2. Historical Approaches to Lie Detection

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about historical approaches to lie detection, focusing in particular on: (i) defining a lie as a deliberate telling of something the communicator knows to be untrue; (ii) the two key elements of this being the deliberate nature of the lie, and the fact that the lie must be something that the communicator believes to be untrue; (iii) ancient processes of lie detection, including chewing rice and basing guilt on the presence of saliva; (iv) more modern ‘lie-detecting’ devices, the most commonly recognised being the polygraph; (v) Larson and Keeler’s introduction of blood pressure, respiratory rate and galvanic skin response in their polygraph measurements; (vi) the scientific definition of a polygraph distinguishing it from a lie detector; (vii) other methods of lie detection, including voice stress analysis and fMRI scanning; (viii) Duchenne and Darwin’s theories that facial expressions can give away whether someone is lying; (ix) Paul Ekman’s cross cultural facial expression research; (x) Ekman’s 1991 study investigating lie detection through facial expression observation.

Course

In this course, Dr Cody Porter (University of the West of England) explores investigative interviewing and lie detection. In the first lecture, we think about methods of investigative interviewing, including the two main types and four dimensions of each. In the second lecture, we think about historical approaches to lie detection, from ancient practices to the modern polygraph. In the third lecture, we think about how body language can be used to detect deception. Next, we think about the cognitive approach to lie detection. In the fifth lecture, we think about how best to approach detecting deception. In the sixth and final lecture, we review the ‘investigator’s toolkit’ of strategies to detect deception.

Lecturer

Dr Cody Porter is a senior lecturer in social psychology in the department of Health and Social Sciences at the University of the West of England. Dr Porter’s research interests are in information elicitation, lie detection and offending behaviour. Some of Dr Porter’s recent publications include ‘Implementing converged security risk management: Drivers, barriers, and facilitators’ (in press) and ‘Applying the asymmetric information management technique to insurance claims’ (2022).