Abstract
This study tested the hypothesis that judges who suspect deception would be less influenced by controllable channels (facial expresions) relative to “leaky” channels (voice and body) than judges who do not suspect deception. The Nonverbal Discrepancy Test, comprised of video (face or body) cues paired with audio cues, was administered to subjects with the information that the person shown in the test never lied, sometimes lied, or very often lied; in a fourth condition (control) there was no mention of deception. In some cases, the video and audio components of the discrepancy test depicted the same affect while in other cases they depicted different affects. Subjects who expected more deception were relatively less influenced by the facial component of the affectively discrepant video-audio pairings. These subjects were also less accurate at decoding affectively consistent videoaudio pairings, especially those involving facial cues. Finally, subjects who expected more deception became less accurate decoders of consistent video-audio pairings during the second half of the test but learned to recognize video-audio discrepancies better. The results suggest that suspicion of deception led subjects to discount facial cues. Results for the control group indicated that even in the absence of explicit information, discrepant messages create a suspicion of deception.
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Preparation of this paper was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.
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Zuckerman, M., Spiegel, N.H., DePaulo, B.M. et al. Nonverbal strategies for decoding deception. J Nonverbal Behav 6, 171–187 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00987066
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00987066