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Interview and Interrogation Techniques

Where were you yesterday at 3:45pm? Don’t lie we have your finger prints. Why did you commit this crime?

Does this line of questioning sound intimidating?  The Daily Beast has some enlightening news. 

Research was conducted at John Jay College of Criminal Justice through the FBI’s High Value Detainee Interrogation Group. A team of leading researchers formed to find out better methods for getting high-level suspects to reveal what they know.  They have uncovered some interesting insights.

Ali Soufan, a former FBI Agent stated, “24 [a popular TV show] works in Hollywood.  Reality is not that sexy.  You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”

Being an effective communicator, in addition to understanding and recognizing  the emotional states of other people is extremely beneficial in building rapport, which is necessary to elicit truthful information.  Scientific peer reviewed research has shown that knowing how to detect, label and react appropriately to certain emotions builds rapport.

“Torture does not work, it is illegal, and the professional intelligence, military, and law-enforcement officers who know what they are talking about, and who have firsthand experience, have been explicit that enhanced interrogation techniques undermine operational success,” says Glenn Carle, a former CIA officer.

So what are the best ways to elicit truthful information?

According to the article and many interrogators it involves understanding a subject’s culture and motivation and then gaining his or her trust—without revealing what you’re after.

Recent research backs up the idea the torture techniques are not truly effective by indicating that stress-inducing measures actually impairs memory.  Research has also proven that non-coercive interview techniques based on rapport building are the most effective in eliciting truthful information.

Dr. David Matsumoto’s new book Nonverbal Communication:  Science and Applications blends cutting-edge behavioral science with real-world practical experience, making this text the first of its kind to merge theoretical and practical worlds of nonverbal communication.

 What are your thoughts on controversial questioning techniques?

To Lie or not to Lie, that is the Question

Lying is as old as humans and research has confirmed that we learn to lie at a very young age.  Studies have also suggested that the average person lies several times a day. So it’s not surprising, then, that lie detection has a long history.

“By this method [Middle Age’s thinking that physical torture elicits truth], the robust will escape, and the feeble be condemned.  These are the inconveniences of this pretended test of truth,”  wrote Italian Enlightenment thinker, Cesare Beccaria.

See the videos below for Part 1 and Part 2 of  Jimmy Kimmel’s Lie Detector Series for some comic relief to your day.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Spotting Lies: A How to Guide

Experts are not good at detecting deception according to the The Huffington Post and new research conducted by Professor of Applied Social Psychology, Aldert Vrij.

Dr. Vrij reveals that with an average accuracy rate of 56.6%, lies go undetected more than 1/3 of the time!

His latest research suggests that even trained professionals such as police and customs officers are no better than the average person at detecting deception.

Why are trained professionals not good at lie detection?

There are a plethora of reasons why professionals may not display a high accuracy rate for deception detection.  Perhaps,  they are only trained in one area of deception detection such as body language (excluding, micro facial expressions and/or statement analysis).  Perhaps, they are just not trained often enough, that is there is an infrequency to their trainings; therefore, the review of their skills.  It could even be that they were simply not trained properly and there is a misapplication of the skills that they learned.

Detecting inconsistencies in nonverbal behavior (including facial expressions and microexpressions) is a crucial skill that needs to be practiced often.  As with many trainings, including Humitnell’s micro expression training, one should re-visit it often to remain agile in the core principles of that training.

We do not expect our trained soldiers or law enforcement agents to go out into the field without continuing to practice gun safety and execution.  Like many other things in life, deception detection techniques should be practiced  to be able to accurately and efficiently sift the truth from the lies.

Dr. Vrij goes on, in “How to Tell Who is Lying to You”,  to note the two main ways to be a better lie detector are:

1.  The Baseline Method:  There is  no one behavior that is universally characteristic of liars, but when any particular individual starts to stray from the truth, various cognitive, emotional and physiological processes kick in, which are  possible to detect.  However, you can only spot these if you already have the ‘baseline’ of how someone behaves when they are telling the truth

2.  Devil’s Advocate:  Interviewees are first asked questions inviting them to argue in favor of their personal view. This is followed by a Devil’s Advocate question that asks interviewees to argue against their personal view.   The Devil’s Advocate Question is actually what they really believe, but are covering up.  As we think more deeply about, and are more able to generate, reasons that support rather than oppose our beliefs, this leaks out during the answer to the Devil’s Advocate Question.

Dr. Matsumoto’s new book, Nonverbal Communication:  Science and Applications, marries the two worlds of knowing how to detect deception with putting that knowledge into practice.

What do you think about the information in this blog?
What is the top pertinent point that you would share with someone else?