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124 Deception at Work

latency’, varies from 0.5 seconds for truthful replies to 1.5 seconds for lies. Response latency
is important and you should consciously monitor it and interject when the suspect’s brain is
thrashing for an answer (see page [xref]).

Remember: When a person is silent, thinking about how to lie, he is at his most vulnerable

Even in writing, liars make Freudian slips which result from memory becoming confused
with imagination and a fight between the conscious and subconscious monkeys. Things are
blurted out that the liar never intended.

WHAT IS A FREUDIAN SLIP?

Tom asked Bill what was meant by the That is a Freudian slip.’
phrase ‘a Freudian slip’. Bill said: ‘It is when ‘In that case’, said Tom, ‘I have made a
the subconscious kicks in with something
you did not wish to say. Let me give you an dreadful Freudian slip. Yesterday I was sat at
example. I went to buy a ticket to visit the breakfast with my wife and I meant to say,
famous Scottish town of Pitlochry. The girl “Darling, would you please pass the toast”.
at the ticket desk was really beautiful and Instead I said, “I hate you – you dreadful old
wearing a low-cut dress. Instead of asking cow, you have wrecked my life.” I told her
for Pitlochry I asked for a ticket to Titlochry. it was a Freudian slip and she seems to have
believed it.’

Freudian slips seem to result from thrashing between the person’s conscious and subcon-
scious and are therefore very important.

Remain on the lookout for Freudian slips and challenge them.
Darwin meant to say ‘Survival of the fattest’

ENRON documents to shreds,’ and, as we know, this
is what happened.
In the Enron case, a senior accountant
meant to say, ‘Ship the documents to
the Feds,’ but what he said was, ‘Rip the

Freudian slips often appear as unfinished or ‘hanging’ sentences. For example, a suspect
might say: ‘We were just completing the annual accounts … no, I am mistaken, we were talking
about the weather.’ At such points you should interject along the lines of ‘Hold on a minute,
Ralph, what were you going to say about the accounts?’ so that you try to get him to complete
the sentence.

‘Insurance claims’ below shows the effects of both open questions and Freudian slips.

INSURANCE CLAIMS

• ‘I knocked over my mother-in-law’s bicycle but unfortunately she wasn’t on it.’
• ‘The pedestrian panicked and had no idea which way to run, so I ran over him.’
• ‘The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.’