- Formidable obstacles:

- THE BELIEF THAT PEOPLE WILL NOT LIE TO YOU

- RELIANCE ON BEHAVIORAL MYTHS

- THE COMPLEXITIES OF COMMUNICATION

- OUR INESCAPABLE BIASES

- THE “GLOBAL” INFLUENCE

- The Model:

The strategic principle is that if you want to know if someone is lying, you
need to ignore, and thereby not process, truthful behavior

- Two guidelines:

- Timing (we need to look and listen for the first deceptive behavior to
occur within the first five seconds after that stimulus is delivered - the
further in time we get away from the stimulus, the higher the likelihood
that the brain has gone on to thinking about something else.)

- Clusters (any combination of two or more deceptive indicators which

can be either verbal or nonverbal)

The majority of communication is nonverbal. In fact, nonverbals comprise

a fairly significant majority

At least two-thirds of our communication is accomplished nonverbally

We tend to be either visually dominant or auditorily dominant.

Deceptive behavior can come in either two forms

L-squared mode: Look and Listen simultaneously.

What do you do if there’s just a single deceptive behavior in response to

the stimulus? You ignore it
The model is non-confrontational

Ignoring truthful behavior helps us manage our biases

Truthful responses tend to be direct and spontaneous

- Lies of commission (straightforward, bald-faced lies) - most people

simply aren’t comfortable telling a bald-faced lie

- Lies of omission (this case, it’s not what a person says, but rather what
he doesn’t say, that constitutes the lie)

- Lies of influence (the lie resides in the attempt to influence our

perception rather than to convey truthful information)

Deceptive verbal behaviors that people use when the facts aren’t their ally:

- FAILURE TO ANSWER

- DENIAL PROBLEMS (Nonspecific denial, Isolated delivery of denial)

- RELUCTANCE OR REFUSAL TO ANSWER

- REPEATING THE QUESTION

- NONANSWER STATEMENTS (e.g. “That’s a good question”)

- INCONSISTENT STATEMENTS

- GOING INTO ATTACK MODE

- INAPPROPRIATE QUESTIONS

- OVERLY SPECIFIC ANSWERS

- INAPPROPRIATE LEVEL OF POLITENESS

- INAPPROPRIATE LEVEL OF CONCERN

- CONVINCING STATEMENTS
- PROCESS OR PROCEDURAL COMPLAINTS (e.g. “Why are you asking me?”)

- FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND A SIMPLE QUESTION

- REFERRAL STATEMENTS (e.g. “As I said during our last meeting . . .”)

- INVOKING RELIGION

- SELECTIVE MEMORY (but use context)

- QUALIFIERS (exclusion qualifiers and perception qualifiers)

Exclusion qualifiers enable people who want to withhold certain

information to answer your question truthfully without releasing that
information: (basically, probably)

Perception qualifiers are used to enhance credibility (frankly, to be

perfectly honest)

Consider the use of multiple qualifiers in response to a question as one

indicator

Convincing statements:

The way to combat convincing statements is to neutralize them—to

render them ineffective by acknowledging or agreeing with them. This, of
course, needs to be distinguished from agreeing with the action

i) true or irrefutable

ii) convincing statements usually incorporate emotion

iii) statements consistent with the investigators’ bias

Unlike qualifiers, we consider each convincing statement as a separate

deceptive indicator. So, two convincing statements constitute a cluster
Inappropriate level of concern:

In some instances, this behavior could be a form of attack or aggression

A smile in response to a question about such a heinous crime might reflect

a degree of condescension or dismissiveness that’s intended as an assault
on the questioner

Attack behavior can also take the form of a threat, and the threat can even
be one that involves self-harm

Some forms of body language are considerably more revealing than others

Identify certain behaviors as potentially being deceptive when exhibited

in this manner:

- BEHAVIORAL PAUSE OR DELAY (You ask a person a question and you

initially get nothing. After a delay, he begins to respond –i) How long does
delay, ii) whether the delay is appropriate for the person)

- VERBAL/NONVERBAL DISCONNECT (e.g. when a person nods

affirmatively while saying, “No,” or turns his head from side to side while
saying, “Yes.”)

- HIDING THE MOUTH OR EYES (There is a natural tendency to want to

cover over a lie - If a person shields her eyes while she’s responding to a
question, what she might well be indicating, on a subconscious level, is that
she can’t bear to see the reaction to the whopper she’s telling)
-
THROAT-CLEARING OR SWALLOWING (BEFORE)

- HAND-TO-FACE ACTIVITY (You’ve asked a question, and the question

creates a spike in anxiety because a truthful response would be
incriminating. That, in turn, triggers the autonomic nervous system to go
to work to dissipate the anxiety. One of the ways it does that is by kicking
in the fight-or-flight response. The person’s body is rerouting circulation to
his vital organs and major muscle groups so he can run faster, jump higher,
fight harder in response to the threat - When the blood rushes away from
those regions, it irritates the capillaries, which can create a sensation of
cold or itchiness. Without the person even realizing it, his hands are drawn
to those areas, or there’s a wringing or rubbing of the hands)

- ANCHOR-POINT MOVEMENT (those parts of his body that anchor him in

a particular spot or position)

- GROOMING GESTURES (Another way that some people may dissipate

anxiety)

Unintended Messages:

If a deceptive person finds himself in a hole because he’s been asked a

question about a matter in which the facts are not his ally, he’s obviously
not in a position to respond with the facts. In the process of developing a
response, then, he makes a conscious decision to take a particular tack.
Perhaps he’ll concentrate on convincing the questioner of his morality;
maybe he’ll go the evasive route and try to deflect the question; or he
might feel compelled to go into attack mode as a means of getting the
questioner to back off. What he’s not aware of, however, is that often in
that process, without even realizing it, he’ll say things that reveal what in
reality he knows to be the truth.

A particular question that often causes revealing unintended messages to

surface is one we call the “Punishment Question.” You ask the suspect,
“What do you think should happen to the person who did this?”

Remember, deceptive people are always looking for ways to manage our
perception, which is one of the reasons it’s so vitally important to ignore
truthful behavior

To prevent that, your approach needs to focus on questions that the

deceiving person is less likely to be prepared for, and more likely to
compel him to provide information you want—or, failing that, to exhibit
behavior that you can read

PRESENT A CLEAR STIMULUS:

- Keep it short. When possible, keep your question shorter rather than
longer
- Keep it simple. If the person doesn’t fully understand your question, his
response is less likely to be behaviorally significant

- Keep it singular in meaning. If your question is ambiguous, you have no

way of knowing how the person understood the question

- Keep it straightforward. The more up front you are, the more likely the
person will trust you, which might increase the likelihood of cooperation

It’s important to distinguish between a bait and a bluff

A beautiful thing about presumptive and bait questions is that they aren’t
in any way contrary to the facts of the situation. They’re fair, because the
truthful person can respond without processing them

Presumptive and bait questions have a couple of things in common,

aside from being extremely powerful. First, they both have a limited shelf
life in the information collection process. If you overuse them, the person
is likely going to figure out what you’re doing. It will trigger his defenses,
and he’ll view you as an adversary who’s trying to trick or mislead him in
some way

Second, while all questions should be delivered as neutrally as

possible, neutrality is especially important with presumptive and bait
questions—the person needs to feel that you have no preconceived
notions about how he’s going to answer each question. This neutrality is
conveyed by the words you use to frame the question, and the tone or
demeanor you use to deliver it. It needs to be delivered in a very matter-of-
fact manner, with no additional emphasis whatsoever placed on the
question

There’s another reason that neutrality is especially important. You

want to ensure that if there’s a deceptive response to the question,
the deceptive behavior is related to your question, and not to your
delivery. If the person has decided to be untruthful, deceptive behavior
tends to be amplified in response to presumptive and bait questions. These
questions also tend to be effective in compelling the person to think about
changing his game plan, and perhaps to provide you with some
information.

Possibly the most important phrase in the information-collection

process is the simple question, “What else?” Those two words convey to
the person you’re interviewing a sense that being selective about the
information he shares with you will be no easy task

Here are some key types of follow-up questions that you should always
have in your interviewing arsenal:
Evaluation (Used to test the information the person has shared –
e.g. :“Why do you say that?”)
Exploration (Used to acquire additional information - “What else?”, “Tell
me more.”)
Clarification (Used to ensure that you’re absolutely clear about what the
person has shared - “Which ‘Sam’ are you referring to?”)

The best questions to ask are open-ended questions, and the worst
are closed-ended questions. The reason, we’re told, is that open-ended
questions enable us to collect a steady stream of information, while closed-
ended questions limit the flow to a single drop of information.
Open-ended (Provides the basis for discussion or explores an issue - “Tell
me what you did yesterday after you arrived at the office.”)
Closed-ended (Probes specific case facts - “Did you log on to Shelly’s
computer yesterday?”)
Presumptive (Presumes that something is understood to be the case -
“What computers on the network have you logged on to besides your own?”_
Bait (Establishes a hypothetical situation to trigger a “mind virus” - “If we
were to ask your coworkers, is there any reason any of them would say they
saw you sitting at Shelly’s computer yesterday?”)
Opinion (Helps to determine how a person feels about a particular issue -
“What do you think about the new internal controls the company has
implemented?)
Catch-all (Uncovers lies of omission, serves as a safety net - “What haven’t
I asked you that you think I should know about?”)

QUESTIONS TO AVOID:
Negative (Asking a negative question conveys to the person your
willingness to accept “no,” and to perhaps even expect it - “You don’t know
Shelly’s password, do you?)
Compound (If your question has multiple parts, you often can’t be certain
which part of the question is triggering the deceptive behavior. Compound
questions also give the person the opportunity to answer just one part, so
you need to be alert to the fact that at least one of your questions went
unanswered. That can be difficult if the person gives you an exhaustive
response to just one part of the question - “What time did you arrive
yesterday, and how long were you there?”)
Vague (A vague question allows for excessive latitude in the response. The
person can take his answer anywhere he wants to avoid being of any help
to you - “Can you give me some of your thoughts about what’s going on?)

Always ensure that you’re in L-squared mode when you ask those
questions. In the case of a closed-ended question, the response can come
very quickly, and if you can catch that flash of deception, it can be
enormously valuable to you

Another question type that’s important in the information-collection

process is the opinion question. When you ask a person for his opinion,
always use the model to assess his response. It can help you determine
whether the person really believes the opinion he’s expressing.

The final question type that we want to highlight is the catch-all

question, which is designed to uncover lies of omission, and also
serves as a safety net in the event that you overlooked an issue. There
are two points in an interview where you should consider asking a catch-
all question. You might ask one to wrap up the discussion about a
particular topic of interest within the interview. The second point is at the
end of the interview, where you cast a wide net to capture any information
that might be relevant but that has not yet surfaced. You never know
what’s lurking in a person’s thoughts that a catch-all question might
eventually uncover.

Managing deception to gain the advantage:

As you position yourself for the cat-and-mouse game you’ll play to gain the
advantage, you’ll be aided immensely by a psychological concept that we
call a “cliff moment.” As he formulates his game plan, you need to
formulate yours in a way that helps you prevent what behavioral
psychologists call “psychological entrenchment.” When you sit down to
interview an individual, he likely has come into the interview with some
idea of what he wants to say, and has reasons for wanting to say it. If the
truthful response to your question is “yes,” and he says, “no,” he has lied,
and he has a reason for doing so. If the person is put in a position of having
to respond to the question again, the psychological entrenchment begins;
he’s forced to dig his heels in and repeat the lie, otherwise he’s exposed as
a liar. Every time you allow the deceptive person to verbalize the lie in
response to your hammering on the question, his entrenchment
deepens, and his advantage rises.

Techniques that you can incorporate into your interviewing style and
approach to do that, and to gain the advantage in your encounter:

- AVOID ASKING NEGATIVE QUESTIONS

- USE PROLOGUES FOR KEY QUESTIONS

There are several elements that can be included in this mini-monologue:

A legitimacy statement—an explanation that asking the questions is an

important step in the accomplishment of a resolution.

Rationalization is also valuable in a question prologue. A socially

acceptable reason for an action, like “Nobody’s perfect,” or “Everyone
makes mistakes,” can have a tremendous impact on a person’s willingness
to open up in response to a question.

Minimization can be an effective tool in preventing psychological

entrenchment, so a statement like “No one wants to blow this out of
proportion” might be helpful.

A final element that might be included in a question prologue is a

projection of blame

- STAY COOL:

Convincing statements - As we explained in chapter 6, the best strategy

for dealing with convincing statements is to neutralize them

Exclusion qualifiers - When a person uses an exclusion qualifier like “not

really,” “for the most part,” or “basically,” her aim is to provide you with an
answer, but to carve out information that she doesn’t want to share. When
you hear one of those qualifiers, your very next question should be
targeted at what has potentially been carved out

Inconsistent statements - A better way to resolve the conflict and

evaluate the truthfulness of the update often is to follow up with a
question about whether there’s another possibility

- OVERCOME PSYCHOLOGICAL ALIBIS (Selective memory is a problem,

because if it’s an alibi, it’s a tough alibi to crack - If, by applying the model,
you have reason to believe that the person is using a statement like this as
a means of withholding information, it’s essential to avoid creating that
psychological entrenchment. What you need to do instead is compel him to
change his game plan.
A very effective way to do that is to follow up with a bait question.
Another strategy that often works well is the “possibility strategy.” An
example might be “I know it was a while ago, but is it possible that the two
of you might have met?”

- BROADEN YOUR FOCUS (Another powerful tactic you might use as a

means of increasing the volume of useful information you collect and one
you should use routinely, is to broaden your focus in a way that makes it
more difficult for the person to give you a narrow response. If the person
has made the decision to go into deceptive mode, his mission is to get you
to believe something that’s contrary to the reality of the situation. By
broadening your area of focus in a particular line of questioning, you can
steer him off of that path and onto one that gives you additional
information)

Once you’ve obtained a series of information pieces, explore them in

reverse order. The reason is simple: The last piece of information the
person gave you is likely to be the most serious piece, the one he was
most reluctant to share. The bottom line is that you don’t accept the first
thing someone tells you. It’s almost as if you didn’t hear it.

Not reliable:

- EYE CONTACT
- CLOSED POSTURE
- GENERAL NERVOUS TENSION
- PREEMPTIVE RESPONSES
- BLUSHING OR TWITCHING
- CLENCHED HANDS
- BASELINING