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High-stakes lies: Verbal and nonverbal cues to deception in public appeals for help with missing or murdered relatives

Wright Whelan, Clea
; 
Wagstaff, Graham
; 
Wheatcroft, Jacqueline M.
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Affiliation
University of Liverpool
EPub Date
Publication Date
2013-09-23
Submitted Date
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Psychology
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Abstract
Low ecological validity is a common limitation in deception studies. The present study investigated the real life, high stake context of public appeals for help with missing or murdered relatives. Behaviours which discriminated between honest and deceptive appeals included some previously identified in research on high stakes lies (deceptive appeals contained more equivocal language, gaze aversion, head shaking, and speech errors), and a number of previously unidentified behaviours (honest appeals contained more references to norms of emotion/behaviour, more expressions of hope of finding the missing relative alive, more expressions of positive emotion towards the relative, more expressions of concern/pain, and an avoidance of brutal language). Case by case analyses yielded 78% correct classifications. Implications are discussed with reference to the importance of using ecologically valid data in deception studies, the context specific nature of some deceptive behaviours, and social interactionist, and individual behavioural profile, accounts of cues to deception.
Citation
High-stakes lies: Verbal and nonverbal cues to deception in public appeals for help with missing or murdered relatives. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 2014, 21(4), 523-537
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Journal
Psychiatry, Psychology and Law
Research Unit
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10034/348563
DOI
10.1080/13218719.2013.839931
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
Language
en
Description
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Psychiatry, Psychology and Law on 23/9/2013 available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13218719.2013.839931
Series/Report no.
ISSN
1321-8719
EISSN
1934-1687
ISBN
ISMN
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ESRC grant number [ES/I90316X/1]
Additional Links
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tppl20#.VSPaek10xFo
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13218719.2013.839931