How to Catch a Liar: The Cognitive Clues to Deceit
M.C.A MAFIA HEAD
One of my guilty pleasures is the long-running TV show "NCIS," a drama focused on the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The hero is Special Agent Jethro Gibbs, a former Marine and disciplined detective with an uncanny ability to observe and interrogate criminal suspects. He doesn't say much or display much emotion in the interrogation room -- indeed, his cool demeanor is his trademark -- yet he is a keen lie-spotter.
Psychological scientists are fascinated by real-life versions of the fictional Gibbs. Detecting lies and liars is essential to effective policing and prosecution of criminals, but it's maddeningly difficult. Most of us can spot barely more than half of all lies and truths through listening and observation -- meaning, of course, that we're wrong almost as often as we're right. A half-century of research has done little to polish this unimpressive track record.
But scientists are still working to improve on that, and among them is cognitive psychologist Aldert Vrij of the University of Portsmouth, in the U.K. Vrij has been using a key insight from his field to improve interrogation methods: The human mind, despite its impressive abilities, has limited capacity for how much thinking it can handle at any one time. So demanding additional, simultaneous thought -- adding to cognitive "load" -- compromises normal information processing. What's more, lying is more cognitively demanding than telling the truth, so these compromised abilities should show up in detectable behavioral clues.
Why is lying more demanding? Well, imagine for a few minutes that you're guilty of a murder, and Gibbs is cross-examining you. To start, you need to invent a story, and you also have to monitor that tale constantly so that it's plausible and consistent with the known facts. That takes a lot of mental effort that innocent truth-tellers don't have to spend. You also need to actively remember the details of the story you've fabricated, so that you don't contradict yourself at any point. Remembering a fiction is much more demanding than remembering something that actually occurred.
That's just to start. Because you're naturally worried about your credibility, you're most likely trying to control your demeanor. Surprisingly, "looking honest" saps mental energy. And what's more, you're not just monitoring yourself; you're also scanning Gibbs' face for signs that he's seeing through your lie. Like an actor, you have the mental demands of staying in character. And finally, you have to suppress the truth so that you don't let some damning fact slip out, another drain on your mind's limited supply of fuel. In short, telling the truth is automatic and effortless, and lying is the opposite of that. It's intentional, deliberate and exhausting.
So how can Gibbs exploit the differing mental experiences of liars and truth-tellers? Here are a few strategies that Vrij and his colleagues have been testing in the laboratory, which they describe in the most recent issue of the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science.
One intriguing strategy is to demand that suspects tell their stories in reverse. Narrating backward increases cognitive load because it runs counter to the natural forward sequencing of events. It also disrupts the normal reconstruction of past events using mental schemas, which give coherence to isolated events. Since liars already have depleted cognitive resources, they should find this unfamiliar mental exercise more taxing than truth-tellers do -- which should increase the likelihood that they will somehow betray themselves. And in fact, that's just what happens in the lab: Vrij ran an experiment in which half the liars and truth-tellers were instructed to recall their stories in reverse order. When observers later looked at videotapes of the complete interviews, they detected more clues to deceit in the liars who were burdened by this mental task. Indeed, observers correctly spotted only 42 percent of the lies in the control condition -- way below average, which means they were hard to spot -- but a remarkable 60 percent when the liars were compromised by the reverse storytelling.
Another strategy for increasing liars' cognitive burden is to insist that suspects maintain eye contact. When people have to concentrate on telling their story accurately -- which liars must, more than truth-tellers -- they typically look away to some motionless point, rather than directly at the conversation partner. That's because keeping eye contact is distracting, and makes narration more difficult. Vrij also tested this strategy in the lab, and again observers detected more clues to deceit in those who were required to look the interrogator in the eyes.
NCIS Special Agent Gibbs may be a fictional version of what psychological scientists call "wizards"-- those rare people who have extraordinary lie-detection skills. Researchers have been trying, without a lot of success, to unravel these wizards' strategies, but until do, less sophisticated lie-catchers may be able to exploit the mind's cognitive weaknesses to catch the bad guys in their web of lies.
Seputeh DAP MP Teresa Kok has urged Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha to condemn racial and religious discrimination in Peninsular Malaysia instead of using it to remind Sarawak Chinese of their relative freedoms.
She pointed out that the benefits touched upon by the MCA secretary-general were guaranteed to all Malaysians by law, accusing him of trying to remain relevant by resorting to narrow, race-based politics.
“Kong is still trapped in the narrow, race-based politics employed by MCA to justify their existence,” Kok (picture) said in a statement today.
Kong told Sibu’s Chinese community on Sunday to be contented and grateful for the job opportunities and civil liberties given them as this meant they were better off than the Chinese in Peninsular Malaysia.
“A Chinese district officer is unheard of in any other part of the country. And nowhere else in Malaysia do you have a Chinese mayor,” he had said.
But Kok stressed today that appointments should be based on merit not race — in keeping with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1 Malaysia concept — and that freedom of religion in Sarawak was enshrined in Article 11 of the Federal Constitution.
She took Kong to task for warning the Chinese there of a possible backlash if they voted the opposition as this showed that the MCA itself was unsure if its Barisan Nasional (BN) partners would uphold the interests of Sarawak’s Chinese population.
Kong had said that the ruling coalition might use SUPP’s lack of support to dilute representation in the state legislature for the Chinese, who make up 20 per cent of Sarawak’s population.
“He can hardly expect Sarawak voters to trust BN with their future when he himself does not trust BN component parties,” Kok added.
A witness in the Teoh Beng Hock Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) today accused a senior anti-graft officer of beating him with a steel rod and cane in 2008.
Marketing officer T. Sivanesan told the RCI today that Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigation unit head Hairul Ilham Hamzah and about nine other graftbusters had made him strip to his underwear and hit him in their office.
“(I was) hit with a steel rod, rotan (cane)... and handcuffed in front,” said Sivanesan, 24.
“Then I fainted. At 6.30 or 7am, I woke... (and) ice was also in my underwear,” added the young man.
Sivanesan said the anti-graft officers had asked him to confess to a crime when they detained him for about five days at their then-Anti-Corruption Agency Selangor office in Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam from September 4 till September 9, 2008.
Sivanesan also said Selangor MACC assistant superintendent Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus was among those who had beaten him.
Ashraf testified at the RCI recently that he and another officer, Arman Alies, had interviewed Teoh from 10.30pm on July 15, 2009 till 12.30am the following day.
Sivanesan says MACC officers hit him with a steel rod, cane and put ice on his genitals. – Pic by Boo Su-Lyn
Teoh, 30, was the political secretary to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah at the time of his death.
The anti-graft officers were investigating a claim that his boss was abusing state funds.
Hairul has denied pushing Teoh out the window.
The senior graftbuster also testified last month that he knew nothing about abuse complaints against Ashraf prior to Teoh’s death.
“Most cases of allegations against MACC officers were after Teoh Beng Hock,” Hairul had said.
But RCI chairman Tan Sri James Foong had said members of the public had informed the commission about a few abuse cases involving Hairul and Ashraf before Teoh’s death.
Ashraf testified recently that the police had suspected him of killing Teoh.
The anti-graft officer also said that about nine MACC suspects had accused him of abusing them.
But Ashraf denied roughing up Teoh or any other suspects.
Sivanesan said today that he was slapped and kicked by MACC officers several times over the course of his detention.
The young man said five to six anti-graft officers, including Ashraf, had hit him when he was brought to the Selangor Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) office on September 4, 2008 to “assist investigations”, as informed by graftbusters.
“At first, five to six people started slapping and kicking me,” said Sivanesan.
“They asked me to strip off my shirt and pants...Ashraf started hitting me with a steel rod...they asked me to confess that I tried to ask Ravi for money,” he said, adding that the rod was wrapped in newspaper.
Sivanesan said one of the officers, a tall bespectacled man, then asked him to put on his clothes as Hairul had returned to the office.
“Hairul Ilham said to continue hitting me in a nude state. They continued hitting me,” he said, adding that his hands were cuffed behind him.
“He (Ashraf) used a rotan to hit my private parts,” said Sivanesan.
Sivanesan, who was dressed in a white shirt, also said Ashraf had hurled racial insults at him, after which his feet were cuffed and he was blindfolded with a yellow ACA towel.
The young man said he passed out after that and when he woke in a cold air-conditioned room at about 6.30 am, he found a pack of ice on his genitals inside his underwear.
“My hands were handcuffed but not my feet,” said Sivanesan.
“I took out the ice. I was thin then (and) handcuffed with a chain,” he added.
He explained that the chain was long enough for him to take out the ice pack.
Sivanesan said his ordeal was repeated the following night, except that his hands were cuffed in front and that 10 to 15 officers were involved, including Hairul and Ashraf.
“Hairul Ilham asked me to wear yesterday’s underwear in a nude state,” said Sivanesan.
“So Hairul Ilham, Khairul Nizam hit you?” asked commissioner Prof Dr Hatta Shaharom.
“Yes,” answered Sivanesan.
Sivanesan, who is currently working in a state-owned sand mining subsidiary in Selangor, said he was forced to admit a crime in his statement to the anti-graft body.
“They said if I don’t confess, they’ll continue my remand,” said Sivanesan.
The young man said the MACC told him six to eight months after his detention that it did not have sufficient evidence to charge him in court.
Sivanesan, who sports a moustache, added that he lodged a police report on his alleged abuse on September 11, 2008.
He also said no one has been charged to date and he was only asked to attend two police identification parades this year.
“(I identified) the tall man with spectacles, Hairul Ilham, Satchi, Mohd Ashraf, Raymond (Nion John Timban),” said Sivanesan, without giving Satchi’s full name.
He added that he had complained to NGO Suaram, Suhakam and the Public Complaints Bureau in the Prime Minister’s Department.
But Sivanesan said he was not aware if any action has been taken, except for the Public Complaints Bureau sending MACC a letter demanding an explanation.
Sivanesan had testified in September 2009 during the coroner’s inquest into Teoh’s death about his alleged abuse by anti-graft officers.
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