• Supervising Agent

• Anti-Fraud Division

• National Bureau of Investigation

• the act of making someone believe

something that is not true

• the act of deceiving someone

• an act or statement intended to make

people believe something that is not true

• Studies showed that when motivated people lie and face consequences upon detection, clues to deception emerge and appear as leakage across multiple channels.

• Four of these are nonverbal (facial expressions, gestures and body language, voice, and verbal style).

• A fifth channel of leakage is in the actual words spoken—verbal statements.

• Nonverbal Examination

• Investigators can improve their ability to detect lies by becoming more aware of and skillful in reading the nonverbal cues to lying. In examining such important nonverbal behaviors as gestures, voice, and verbal style, officers first must focus on the facial expressions of emotion, especially those known as micro- and subtle expressions, because these both are involuntary and have demonstrated association with deception.8

• Microexpressions are fleeting expressions

of concealed emotion, sometimes so fast

that they happen in the blink of an eye—as

fast as one-fifteenth of a second. This

results from the individual’s attempt to hide

them. They generally go unnoticed in daily

social interactions.

• Facial expressions of emotion, including macro-, micro-, and subtle expressions, are universal and independent of race, culture, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, religion, or any other demographic variable.

• All people express emotions on their faces in exactly the same ways. Moreover, they are immediate, automatic, and unconscious reactions.

• These are incredible characteristics of facial

expressions because learning to read them

means that someone can have a bigger

window into the soul of almost anyone.

• It is a powerful tool for investigators because

facial expressions of emotion are the closest

thing humans have to a universal language.

• Statement Analysis

• Investigators also can improve their ability to detect lies by becoming skillful at statement analysis, which applies internalized grammatical rules that stem from the language acquisition part of the brain to an individual’s written or spoken words.

• Statement analysis involves examining

several aspects of someone’s words,

including verbs describing communication

and uncompleted action; changes in verb

tense; minimizing, intensifying, and editing

adverbs; extraneous information; unique

sensory details; and statement structure,

which identifies the person’s focus—on the

incident or somewhere else.

• Research has shown that distinct differences exist between a deceptive statement and a truthful one. By using the techniques of statement analysis, investigators can more readily detect truthfulness or deception in an individual’s words. With these insights, investigators become more efficient and effective in their abilities and gain better focus on the investigation.

• Proper Perspective

• Investigators must remember that no “silver

bullet” for identifying deception exists.

• Detecting microexpressions or inconsistent

facial expressions of emotion and identifying

areas of interest in a verbal statement via

statement analysis never should be

considered indicative of lying by themselves.

• Investigators should keep in mind that these behaviors could result from reasons other than lying; perhaps, the suspect or witness feels embarrassed or fears retaliation by talking to the police. Or, maybe, the officer has not established a relationship or has physically threatened the suspect.

• This shows the importance of building rapport; it reduces the amount of ambient anxiety found in any law enforcement interview.

• Thus, recognition of facial expressions of

emotion and statement analysis represent

important tools that investigators can add

to their toolkit to help them conduct

interviews and interrogations more

efficiently and accurately. But, like any

such tool, they need to be supplemented

with corroborating statements, physical

and forensic evidence, and hard work.

• The best lie catchers do not jump to conclusions early based solely on facial expressions or word usage. Instead, they use them as a guide through an interview to get the best information possible. This enables further elicitation of information and better comparisons and contrasts with other statements and physical evidence—all of which lead to more informed decisions.

• They comprise tools that investigators can

use to guide them through an interview or

interrogation.

• They help identify areas that need further

probing—concealed thoughts, feelings,

opinions, and omissions of parts of the

story.

• Asking the Questions

• Processing the Question

• Answering

• Post Answer

• The first opportunity is when you ask the question. As the interviewee hears the question look for behaviors that indicate the individual is freezing or restricting movement, is negatively affected by the question (compressed lips, chin withdrawal, ventral denial, etc.), or begins to pacify.

• A good interviewer asks the question and observes without being intrusive, without showing doubt or suspicion. Once each question is asked the interviewer waits and observes. What are they looking for? Any sign of discomfort which is usually seen on the body.

• The second opportunity to assess for deception or guilty knowledge is when the interviewee processes the question he or she just heard.

• Now it is true some people process questions very quickly while others take their time. No matter what, the interviewer is looking to see what are the effects on the interviewee as they process the question.

• Do they ask to repeat the question, a delay tactic perhaps? Are they troubled by the question? Are they hesitant, do they look like they are doing trigonometry in their head (cognitive load), did they suddenly lock their ankles around the legs of the chair, are they looking straight ahead frozen, are their eyes moving around, did their blink rate go up?

• Changes in behavior or facial expressions mean changes in thinking or emotions. If the interviewee is struggling with the question or they look like they are troubled by the question, then it is for the interviewer to determine why.

• The third opportunity to assess for obfuscation, deception or guilty knowledge is at the time the interviewee answers the question.

• As they answer, do they do so with conviction, without hesitation, with an unwavering voice, with dominance? Or do they restrict their arm movement, are they pacifying and soothing themselves, are they claiming less space, are they hiding their thumbs or their fingers, are the palms up rather than down, is the chin down rather than out, and are the shoulders rising toward the ears?

• If they appear meek, lacking confidence,

one shoulder is high while the other is low,

the voice has a higher pitch, there is

reluctance to answer, or their voice lacks

emphasis, there may be issues there to

further explore. All these things speak to

the interviewer.

• The fourth opportunity to assess the interviewee is after he or she has answered the question. At that point a good interviewer will wait and watch creating a natural looking but pregnant pause so that the interviewee can be observed to see if there are any cathartic exhales, pacifying behaviors, wiggling in the chair, or heaving of the chest. Those behaviors also speak volumes to the interviewer.

• Most people don’t realize that after a question is answered, the interviewee will, if there is guilty knowledge, do some moving around, self adjusting, exhaling with puffed cheeks, prolonged exhale, self touching or self soothing to relieve the stress he or she has endured hearing the question, processing it, then answering that question. Here is one more opportunity to look for indicators of deception.

• Speech errors, hesitation, lack of confidence, indicators of stress, and pacifiers in relation to a question merely suggest that there are issues.

• They indicate some stimulus (a question) is creating stress and that there is something there to pursue.

• However, indicators of stress are not, conclusively indicative of deception

• There is no ‘Pinocchio effect,’ when it comes to deception.

• STRAIGHTFORWARD

• LOGICAL

• NON-ACCUSATORY

• NOT TOUGH

• EASY TO TALK WITH

• GENERAL TO SPECIFIC (DEDUCTIVE)

• NON-SENSITIVE TO SENSITIVE

• DO NOT BE ACCUSATORY

• DO NOT STARE

• AVOID HOSTILE APPROACH

• ASK QUESTION ONE AT A TIME

• DO NOT BE SHREWD

• PROCEED CHRONOLOGICALLY

• LOOK FOR PATTERNS

• KEEP IN MIND THAT SIGNAL CAN BE UNRELIABLE