Catching Liars

Abstract

While trying to think of an interesting way to introduce this major review of the field of lie detection, I did what lots of people do these days. I typed ‘‘catching liars’’ into the Google search bar and up came 305,000 results in .17 seconds. The first page was ‘‘10 ways to catch a liar’’ from WebMD. The essay featured J.J. Newberry, a trained federal agent purported to be skilled at detecting deception in people he interviewed. One of his success stories was the lie he spotted when a witness to a shooting tried to tell him that she heard gunshots and, without looking, just ran away. Newberry was suspicious: For him, this was inconsistent with how people respond to situations like this. And to prove his point, he banged on the table and the witness instantly looked right at him. This story helped motivate the tip at the top of the list for catching liars. The number-1 tip, Newberry said, is to look for inconsistencies in what witnesses are saying. Number 2: Ask the unexpected.