How real recollection differs from a fabrication

Aldert Vrij of the University of Portsmouth in England uses a method called Criteria-Based Content Analysis to help police identify whether the retelling of an incident is truthful. The method is based on research indicating that a story of a real recollection differs from a fabrication in specific ways.

According to Vrij, actual experiences have the following properties:

1. They are coherent and consistent but generally not in chronological order.
2. They contain a lot of detail and include unusual and superfluous elements.
3. They depict personal interactions and reiterate speech and conversation.
4. They describe feelings and thoughts - the narrator's and in many cases those the storyteller ascribes to the perpetrator.
5. They contain spontaneous corrections, the admission of memory gaps and doubts about the believability of the story.

How to Recognize a Narcissist

There were and continue to be no shortage of verbal assaults on the good character of Barack Obama. Most are so absurd as to not even merit rebuttal. One that did catch my attention recently, however, was an email that claimed Mr. Obama was the poster boy for narcissism. I couldn't let this one pass, primarily because nothing is further from the truth. In fact, Obama displays far fewer narcissist tendencies than most of his political counterparts. Let's take a look at some of the clues that help us recognize a narcissist and you can judge for yourself.

Big, loud and braggadocios. The narcissist displays an air of superiority and haughtiness in both posture and speech. His body language and verbal language are typically loud, big and braggadocios. His speech is peppered with "I", "my", "myself", and "mine". No matter how he describes himself (which he does quite a lot) it is always in the extreme - richer, smarter, more creative more successful and so on. If he has struggled in life, it will always be a bigger and more profound struggle than anyone else.

Only interested in self. The narcissist likes to talk about himself and only about himself. He's not interested in others or what they have to say, unless he perceives them as helpful to him getting what he wants. He is impatient, easily bored, and has strong attention deficits – unless and until he is the topic of discussion. He can become disdainful, even angry, if he feels that others are intruding on his time and space.

Expects special treatment. The narcissist expects and often demands special treatment. To be served first, to pay less or get more, to talk directly to authority figures (and not to their assistants or secretaries), to be granted special payment terms, to enjoy custom tailored arrangements.

Is very class and rank conscious. The narcissist sees himself at the top of the food chain and also sees a very defined pecking order. He tends to react with rage and indignation when denied his wishes and if treated equally with others whom he deems inferior. Ever witness someone in a restaurant or shop vehemently dress down the waiter or sales clerk in front of everyone? That's your narcissist.

Jekyll and Hyde - Idealizes or Humiliates. The narcissist is not without compliments for those he sets his sites on. He can flatter, admire, woo, even idealize. But, like most things with the narcissist the extremes are always in play. His admiration is over the top, exaggerated, overdone, and therefore it's sincerity questionable. He can turn it on and off very quickly. Just watch the change when the target leaves the room. Or when the target rejects him. He can move from adoring to hostile in a moments notice. And the hostile jabs will be equally exaggerated and over the top.

All hat and no cattle. Ever been around someone who claims to be in the know on virtually every topic discussed? The person who's mastered every trade, climbed every mountain, and is friends with every powerful person? That's the narcissist. The narcissist never admits to ignorance in any field. He would have you believe he can do and already has mastered everything there is to master. But it's all show and no substance. One of the most effective methods of exposing a narcissist is by trying to delve deeper. With just a little bit of digging you can quickly expose the narcissist.

Impersonal. The Narcissist avoids emotions and emotional issues, preferring to intellectualize, rationalize and detach. Narcissists often refer to themselves in third person.

Lack of empathy. Think about someone you know who is naturally empathetic, able to connect with different kinds of people in a profound and meaningful way. Now imagine the opposite kind of person. That's a narcissist. A narcissist is unable (or certainly unwilling) to get out of themselves and into the lives and emotions of other people.

Note symmetry of facial expression for clues to deception

According to Paul Ekman.....
Two distinct neuropathways govern voluntary and spontaneous facial expressions. One major difference is that spontaneous expressions tend to always be more symmetrical - with both sides of the face being more equally effected. When a facetious expression is made voluntarily, this symmetry is always less obvious. Thus, a crooked expression where the sides of the face are mismatched, is a reliable indication that the expression is not genuine but is being voluntarily created. Ekman is referring to relative facial symmetry. Some people naturally have more asymmetrical expressions than others, but when the expression appears more mismatched than usual, that's when you should become suspicious.

Detecting Deception via Body Language and Verbal Clues

We share in this post a number of things to look for to determine if someone is lying. Bear in mind that it's not a matter of checking things off a list. Deception detection is about recognizing variances from what is normal for the person. Lying is stressful for most people, except perhaps for master manipulators and psychotics, so the number one thing to look for are signs of stress. Stress can show up in posture, movements, facial expressions and in speech. For example, stressed posture is stiff and limited. A stressed facial expression includes tight lips and a tight jaw. Stressed speech is high pitched and overactive.

The second big area for detecting deception is incongruence. Incongruence is when you say one thing with your words but your body is saying something different. For example, you nod your head (as if to say yes) while actually saying the word no.

Deception Detectors - Physical Clues

• Physical movements are likely to be limited and stiff, with few arm and hand movements.
• Hand, arm and leg movements tend to be inward toward their own body rather than outward towards the other person
• Liars tend to touch their hand to their face or throat. They may cover their mouth, rub the bottom of their nose or rest their hands around their throat.
  
• Liars tend to be physically closed and small and take up less space than when they're telling the truth.
• A person who is lying to you will avoid making eye contact. (Be careful with this one as many people are aware of this clue and have learned to make eye contact even when lying).
• Liars tend to take a defensive stance both verbally and physically. Physically they may turn their head or body away.
• A liar might unconsciously place objects (book, coffee cup, etc.) between themselves and you.

Deception Detectors - Congruence

• Speech is incongruent with body language or facial expression. For example frowning or shaking your head no when saying "I love you."
• When someone is faking an emotion, their expressions are typically limited to mouth movements. For example, when someone smiles naturally their whole face is involved, especially the eyes. With a fake smile, only the mouth is smiling.
• Timing delay between expression and sentiment. For example, when receiving a gift the person says I love it! then smiles after making the statement, rather than at the same time the statement is made.
• When a person is asked a question that requires a yes or no answer, if they are telling the truth, they'll nod their head (and only thier head) quickly. If they are lying or unsure about the answer the nod will start in their shoulders and will be significantly slower.

Deception Detectors - Verbal Tap Dancing

• Liars sometimes avoid "lying" by not making direct statements. They imply answers instead of denying something directly.
• Liars often pause before answering.
  
• Liars answer a question with another question attempting to take the conversation in a different direction.
  
• A liar will use your words to answer a question. When asked, “Did you eat the last cookie?” The liar answers, “No, I did not eat the last cookie.”
• A statement with a contraction is more likely to be truthful: “ I didn't do it” instead of “I did not do it”
• A liar may leave out pronouns and speak in a monotonous tone. When a truthful statement is made the pronoun is emphasized as much or more than the rest of the words in a statement.
• Words may be garbled and spoken softly, and syntax and grammar may be off. In other words, his sentences will likely be muddled rather than emphasized.
  

Deception Detectors - Other Signs of Stress

• Voice is higher pitched than normal.
• Face and hands becomes a bit paler as blood is withheld from extremities.
• Nostrils may open wider ('flare').
• Breathing deeper and maybe audible.
• Lips become thinner and tighter.
• Shoulders pulled up and elbows pulled in to sides more. Body takes up less space.
• Forehead tightens up a little in area between eye brows.
• Eye contact breaks away from you and eyes may squint or close.
• Heart rate increases.
• Hand palms turned down or closed, and not revealed to you.

Deception Detection - Eye Movements

Generally, if people are thinking of visual information to answer a question, their eyes will move up: this is how they retrieve mental pictures. Most right handed people will look up and right when remembering and up and left when creating or imaging. We do this unconsciously, but we also tend to do it reliably. Now, it doesn't mean that if I look up and left to the "create the visual spot" that I'm making something up. It simply means I'm searching for a mental picture.

The key in reading eye movements is the same as reading other clues. You look for what's different. Notice when they don't look up in the same way, or when they look up but perhaps to the other side, or when they maintain eye contact with you when they would normally do otherwise.

This last is an interesting point. Most people imagine that we maintain eye contact when we tell the truth and break it when we lie. Not so. The majority of people will maintain eye contact when lying, because they don't need to retrieve information from their minds and, therefore, don't need to move their eyes. At another level, they are eager to appear sincere, and so consciously decide to keep looking at you.

Do pauses in speech mean the person is lying?

Quite a few of our clients and friends have asked what we thought about the new tv show Lie to Me. I must confess I hadn't watched it till this week. I love the fact that Fox thinks this is a worthy subject, but I find the implementation of the concepts to be a bit cheesy. But you didn't come here to hear my television show reviews. :-)

One thing I do want to address, however, that Lie to Me reminded me of, is the notion that pauses in speech suggest someone is lying. The show's leap from pause to deception is a dangerous one. It's simply not that simple.

In our book Face Values, we discuss the speech style, pitch, tone and energy of the Thinker or Analytical personality type, which is often filled with starts and stops and silent pauses inbetween. What's happening in this case is the Thinker is doing what he or she does best.....thinking, and although there is a lot going on in their heads, it hasn't yet made it's way into their speech. Do these pauses mean that all Thinkers are lying or busy making things up? Of course not.

Research by Benus and colleagues at Columbia University (in conjunction with SRI) documented here http://www.cs.columbia.edu/nlp/papers/2006/benus_al_06.pdf tells us that pauses - both filled and silent, occur more frequently in truthful statements than they do in deceptive speech.

The paper also provides a good summary of existing research on pauses and provides an interesting tidbit that can help us distinguish between pauses as part of a regular speech style and pauses as clues to deception.

There is evidence for increase in pitch as an indicator of deception. "Higher pitch is assumed to indicate increased tension on the part of deceivers. Hence, we hypothesize that filled pauses with higher pitch and intensity may occur in deceptive speech."

When reading people, especially if trying to identify deception, requires that you form a base line for this person. How do they normally sound? Let's say my normal delivery is slow and laborious. The energy level is low, tone is monotone and there are lots of silent pauses. That's my base line. Now, what can you learn if all the sudden the pace reves up and the pauses dissapear. You might surmise that I am more comfortable with what I'm saying - I don't have to think about it. I might also be exicited about what I'm saying. You've hit on something I'm passionate about. Now, how might you distinquish that kind of response from a lie? The short answer is tension.

Tension can be "read" in a variety of ways - in the mouth, in the eyes, in the voice. This subject qualifies for it's own blog post, so I'll close for now and address this topic in a subsequent post.

How to Spot a Fake Smile

Check out this video test on the BBC website. You are presented with 20 short video clips of smiles. Your goal is to identify which of these are genuine and which are fake. Take the test first, and see if you can identify the clues that give away the fake smile or conversely show that a smile is genuine. I'll tell you the answer in a later post. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/index.shtml

Another Scam Artist - What Can We Learn?

The Story of Economan Al Parish

The story of investment swindler Al Parish from Charleston South Carolina is an interesting one to say the least. He stole millions of dollars from investors and spent it on a very strange collection of gnomes, pens, watches, lamps, and other interesting items.

CNBC's American Greed t.v. program does a great show on Mr. Parish. I mention him here and include his picture to see if there's anything we can learn from his face. I'll leave the analysis of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on pens and gnomes to someone else.

See Charleston Net Article for More Details
http://www.charleston.net/news/special_reports/al_parish/

And CNBC's American Greed - http://www.cnbc.com/id/29039268