A common belief held by many investigative interviewers and
most people in general is that when a person is being deceptive
that their statements are literally saturated with deceit. Results of
numerous studies of deception behavior does not support this
conclusion. In reality, people engage in evasion far more often
than they do pure deception.
My colleague Dr. Martha Davis and I studied the video taped
interrogations from 36 felony cases investigated by the New York
Police Department. Our study focused on identifying the verbal
and nonverbal cues to deception by subjects in situations where
there was significant jeopardy for the subject if their evasion and
deception attempts failed. One of the general observations we
made that was very consistent with the results of previously
published studies of deception was that people are far more
evasive than deceptive.
Sustaining pure deception can be a difficult process for most
people. This is not to say that lying is "hard" but one's ability to
first create a deception and then sustain it under scrutiny is what is
difficult. Let's face it. The "deception" liar must remember the
truth that they are attempting to hide and their first deception
presentation. Next when their previous lie is challenged they must
create a new lie that dovetails with the first deception and most
often it must be created on the fly. At the same time they must
leave the new lie open ended enough in case they are required to
lie some more. This a daunting task for anyone.
The most common technique the majority people including
suspects use to avoid the truth is to practice evasion. Simple
evasion does not require a great deal of creative thinking on the
part of your deceitful suspect. Evasion also does not require that
one have a particularly acute memory just tell as much of the truth
as possible. Also consider the observations and reactions of the
person who is the target of the lie because the lie teller is doing
that very same thing. Pure deception is more likely to raise the
suspicions of the lie target that evasion.
The conclusion we can make is that subjects are far more likely to
be evasive than deceptive. The conclusion of our research drew
an interesting parallel observation. Investigative interviewers are
more likely to diagnose the stress behaviors of evasion as
markers of deception. Deception behaviors generated by a
subject are in fact rare.
Stan B. Walters "The Lie Guy®"
www.TheLieGuy.com
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