Using the strategic use of evidence and reverse order techniques to detect real and elicited deceit

Abstract

Research that has been conducted on the area of Deception Detection has consistently found that laypersons and professionals alike are poor at discriminating between liars and truth tellers. The present study therefore concentrated on whether the Strategic Use of Evidence and Reverse Order techniques could be used to improve the detection of both real and elicited lies. Participants were assigned to either the role of an interviewer or an interviewee. The interviewers received training in one of three interviewing techniques and the interviewees watched a mock crime and were either assigned as an accomplice or a witness. As to elicit natural lies, interviewees were exposed to a 'sexual arousal stimuli' folder in the interview room and were filmed without their knowledge as a means of knowing what their behaviour was. Only 1 out of the 4 hypotheses was proved and the potential reasons for these results were discussed. Various limitations of the study will also be discussed along with future directions for this research.