Spotting Deception

People lie, and they lie every day about a variety of things. Some lies are relatively innocent, while others are quite severe. While there are both verbal and non-verbal clues that can help us spot deception, such clues need to be understood in their totality, and analyzed in clusters. One should not allow a single action or statement to convince you that someone is lying. Nevertheless, when we know what to look for it’s amazing how such verbal and non-verbal clues stand out.

Take the Jodi Arias police interview for example. Note that at 3:26 she makes the following statement: “If I was going to ever try to kill somebody I would use gloves.” Then again at 3:56: “How can that be my palm print?” These are what Houston, Flloyd, and Carnicero (2012) refer to as Convincing Statements. As these former CIA officers explain, convincing statements are “lies of influence,” meant to cause doubt in the person asking the questions. Convincing statements can actually take the form of a statement or a question. In the Jodi Arias interview, her convincing statements are critical. Perhaps the most noteworthy convincing statement happens at 3:26. Note that, while not exactly denying having murdered her boyfriend, she explains how she would have perpetrated the crime. A red flag should always pop up whenever someone answers a question with a convincing statement. They take several forms, including:

“Why would I kill the person I love?”

“Why don’t you believe me?”

“If I was going to cheat on you, don’t you think it would be with someone more attractive?”

“I would never jeopardize my job by doing something like that.”

“Trust me, if I was going to rob a bank you would’ve never caught me.”

We at Investigations Plus, Inc. are extremely well-versed in spotting deception. Revisit this blog as we share more insight into this realm.