 | Listen Don't let your eyes deceive you!posted by Wesley Clark, Group AdministratorTuesday, January 11th 2011 @ 11:23 AM |
For many years investigators within law enforcement have been trained to look for nonverbal cues in an individual during an interview or interrogation in an effort to identify if they are telling the truth or lying. There are dozens of books, lots training companies and countless classes (many of which I have taken) that teach investigators to look for specific nonverbal cues as signs of deception. The belief has been that these nonverbal signs are uncontrollable by the individual and therefore provide the investigator with an unfiltered indicator of deception.
With such a focus on the nonverbal behavior of individuals, many of these books, companies and classes minimize the value of verbal cues claiming that the words an individual uses are easily manipulated and planed out by the individuals prior to an interview or interrogation and are filtered during and throughout the questioning process. Well, I do agree that the words used are often planned out and filtered during and throughout the interview process, but that is not a reason to discount them, it is a reason to FOCUS on them! The reason being is that the psychological stress associated with deception often is evident within the words an individual uses if you know what to look for and really listen to what is being said.
Recent deception research shows that many verbal cues are more revealing of deception than nonverbal cues. In addition, it has been found that people who mainly focus on nonverbal cues are less accurate in distinguishing between what is true and what is a lie, and also, they are more inclined to accuse an individual of being deceptive than those who focus on the verbal content of the interview, even if the person they were talking with was telling the truth. Falsely accusing someone of lying or being deceptive becomes a major issue because at that point the investigators credibility is diminished and the individual being interviewed has a major concern and fear of being disbelieved. The fear of not being believed can cause verbal and nonverbal behavior which may be perceived by the investigator as being indicative of nervousness or deception, thus reinforcing the investigators false belief that the person is lying. This negative, downward cycle can then spiral out of control and the truth may never be found out, a guilty person may go free, or an innocent person may be falsely accused or subsequently arrested.
How do we avoid this major pitfall within investigative interviewing and criminal interrogations?
I will give you 4 tips:
1. Ask open-ended questions which allow for a free-narrative-account from the individual.Questions such as "Tell me everything that happened regarding this incident…", "What happened from the time you got to work until you ended you day…", "Describe in detail your relationship with…"(and then you fill in the blank with the name of the victim of a homicide, missing person, etc)
2. Really listen to the individual. Don’t be worried about your next question! Don’t be worried about what time you’re going to be done. Just ask an open-ended question and really LISTEN to what they say.
3. Focus on what the person actually said and the words they used, not on what’s implied, and don’t be distracted at this point by nonverbal behavior.
4. Ask follow-up questions based on the content of their response, not on a predetermined list of questions that you may have filled out prior to the interview. You want to ask probing questions regarding what they said because this will let them know you ARE listening to them, it will provide greater depth of information, and it will be more likely that a deceptive individual will be exposed by probing for more detail and further explanations.
By doing this you will maintain your objectivity and avoid being accusatory in your questions. You will also gather more information and verbal data to analyze because you are using open questions which encourage the individuals to talk and provide you with a narrative account.
I am not saying we should discount all nonverbal behavior, because EVERYTHING that happens during an investigative interview or criminal interrogation may be important, it may provide insight and it may help to direct the interview. Our job as interviewers is to obtain as much truthful, accurate and reliable information as possible, relevant to the issue under investigation. By placing a priority of what the person SAID, we position ourselves to reach that objective.
I appreciate you tuning into “8-Minute Insights”. If you want to learn more about the art and science of interview and interrogation, statement analyses, and detecting deception, please join our international association of investigative interviewers at the Interview and Interrogation Group, which you can find online at www.lies.igroops.com
Stay true and stay safe!
