Emotions and Deception Detection
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Emotions and Deception Detection Mircea Zloteanu Division of Psychology and Language Sciences University College London, UK A dissertation submitted in part fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Daniel C. Richardson September 2016 1 I, Mircea Zloteanu, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Signature 2 Abstract Humans have developed a complex social structure which relies heavily on communication between members. However, not all communication is honest. Distinguishing honest from deceptive information is clearly a useful skills, but individuals do not possess a strong ability to discriminate veracity. As others will not willingly admit they are lying, one must rely on different information to discern veracity. In deception detection, individuals are told to rely on behavioural indices to discriminate lies and truths. A source of such indices are the emotions displayed by another. This thesis focuses on the role that emotions have on the ability to detect deception, exploring the reasons for low judgemental accuracy when individuals focus on emotion information. I aim to demonstrate that emotion recognition does not aid the detection of deception, and can result in decreased accuracy. This is attributed to the biasing relationship of emotion recognition on veracity judgements, stemming from the inability of decoders to separate the authenticity of emotional cues. To support my claims, I will demonstrate the lack of ability of decoders to make rational judgements regarding veracity, even if allowed to pool the knowledge of multiple decoders, and disprove the notion that decoders can utilise emotional cues, both innately and through training, to detect deception. I assert, and find, that decoders are poor at discriminating between genuine and deceptive emotional displays, advocating for a new conceptualisation of emotional cues in veracity judgements. Finally, I illustrate the importance of behavioural information in detecting deception using two approaches aimed at improving the process of separating lies and truths. First, I address the role of situational factors in detecting deception, demonstrating their impact on decoding ability. Lastly, I introduce a new technique for improving accuracy, passive lie detection, utilising body postures that aid decoders in processing behavioural information. The research will conclude suggesting deception detection should focus on improving information processing and accurate classification of emotional information. 3 Table of Contents List of Figures............................................................................................................10 List of Tables .............................................................................................................11 Dedication..................................................................................................................12 Acknowledgements....................................................................................................13 Chapter 1: Overview..................................................................................................15 Thesis Outline.......................................................................................................15 Unanswered Questions of the Deception Literature .............................................16 Chapter 2: General Introduction ...........................................................................17 Chapter 3: Emotions .............................................................................................17 Chapter 4: Multi-Decoder Deception Detection - Exploring the Errors in Veracity Judgements............................................................................................................17 Chapter 5: Emotion Recognition and Veracity Judgements .................................18 Chapter 6: Deceptive Emotional Expressions.......................................................20 Chapter 7: Situational Factors in Deception Detection.........................................20 Chapter 8: Body Postures, Gazing Behaviour, and Deception Detection.............21 Chapter 9: General Discussion .............................................................................22 Chapter 10: Future Directions in Deception Research .........................................22 Chapter 2: General Introduction ................................................................................23 General Introduction.............................................................................................23 Definition of Deception ........................................................................................25 Functions of Deception.........................................................................................26 Prevalence of Deception .......................................................................................27 4 The Ability to Lie .................................................................................................28 The Process of Lying............................................................................................29 Deception Detection .............................................................................................32 Behavioural Cues of Deception ............................................................................32 Theoretical Approaches to Detecting Deception ..................................................35 Summary of Theoretical Approaches ...................................................................47 Stakes to the Liar ..................................................................................................48 Decoder Veracity Judgements ..............................................................................51 Factors Affecting Detection..................................................................................56 Detection Errors and Judgement Biases ...............................................................58 Criticism of Deception Research ..........................................................................63 Summary...............................................................................................................69 Chapter 3: Emotions ..................................................................................................70 Universality and Basic Emotions..........................................................................70 Criticism of Universality ......................................................................................76 Deceptive Facial Expressions ...............................................................................79 Emotion Recognition............................................................................................81 Summary: Emotions .............................................................................................85 Chapter 4: Multi-Decoder Deception Detection – Exploring Errors in Veracity Judgements.................................................................................................................86 Abstract.................................................................................................................86 Introduction...........................................................................................................87 Method..................................................................................................................94 5 Results...................................................................................................................98 Discussion...........................................................................................................103 Chapter 5: Emotion Recognition and Veracity Judgements ....................................109 Abstract...............................................................................................................109 Introduction.........................................................................................................110 Experiment 2: Emotions, Empathy, and Low-Stakes Deception Detection .......114 Method................................................................................................................119 Results.................................................................................................................121 Discussion...........................................................................................................123 Experiment 3: The Effectiveness of Emotion Recognition Training on Low- Stakes and High-Stakes Deception Detection.....................................................127 Method................................................................................................................131 Results.................................................................................................................135 Discussion...........................................................................................................139 General Discussion .............................................................................................144 Chapter 6: Deceptive Emotional Control – Senders’ Ability to Fake an Emotion ..148 Abstract...............................................................................................................148