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70 Deception at Work

THE EMOTIONAL PATH

Emotion always surfaces either obviously or by displacement into other verbal, non-verbal
or sensory disclosures. The stronger the emotion, the more obvious are its symptoms and the
more difficult to repress.

The normal sequence of emotions involved in deception is illustrated in Figure 3.11.
A person’s ability to reason decreases as his emotions move up the scale. When anxiety
turns to panic, the liar finally loses confidence in his ability to succeed with lies and at the
‘pivotal point’ (see Chapter 7, pages [xref] and [xref]) may try to negotiate to minimize the
consequences of his acts before accepting the truth.
We are primarily concerned with seven emotions:

• anger;
• anxiety;
• disgust or contempt;
• fear;
• happiness or deception delight;
• sadness;
• surprise.

These all originate mainly in the lower brain and are neurotransmitted to the cerebrum (to
be precise the ventromedial or subgenual cortex), which consciously examines them before
sending signals to the motor cortex for action. There are two potential problems for the liar.
The first is that the emotional neurotransmitters going from the amygdala to the cortex are
more powerful than the ameliorating signals going the other way. The second is that, to
achieve the fastest survival reaction when facing a severe threat, the amygdala can go straight
to the motor cortex. Thus, in genuinely emotional reactions, body movements and facial
expressions occur before any conscious verbal reaction driven by the upper brain. We will see
the significance of this hard-wiring when we try to distinguish genuine from feigned anger.

PANIC CONFIDENCE Apologies
Anxiety Confessions
Admissions
Concern Inability to cope
Interest Loss of confidence
Leakage of clues
Arousal
Stimulus Low

High

Figure 3.11 Normal emotional sequences