We all like to consider ourselves good judges of character. Most of us think we are better than the general populace at knowing when someone is lying to us. Unfortunately, even the experts at deception detection are not that great at it. The threshold for detecting deception is about 60% (compared to a coin flip which would be 50%). While the popularity of TV shows like ‘Lie to Me’  may convince jurors otherwise, there is no magic formula for ‘knowing’ when someone is lying (despite assertions that there are ‘detection deception wizards’).

But take heart. Recent research has found multiple behavioral strategies that can be used to identify deception without being a wizard. These are pre-trial, deposition strategies, not on the fly efforts in the courtroom! Unlike Perry Mason, you don’t want to go fishing in the courtroom. You want to reel in your fish beforehand so you know what you have when you are questioning a witness.

To uncover deception, try these three research-based tactics:

1. Ask them to draw

A new study in the journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology shows that liars tended to draw about their story from an “overhead view” while truth-tellers drew more often from a “shoulder camera view”. The authors hypothesize that liars have less time to work out the details of the scene (about which they are lying) and that it’s easier to make something up verbally than it is to first visualize it and then create it on paper.

2. Ask them to tell their story backwards

Aldert Vrij has long done research on deception. His new research focuses on increasing ‘cognitive load’ to identify liars. Vrij says a simple way to do this is to ask the liar to tell their story backwards. Police observers were able to identify 9 signs of deception when stories were told backwards compared to only 1 when stories were told in the correct order.

3. Consider: Are they having to think hard about this answer?

Vrij also suggests that as you are in the interview, you use a more indirect questioning method. That is, consider whether the subject seems to be thinking hard about what they are saying or if they simply seem to be reporting a past recollection.

While these three strategies won’t turn you into a deception detection ‘wizard’, they will likely help you to increase accuracy in observation about who is telling you the truth and, alternately, who is not.

Related posts:

1. Detecting Deception Using the Law of Sufficient Motivation
2. Outsmarting liars (five decades of research)
3. Does familiarity improve our skill at identifying liars?