Interviewing & Detecting Lies 3 Tips

I smile when I see movies portraying savvy detectives revered for their ability to separate truth from lies in a suspect’s story.

And I cringe when people believe the lies of politicians and other leaders despite evidence from their own behaviour—including recordings of their statements. Sadly, interviewers are easily deceived. And despite my experience in clinical forensic work, I too have been deceived.

We have a vested interest in detecting the truth—especially when we stand to lose or gain from information. So, I am going to draw on some research summarized by Aldert Vrij to make a few points in this post.

1. Eye-contact: Liars do not look away more than truth-tellers. Liars are focused on overcoming the well-known avoidance belief.

2. Squirm effect: Liars do not fidget or move around more than truth-tellers. It takes mental effort to deceive someone. Liars move less.

3. Nonverbal cue mystique: Interviewers (including new counsellors) are often told to pay attention to nonverbal behaviour but the research indicates deciding if a person is lying or telling the truth based on nonverbal behaviour is about 50-50 (52%). But when people could only hear what someone said, accuracy improved to 63%, which is much better than 50-50.

And good luck dealing with security. Vrij explains that there is little research behind the behavioural observers looking for suspicious behaviour in public places like airports.

For more from Aldert Vrij, see his article “The Best Way to Detect Lies in Interviews.” His academic articles are listed in the reference section.

One more point--

Even when an interviewee provides information that appears to be true and is not presented as a lie, human memory is less than an accurate record of the past--see false memories and psychology.

Tags #HR_Interviews #Liars #DiscoveringTruth

Resources

Detecting Lies and Deceit by Aldert Vrij

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