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How to detect lies with a storytelling technique

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Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique

#12
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used a variation of this trick when I was a resident assistant in college. We had the unfortunate job of busting drinking parties in the dorms and part of our responsibility was to collect ID numbers or social security numbers if the person claimed to not have their IDs. People would quite happily rattle-off a fake SSN. But if you wait 60 seconds and come back to them and ask for the number in reverse, it's essenti…

I would have a hard time doing this with mine, and I'm sober. Would people memorize fakes to give away consistently, or would they just rattle off a random nine digit number?

Sometimes.

I used to be a bouncer in my college town and you'd be surprised at what lengths kids will go to pass off their fake ID's as real. they'll memorize everything on the ID, including where the city is located - "So Flagstaff, is that North or South of Phoenix? I can never remember?"

I would ask for all the information on the ID if I thought they looked young. Then once the person was confident they had passed my tests, I'd ask them what their area code was when they call home. 9/10 a fake ID holder will fail this test because its not something on the ID, but something they should know without fail.

Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique

#13
This reminds me of Jobs To Be Done (http://jobstobedone.org/) interviews style that dig into emotions of why customer switched to a different product.

The interview jumps around the story looking for any events that moved customer to or from new solution, and digs into the emotions associated with each event to get customers to recall all details.

Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique

#14
post #6

Nothing new here, this interviewing technique by storytelling has been standard procedure for a long time with the British Police. One simple variation is to recall the story from the beginning, then recall from the end and see what doesn't match up.

I used a variation of this trick when I was a resident assistant in college. We had the unfortunate job of busting drinking parties in the dorms and part of our responsibility was to collect ID numbers or social security numbers if the person claimed to not have their IDs. People would quite happily rattle-off a fake SSN. But if you wait 60 seconds and come back to them and ask for the number in reverse, it's essenti…

> ask for the number in reverse, it's essentially impossible to repeat the same fake, especially if you've been drinking

I would find this extraordinarily difficult to do in any state of mind.

The only way I could give you the digits of my telephone number backwards would be to mentally go through my telephone number from beginning to end once for each digit of the number, and stop a digit earlier on each pass.

Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique

#15
>Morgan found that the use of these mnemonic props – open-ended questions about various sensations and sequences of events – dramatically increased memory recall about what had happened. The subject’s stories consequently became more and more complex, and richer in detail. Or at least, they did when people were telling the truth. When it came to the lies, even well-rehearsed ones, the subjects tended to falter and were unable to complete the interview. According to Morgan, this was because when they were prompted to dredge up deeper memories, the liars had nothing to draw on.

Is this technique robust enough to detect implanted false memories (psychologist implants memories of child molestation) or are such recalled "memories" indistinguishable from real ones?

Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have a hard time doing this with mine, and I'm sober. Would people memorize fakes to give away consistently, or would they just rattle off a random nine digit number?

Sometimes. I used to be a bouncer in my college town and you'd be surprised at what lengths kids will go to pass off their fake ID's as real. they'll memorize everything on the ID, including where the city is located - "So Flagstaff, is that North or South of Phoenix? I can never remember?" I would ask for all the information on the ID if I thought they looked young. Then once the person was confident they had passed…

That's a pretty good idea! But doesn't this rather depend on you knowing the area code yourself?

Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have a hard time doing this with mine, and I'm sober. Would people memorize fakes to give away consistently, or would they just rattle off a random nine digit number?

Sometimes. I used to be a bouncer in my college town and you'd be surprised at what lengths kids will go to pass off their fake ID's as real. they'll memorize everything on the ID, including where the city is located - "So Flagstaff, is that North or South of Phoenix? I can never remember?" I would ask for all the information on the ID if I thought they looked young. Then once the person was confident they had passed…

Why use an ID from a different city in the first place? I'd say keep everything except for the year the same and there'd be no problem.

Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique

#20
post #8

Read a book on this and this seems to corroborate much of what I read. One of the most interesting and simple techniques discussed was the order in which people recounted their stories. The example given is an employee who is consistently late for work. If you ask them to recount why they are late one day, a liar will tell you the story linearly: "I woke up, ate breakfast, hopped in the car, was on my way, minding my…

> This is easily ascribed to the fact that the liar is either making the story up as they go or are repeating a rehearsed lie. A truthful person can jump around easily because they are recounting distinct memories.

Alternatively, the liar's experienced, good at his craft, and more capable of jumping around.

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