Erik Mac Giolla

Counter-Interrogation Strategies among Small Cells of Suspects

The current study examined the subjective interview strategies of groups of truth-tellers and liars, and compared these strategies with suspects’ actual interview performance. Participants (N = 126) were evenly divided as truth-tellers or liars, and were further divided into 21 groups of three individuals. Truth-tellers performed a neutral task, while liars performed a mock crime. Participants were then interviewed individually with the goal of convincing the interviewer of their innocence. Three different interview methods were used, spread evenly across veracity condition. Participants disclosed their main subjective strategy in post-interview questionnaires. The most common strategy was be honest for truth-tellers, and be restrictive and be consistent for liars. Truth-tellers’ subjective strategies and actual interview performance were rated as more forthcoming than those of liars. Actual interview performance was qualified by interview type. Results are discussed in relation to research on suspect strategies and interview techniques.

Discriminating Between Statements of True and False Intent: The Impact of Repeated Interviews and Strategic Questioning

ABSTRACT Between-statement consistency is regarded as an important cue to deceit. However, research indicates that liars can be as consistent as truth tellers. The consistency of statements of intent in two mock security settings was examined. Truth tellers spoke honestly of their intentions. Liars provided a cover story to mask their criminal intentions. Participants (N = 60) were interviewed three times, and their statements were coded for repetitions, omissions, and commissions. The similarities between truth tellers and liars on all three measures of consistency were striking. These findings highlight consistency as a pernicious cue to deceit.

Personality traits across countries : Support for similarities rather than differences

In the current climate of migration and globalization, personality characteristics of individuals from different countries have received a growing interest. Previous research has established reliable differences in personality traits across countries. The present study extends this research by examining 30 personality traits in 22 countries, based on an online survey in English with large national samples (NTotal = 130,602). The instrument used was a comprehensive, open-source measure of the Five Factor Model (FFM) (IPIP-NEO-120). We postulated that differences in personality traits between countries would be small, labeling this a Similarities Hypothesis. We found support for this in three stages. First, similarities across countries were observed for model fits for each of the five personality trait structures. Second, within-country sex differences for the five personality traits showed similar patterns across countries. Finally, the overall the contribution to personality traits from countries was less than 2%. In other words, the relationship between a country and an individual’s personality traits, however interesting, are small. We conclude that the most parsimonious explanation for the current and past findings is a cross-country personality Similarities Hypothesis.

Drawing-based deception detection techniques: a state-of-the-art review

ABSTRACT The current article presents a concise overview of the emerging literature on drawing-based deception detection techniques. We cover the theoretical rationale of such techniques as well as the main results from the extant empirical studies. These studies have primarily looked at differences in the drawings between truth tellers and liars in terms of quality (e.g. detail, plausibility) and consistency (both within-group, and between-statement). The findings highlight drawings as a promising tool to elicit differences between truth tellers and liars on such cues. The article also examines more practical aspects, such as practitioners’ experience of the approach and preference for the approach in training studies. Finally, the susceptibility of the approach to counter-measures and directions for future research are discussed. Although research on drawing-based deception detection techniques is still very much in its infancy, results of this first round of studies are promising. They indicate the potential of incorporating drawings into real-life investigative interviews as a cheap, effective, and easy-to-use approach to deception detection.

Detecting Deception within Small Groups: A Literature Review.

Investigators often have multiple suspects to interview in order to determine whether they are guilty or innocent of a crime. Nevertheless, co-offending has been significantly neglected within the deception detection literature. The current review is the first of its kind to discuss co-offending and the importance of examining the detection of deception within groups. Groups of suspects can be interviewed separately (individual interviewing) or simultaneously (collective interviewing) and these differing interviewing styles are assessed throughout the review. The review emphasizes the differences between lone individuals and groups. It focuses on the theoretical implications of group deceit and the reasons why groups need to be understood in terms of investigative interviewing and deception detection if all types of crime-related incidents are to be recognized and dealt with appropriately. Group strategies, consistency within- and between-statements, joint memory, and group dynamics are referred to throughout the review and the importance of developing interview protocols specifically for groups is discussed. The review concludes by identifying the gaps in the literature and suggesting ideas for future research, highlighting that more research is required if we are to obtain a true understanding of the deception occurring within groups and how best to detect it.

Sex differences in personality are larger in gender equal countries: Replicating and extending a surprising finding

Sex differences in personality have been shown to be larger in more gender equal countries. We advance this research by using an extensive personality measure, the IPIP-NEO-120, with large country samples (N > 1000), from 22 countries. Furthermore, to capture the multidimensionality of personality we measure sex differences with a multivariate effect size (Mahalanobis distance D). Results indicate that past research, using univariate measures of effect size, have underestimated the size of between-country sex differences in personality. Confirming past research, there was a strong correlation (r = .69) between a countrys sex differences in personality and their Gender Equality Index. Additional analyses showed that women typically score higher than men on all five trait factors (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness), and that these relative differences are larger in more gender equal countries. We speculate that as gender equality increases both men and women gravitate towards their traditional gender roles.

Drawing what lies ahead: False intentions are more abstractly depicted than true intentions

Abstract The aim of this study was to examine how people mentally represent and depict true and false statements about claimed future actions—so‐called true and false intentions. On the basis of construal level theory, which proposes that subjectively unlikely events are more abstractly represented than likely ones, we hypothesized that false intentions should be represented at a more abstract level than true intentions. Fifty‐six hand drawings, produced by participants to describe mental images accompanying either true or false intentions, were rated on level of abstractness by a second set of participants (N = 117) blind to the veracity of the intentions. As predicted, drawings of false intentions were rated as more abstract than drawings of true intentions. This result advances the use of drawing‐based deception detection techniques to the field of true and false intentions and highlights the potential for abstractness as a novel cue to deceit.

Do True and False Intentions Differ in Level of Abstraction? A Test of Construal Level Theory in Deception Contexts

The aim was to examine how people mentally represent alleged future actions—their true and false intentions. In two experiments, participants were asked to either tell the truth (i.e., express true intentions) or lie (i.e., express false intentions) about performing future tasks. Drawing on Construal Level Theory, which proposes that psychologically distant events are more abstractly construed than proximal ones, it was predicted that liars would have more abstract mental representations of the future tasks than truth tellers, due to differences in hypotheticality (i.e., the likelihood of the future tasks occurring). Construal level was measured by a video segmentation task (Experiment 1, N = 125) and preference for abstract or concrete descriptions of tasks (Experiment 2, N = 59). Veracity had no effect on construal level. Speaking against our initial predictions, the data indicate that true and false intentions are construed at similar levels of abstraction. The results are discussed in the light of Construal Level Theory and the emerging psycho-legal research on true and false intentions.

Corrigendum: Detecting Deception within Small Groups: A Literature Review

[This corrects the article on p. 1012 in vol. 7, PMID: 27445957.].