This might be a better technique if the suspect does not know what the psychologist is looking for, but probably still does not work if he does. So ultimately it still isn't very usable in the real world.
How to detect lies with a storytelling technique
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Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only if they are aware of this technique and purposefully and skillfully prepare to defeat it. That turns out to be harder than you'd expect for methods like this. The methods used by Israeli security agents to profile travelers at airports have been well known for decades, but even so are still very effective.
How do you measure it it has been effective when the successful liar passes the test and is not defined as such?
You raise an interesting conundrum, but you can tell of a certain success rate by the number of liars who eventually confess to lying or are found to have been lying.
Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique
#43Nothing 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…
Similar thing when giving your phone number to someone hitting on you. Better strategy is to swap two digits with each other, making it easier to remember and increasing the plausibility of an "honest mistake."
Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone who frequently forgets how old he is, I'd be kind of irked if someone denied me entry because I said "I'm 28. No, wait, shit, 29!"
Knowing some bouncers and bar tenders, they tend to have a dynamic level of skepticism. If you look 25-ish, that sort of slip probably won't deny you entry. If you look 20-ish, it may be more likely. The difficulty here is that the incentives heavily favor allowing false negatives, and denying false positives. I know that in Virginia, the bar tenders were personally responsible if they served alcohol to anyone undera…
Oh yeah, I definitely don't blame them, and I understand the incentive structure. I don't even think that I necessarily disagree with it, given our laws about drinking. It's just an irk :p
Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique
#45Fun read. The technique they're describing here is the same one that attorneys use during cross-examination of witnesses.
Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique
#46My first thought was a motivated liar could learn to beat it... surely part of its success is from the liar being unprepared for the novel questioning technique?
Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique
#47To go along with enhanced interrogation, let's name this technique HD questioning.
Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique
#48First off, I think this technique is completely true, in my own experience. However, I think this isn't the end-all lie detector, in that you have to know what to have the subject tell a story about. Take the issue of national security (in the USA). To get a national security job, you'll have to go through a lie detector test[0], where they'll ask you a ton of questions. Say I'm lying about my name. Do you ask a stor…
> Bottom line is, I think this method works, with the caveat that you have to know the event or thing that they would be lying about.
You also have to be careful in the other direction. False negatives are a problem but false positives are an even bigger problem because most people will be innocent. And you could be asking someone to recall a time when they were drunk or exhausted or under stress, or the truth is embarrassing or painful to think about, or the day you're asking about was entirely unremarkable, etc.
Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique
#49Interesting how this dovetails with the art of writing -- when you're writing a book, it makes the story much more compelling if you engage all five senses. I wonder if we have some intuition about this and a story that doesn't feels "one dimensional."
I also recall hearing a funny thing on a podcast once about someone interviewing someone with a (pretty dubious even by weird paranormal stuff standards) far-out alien abduction tale. They stopped them and asked "so you were on this ship for hours... how did you go to the bathroom?" Interview was over. They didn't have that one scripted. Turns out the person was actually trying to virally market a book.
Re: How to detect lies with a storytelling technique
#50That's a nice write-up but I think that experienced and well prepared liars would be able to beat that.
The best way I've found to detect lies is that truth is 'internally consistent' and lies never are, all you need to do is to focus on any inconsistencies not matter how small and then to apply pressure on them, they'll fracture the story much like a crystal with a flaw in it.