An evaluation of field techniques in detection of deception

Revenge is not blind: Testing the ability of retribution to justify dishonesty

In two studies, we tested the power of revenge as a justification mechanism that enables people to cheat with a clear conscience. Specifically, we explored the effects of prior dishonesty and unfairness towards participants on their subsequent moral behavior, as well as the physiological arousal associated with it. To this end, we employed a two-phase procedure. In the first phase, participants played one round of a bargaining game (the Ultimatum game in Study 1 and the Dictator game in Study 2) in which we manipulated whether the players had been treated (un)fairly and (dis)honestly by their opponent. In the second phase, they did a perceptual task that allowed them to cheat for monetary gain at the expense of their opponent from the first phase. In Study 1, participants also took a lie detector test to assess whether their dishonesty in the second phase could be detected. The behavioral results in both studies indicated that the opponent’s dishonesty was a stronger driver than the opponent’s unfairness for cheating as a form of retaliation. However, the physiological arousal results suggest that feeling mistreated in general (and not just cheated) allowed the participants to get revenge by cheating the offender while dismissing their associated guilt feelings.

The Lie Deflator – The effect of polygraph test feedback on subsequent (dis)honesty

Despite its controversial status, the lie detection test is still a popular organizational instrument for credibility assessment. Due to its popularity, we examined the effect of the lie-detection test feedback on subsequent moral behavior. In three studies, participants could cheat to increase their monetary payoff in two consecutive phases. Between these two phases the participants underwent a mock polygraph test and were randomly given Deception Indicated (DI) or No Deception Indicated (NDI) assigned feedback. Then, participants engaged in the second phase of the task and their level of dishonesty was measured. Study 1 showed that both NDI and DI feedback (but not the control) reduced cheating behavior on the subsequent task. However, Study 2 showed that the mere presence of the lie-detection test (without feedback) did not produce the same effect. When the role of the lie detector as a moral reminder was cancelled out in Study 3, feedback had no effect on the magnitude of cheating behavior. However, cheaters who were given NDI feedback exhibited a lower level of physiological arousal than cheaters who were given DI feedback. These results suggest that lie detection tests can be used to promote honesty in the field, and that, while feedback type does not affect the magnitude of cheating, NDI may allow people to feel better about cheating.

Choice and the Detection of Deception

Laboratory simulations of polygraph lie detection typically involve random assignment of subjects to conditions of guilt or innocence. The present study allowed subjects to choose between stealing a larger sum of money or receiving a small sum as pay for being in the experiment. Prior to this choice subjects completed personality scales and estimated the effectiveness of the polygraph. Subjects were informed that, if they were found guilty of stealing, they would forfeit whatever money they had. Were they found innocent, they could keep the amount they had. Even though subjects' views of polygraph accuracy were related to their choice of conditions, detection scores were similar to those of studies in which subjects were randomly assigned to their conditions, that is, most guilty subjects were detected and most classification errors were made with innocent subjects. The various estimates of effectiveness made by guilty and innocent subjects were not related to polygraph accuracy in either of these groups.

Diagnosing Estimate Distortion Due to Significance Testing in Literature on Detection of Deception

Studies journals typically report or feature results significant by statistical test criterion. This is a bias that prevents obtaining precise estimates of the magnitude of any underlying effect. It is severe with small effect sizes and small numbers of measurements. To illustrate the problem and a diagnosis technique, results of published studies on the detection of deception are graphed. The literature contains large effect sizes affirming that deceptive responses in contrast to truthful responses are associated with more reactive Skin Resistance Responses. These effect sizes when graphed on the x-axis against n on the y-axis are distributed as funnel graphs. A subset of studies show support for predicted small to medium effects on different physiological measures, individual differences, and condition manipulations. These effect sizes graphed by sample ns follow negative correlations, suggesting that effect sizes from published values of t, F, and z are exaggerations.

A novel method for extracting respiration rate and relative tidal volume from infrared thermography

In psychophysiological research, measurement of respiration has been dependent on transducers having direct contact with the participant. The current study provides empirical data demonstrating that a noncontact technology, infrared video thermography, can accurately estimate breathing rate and relative tidal volume across a range of breathing patterns. Video tracking algorithms were applied to frame-by-frame thermal images of the face to extract time series of nostril temperature and to generate breath-by-breath measures of respiration rate and relative tidal volume. The thermal indices of respiration were contrasted with criterion measures collected with inductance plethysmography. The strong correlations observed between the technologies demonstrate the potential use of facial video thermography as a noncontact technology to monitor respiration.

A field study on the validity of the Quadri-Track Zone Comparison Technique

This field study tested and demonstrated the validity and reliability of the Quadri-Track Zone Comparison Technique designed for specific Single-Issue Psychophysiological Veracity (PV) examinations using the polygraph, using one hundred and forty confirmed real-life cases from a private polygraph firm under contract with a metropolitan police department. The Quadri-Track Zone Comparison Technique's unique Inside Track accurately increased the scores for the innocent by 43.6% and the guilty by 37.1% thereby reducing the overall inconclusive rate from 19.5% to 1.4%, which effectively remedies the major cause (Fear/Hope of Error) of inconclusive results in single-issue polygraph tests. The Quadri-Track Zone Comparison Technique correctly identified 100% of the innocent as truthful with no inconclusives and no errors. It further correctly identified 97.8% of the guilty as deceptive and 2.2% as inconclusive, with no errors. Inconclusives excluded, the Quadri-Track Zone Comparison Technique was 100% accurate in the identification of the innocent and the guilty. Inconclusives included, the utility rate was 98.6%. Blind scoring of polygraph charts showed extremely high correlations for the individual and total scores with a combined accuracy of 98.3%.

Comparison of Polygraph Data Obtained From Individuals Involved in Mock Crimes and Actual Criminal Investigations

In a preliminary attempt to determine the generalizability of data from laboratory mock-crime studies, the authors examined the similarities and differences among the cardiovascular, electrodermal, and respiration responses of deceptive and nondeceptive individuals elicited to crime-relevant and crime-irrelevant questions. Participants in the laboratory group were randomly assigned to nondeceptive (n = 28) or deceptive (n = 27) treatment groups, and a mock-crime scenario was used. The field participants were confirmed nondeceptive (n = 28) or deceptive (n = 39) criminal suspects who underwent polygraph examinations between 1993 and 1997. The results indicated that there were salient differences between field and similarly obtained laboratory polygraph response measures. However, accuracy of laboratory participants' classifications using logistic regression analysis was not significantly different from field participants' classification accuracy.

Alcohol and the physiological detection of deception: arousal and memory influences

Eighty male volunteers participated in an analogue study of the effects of alcohol intoxication at the time of a crime on the physiological detection of deception using control question and guilty knowledge techniques. Sixty-four of the subjects committed a mock crime and half of these were intoxicated during the crime. Sixteen subjects committed no crime and served as innocent controls. We found that intoxication at the time of the crime had no significant effect on polygraph test outcomes, although it did affect anticipatory arousal before the crime and subsequent memory for crime details. Manipulations designed to influence memory for crime details and arousal during the crime had differential effects for the two polygraph tests. On the guilty knowledge test, primed subjects who rehearsed specific details following the crime were more detectable than unprimed subjects. On the control question test, primed subjects were also more detectable, but only when arousal during the crime was high.

The accuracy of human decisions and objective measurements in psychophysiological detection of knowledge

I examined the relative detection efficiency of three measurements--skin resistance response (SRR) amplitude, respiration line length (RLL), and human respiration response evaluation (RRE)--in a guilty knowledge experiment. Thirty-two subjects were presented with lists of personal information in which only one of five items was correct. Subjects were instructed to try to avoid detection of the relevant items in the polygraph test. All three measurements discriminated better than chance between relevant and neutral items, with the objectively measured SRR and RLL superior to the subjective RRE. When SRR and RLL were compared for their relative efficiency, the former yielded better detection. The differentiation was even better with a measure that combined the SRR and the RLL. The results are discussed with respect to previous findings and practical implications.

The truth will out: interrogative polygraphy ("lie detection") with event-related brain potentials

The feasibility of using Event Related Brain Potentials (ERPs) in Interrogative Polygraphy ("Lie Detection") was tested by examining the effectiveness of the Guilty Knowledge Test designed by Farwell and Donchin (1986, 1988). The subject is assigned an arbitrary task requiring discrimination between experimenter-designated targets and other, irrelevant stimuli. A group of diagnostic items ("probes"), which to the unwitting are indistinguishable from the irrelevant items, are embedded among the irrelevant. For subjects who possess "guilty knowledge" these probes are distinct from the irrelevants and are likely to elicit a P300, thus revealing their possessing the special knowledge that allows them to differentiate the probes from the irrelevants. We report two experiments in which this paradigm was tested. In Experiment 1, 20 subjects participated in one of two mock espionage scenarios and were tested for their knowledge of both scenarios. All stimuli consisted of short phrases presented for 300 ms each at an interstimulus interval of 1550 ms. A set of items were designated as "targets" and appeared on 17% of the trials. Probes related to the scenarios also appeared on 17% of the trials. The rest of the items were irrelevants. Subjects responded by pressing one switch following targets, and the other following irrelevants (and, of course, probes). ERPs were recorded from FZ, CZ, and PZ. As predicted, targets elicited large P300s in all subjects. Probes associated with a given scenario elicited a P300 in subjects who participated in that scenario. A bootstrapping method was used to assess the quality of the decision for each subject. The algorithm declared the decision indeterminate in 12.5% of the cases. In all other cases a decision was made. There were no false positives and no false negatives: whenever a determination was made it was accurate. The second experiment was virtually identical to the first, with identical results, except that this time 4 subjects were tested, each of which had a minor brush with the law. Subjects were tested to determine whether they possessed information on their own "crimes." The results were as expected; the Guilty Knowledge Test determined correctly which subject possessed which information. The implications of these data both for the practice of Interrogative Polygraphy and the interpretation of the P300 are discussed.