and asking if it is consistent with other facts we know”.

His research also debunked the theory liars are more anxious than truth tellers.

"The reality is no,” said Dr Smith, “because often the reason we lie is that to tell the truth would be very difficult and more anxiety-provoking than a lie."