I want to think more carefully about matching the content and context of messages as a place for us to look for deception. So, we talked a little bit about this idea of synchrony and asynchrony. So it was the text and the nonverbal cues around that text, do they match, do they correspond, or are they different? So sometimes, they're incongruent. So, somebody will say no, but nod their head yes. Or they'll catch themselves and correct themselves mid-way through, no, I mean, yes. That catch and correct is sometimes a really important cue to detect deception. I mentioned polygraph tests before. There are polygraphers that will do things like ask somebody a question. And if they catch somebody doing this sort of catch and correct, no, I mean yes, they'll shut down the polygraph and say I know you did it. That is, they'll be so certain that these cues are diagnostic, that they'll know exactly what's happened. Sometimes there's this delay, so this delay that I mentioned before that. I say, I didn't do it, and then negative head swing follows that. But as we sometimes will say things, and then follow up that later with a non-verbal cues. And all of that asynchrony should really tipped us off that there's something not quite right. So, when the emotions don't match, the behaviors don't match. We're learning something important, and we should dig deeper into that issue. So, there are often cases like somebody reports a kidnapping, but they wait to report it. Or sometimes they'll cross county lines, and report it in the different county. And what I think about, why would you do that? That is when the behavior doesn't match, there's something asynchronous about it, that should cause us to be quite suspicious. Now, a lot of this asynchrony comes from discomfort. So, I mentioned anxiety before, but more broadly, there's a discomfort. So in general, liars want the meeting to end. So, they'll be looking at the clock. They'll be talking about the ending the meeting, or they'll cut the interview short, or they'll be very happy if there's a disruption. They'll welcome that, or even look for an opportunity to switch topics and do something else. Often, this discomfort is represented by the desire to create distance. So liars will lean back, they'll lean away, or what's been called eye blocking. They'll close their eyes, pretending as if they're somewhere else. Sort of the same way we might sort of cover our ears, as if we're saying, I can't hear you. Sometimes people close their eyes as if I'm not here, giving themselves this sort of quick, sort of mental vacation from that awkward, uncomfortable situation. So again, it's the sign of discomfort. We want to think about why would this person be uncomfortable? You sometimes see artificial barriers. People put a backpack between them, and the person interviewing them. Or they'll cross their hands or they'll put pencil holders. They'll sort of build a sort of wall between them and somebody else. That gives them, again, the psychological space, because they're feeling uncomfortable. Now, another thing people will do is engage in self-presentation. We're constantly trying to create positive impressions. So, if this is the reason we spend more time getting ready before we go out on a date, or when we interview, we'll try to be particularly focused and attentive, we'll try to create a positive impression. It turns out, we're trying to create positive impressions all the time at work, and at home. We're trying to create these positive impressions, and deceivers are particularly intense. They're trying to create impressions. They're trying to create impressions of honesty and veracity that might not be true. And as they're trying to create these impressions, a lot of deceivers over do it. And what I mean by that is, they might be concerned that they're creating an impression of anxiety, and so, they try and work at doing it in the opposite direction. So they stretch out on the couch, or they yawn and pretend that they're not anxious at all. Or sometimes, they'll even self-medicate. They'll drink alcohol, or take drugs, to really lower the anxiety so much, they almost seem, kind of out of it. So, people will so much overdo this drive to period, not anxious. Or they might engage in statements like, I never lied to you, or let me tell you the truth, or to be honest with you, again, these are statements that are trying to convince you that they are being honest. Now, some people use these just as a manner of speech. But when it's unusual, it's different from how people normally speak, you want to ask yourself. Why is somebody telling me they will never lie to me, or they always, I've been always taught to tell the truth, or it turns out my father is a preacher. Why would somebody be sharing that information? And often, the reason is they're over doing their self-presentation. They're trying to convince they're being honest, and they're working too hard at it. Now, we sometimes try to manage our impressions with other tools. So, group attendance. People sometimes show up with friends or family, or prominent members of the community who try to bring in other people, I know my friend the judge, or the city council person, I'm bringing them in to create this positive impression, or we'll change our appearance. So, people will work really hard of, for example, changing their clothes, or changing their hair style, sometimes to create this impression, as if you really care about how I'm appearing, and how you're responding to me. Lacy Peterson is a woman who is pregnant, and her husband professed a deep interest in finding where she was and who took her. And one of the things that he did, following her disappearance, was to change his own appearance. Now, it could have been because he wanted to escape, but he also worked very hard at creating a positive impression, he dyed his hair, he was very carefully sort of and shaven. He did things that were really odd, it turns out later he was convicted of murdering his wife. And we find that some of these appearance changes are really cues of deception. Now, I mentioned cognitive load. We have more on our mind when we're telling lies, and this leaks out in a lot of ways. Part of it is, we need to do things to help us think better. And pause fillers, like ums and uhs. They give us time to think. So, people who are lying use more pause fillers. They take longer to answer questions, as if they're thinking harder, they're stalling for time. Some moments when they're telling stories, they add in more irrelevant details. Again, it gives them more time to prepare. Now, ironically, there's sometimes when deceivers are faster to answer, almost too fast. And those are times when they've had time to prepare, they're anticipating the question, and they're quick, sometimes too quick with that answer. Other cognitive load cues are more stuttering, we see gesticulation go down. So, people just focus on the text of what they're saying, and they don't gesticulate the way they might normally do. So, you want to think about what the baseline is for normal, and then see what people are actually doing. And if it's very different, then that's a very big cue for deception. Now, pupil sizes dilate, but many of these cues are difficult to detect in natural and normal communication.
