Page 81 - Deception at work all chapters EBook

122 Deception at Work

Category of response Examples Significance
10 = High
0 = Low

Changes, mid-story, between ‘I went to the office and the next thing I know I am 10

past and another tense reading the computer files …’

Passive and conditional ‘I would have …’ 10
tense, such as ‘could’, ‘would’ ‘I could have …’
‘ought’ etc. Are non-committal and more likely to be untrue
Both lack commitment than true

Past tense for a living person ‘They were happy kids’ 10

Different verbs for the same ‘I talked to Bill then we discussed the game and chatted 6
action about golf’

Use of cerebral verbs ‘I then thought about going …’ 6
These usually mean the act was ‘I planned …’
not completed ‘I started to talk to …’
‘We talked about …’

Use of adverbs

Failure to use and inconsistent These add detail to an explanation. When the detail 6
use is relevant, the chances are the explanation is true.
Apparently irrelevant detail indicates an important
topic has been concealed

Changes, mid-story, between ‘I went towards the office and then we saw the door …’ 7
singular and plural

Use of nouns

Inconsistent use for the same ‘I got in my car then drove the vehicle to my home’ 6
thing or person

Changes, mid-story, between ‘We got into the car. Then as I was driving along we 7

singular and plural saw …’

Relationships within a ‘I went with Bill, John, Fred, Doris, Ethel and my wife.’ 8
sentence The distance in the sentence between ‘I ’ and ‘wife’
suggests a poor relationship, as does the fact that
she is referred to in her position, rather than by her
name

Use of pronouns

Inconsistent use ‘I got in my car, then the bloody thing wouldn’t start. 8
Can you believe it, that car just blew up’

Reflexive pronouns ‘One would never consider stealing from the company’ 10

Relative pronouns Inconsistent use of pronouns 6

Demonstrative pronouns

Possessive pronouns