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Signs of Deception 137

THE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER

‘The Information Commissioner, Elizabeth It later went on to say: ‘She has been
France, is concerned about the volume of disturbed that a number of people have
telephone calls and correspondence received been confused and troubled by the wording
by her Office in relation to the above and tone of some of the correspondence
businesses.’ issued by these businesses.’

It would have been much more convincing if these sentences had been juxtaposed because
they suggest that she is more irritated by having to respond to telephone calls and letters than
she is about the poor so-and-sos who have been ripped off.

Putting it all together

Academic research8 indicates that for most people the chances of detecting lies are no better
than 50:50 but since the research is always artificial – based on test conditions – it is not nec-
essarily reliable in real life. In such experiments police officers and psychiatrists fared only a
little better, although some individuals were accurate in almost every case, usually by follow-
ing techniques of the type described in this book. Ironically, the most effective detectors of
deceit in the test cases provided to them were a group of criminals serving life sentences! Estate
agents were not scored.

LIAR is a liar he keeps the £10,000. As far as is
known, the truthful candidate has never
The British television programme Liar been voted the winner, but is often thrown
asks the audience to decide which one off in the first round as being the biggest
of six candidates is telling the truth. Each liar. The reason for this is that the truthful
candidate is asked questions, and in round person is more likely to make mistakes
one the audience dismisses the one it is and reveal small inconsistencies. For
most sure is a liar. Further rounds take example, the only truthful candidate on
place with a candidate being voted off one programme claimed to be a committed
each time until only two are left. They ask Christian yet, under the glare of the studio
each other questions and the audience lights, she could not remember the Ten
votes on which one is truthful. If the one Commandments. She was immediately
and only genuinely truthful candidate of identified as a liar and thrown off in the first
the original six is the winner, £10,000 is round.
given to the audience. If the person voted
by the audience as the truthful candidate

The truth is that most people rely too heavily on the pure content of what is said and on
facial expressions, which can be manipulated to some degree. The dark grey shading in Figure
4.2 represents their approach.

8 With all its limitations and under artificial conditions