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Partners in Crime: How Liars in Collusion Betray Themselves 1
Author(s) -
Granhag Pär Anders,
Strömwall Leif A,
Jonsson AnnaCarin
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb01928.x
Subject(s) - deception , lying , alibi , collusion , psychology , statement (logic) , context (archaeology) , truth telling , social psychology , lie detection , epistemology , law , philosophy , psychoanalysis , political science , economics , radiology , microeconomics , medicine , paleontology , biology
The paradigmatic task for participants in studies on deception is to assess veracity on the basis of a single statement. However, in applied contexts, lie catchers are often faced with multiple statements (reported by one or several suspects). To appreciate this mismatch, we conducted a study where each member of 10 truth‐telling pairs and 10 lying pairs (reporting fabricated alibis) was interrogated twice about an alibi. As predicted, lying pair members were more consistent between themselves than were truth‐telling pair members, and single liars and truth tellers were equally consistent over time. Furthermore, truth tellers made more commissions than did liars. Although in line with our repeat vs. reconstruct hypothesis, these findings contrast sharply with beliefs held by professional lie catchers and recommendations found in literature on deception detection. The results are translated into an applied psycholegal context.