Historical Techniques of Lie Detection - Vicianova (2015) - Article

What is deception? 

Deception is defined as a communicator’s deliberate attempt to foster a belief or understanding in others which the recipient considers to be untrue. Lie detection is important in many areas. Think of police officers when they need to determine the facts of crimes, judges and lawyers in the search of justice, and medical specialists in the search for the correct diagnosis and treatment. 

What is ‘trial by ordeal’?

It is a method used by authorities to detect lies and find the truth. It was used to prove the truth of a claim of an accused person by a specific act that the person had to go through. Based on the outcome, the claim was accepted as true or false. It was based on the belief that God would not let a righteous man suffer. Examples of these tests are putting your hand in boiling water (if you don’t get blisters, you are innocent), or carrying a hot piece of metal (if you don’t get any wounds, you are innocent). These methods ceased to exist past the 15th century as various scientific fields developed and caused changes in the assessment of truth and deception. 

Who is Franz Joseph Gall and what is phrenology?

Franz Joseph Gall was a neuroanatomist and physiologist. In 1870 he discovered the possibility of detection deception through recognition of emotions of the accused. The brain was seen as the central organ of the mind which can perceive individual emotions, including the tendency to lie. He assumed the existence of relations between different abilities and skull shape. He became a pioneer in mapping the human skull, which was called phrenology. His work had several positive consequences. It helped spread the belief that delinquent behavior should be studied more, and that some criminal behavior may be caused by brain malfunctions. It also saved many mentally ill people from being unfairly sentenced. 

Who is J.H. Michon and what is graphology?

J.H. Michon was a priest and an archeologist who founded graphology. He assumed that peculiarities of handwriting may relate to certain personality traits. Graphology attempts to identify a person writing movement through which the nature of the writer may be manifested. During World War I it was used to verify the authenticity of documents and signatures. 

What are the contemporary methods of lie detection?

Who is Cesare Lombroso and what is the polygraph?

The first modern lie detection device was called Lombrosso’s Glove and was created by Cesare Lombrosso in 1881. He measured changes in the blood pressure which were recorded on a graph or chart. The technology was improved until it included records of respiratory rate, blood pressure changes, and changes in galvanic skin response. After many years of research it can be stated that the polygraph does not detect lies, but measures physiological responses postulated to be associated with deception. They are not specific to deception, nor are they always present when deception occurs. When used correctly however, it can provide useful information to well-trained examiners. 

What have observations of nonverbal expressions and the Voice Stress Analysis taught us about detecting lies? 

Observation and attention focused on specific behavioral expressions have played important roles in the desire to detect lies. Interesting research has been done: 

• Darwin was inspired by Duchenne’s work which supposes the possibility of revealing the truth by observation of facial expressions. Darwin stated that the muscles of the eyes and the mouth can reveal true emotional state, as their activity is very difficult to purposely control. 

• Ekman performed many cross-cultural studies focusing on facial expressions, emotions, and gestures. He proved the importance of the overestimation of people’s own ability to detect lies. One reason we are not good in lie detection is because we lack this skill evolutionarily. 

• Craig, Hyde, and Patric identified the facial movements associated with masking and simulating pain, as well as genuine pain.

• Galic and Thorn focused on the identification of false expressions of pain using FACS (Facial Action Coding System), an anatomically based system for detailed description of all observable facial movements invented by Ekman.

• Voice Stress Analysis (VSA) is accomplished by measuring fluctuations in the physiological micro tremor present in speech. A micro tremor is a low amplitude oscillation of the reflex mechanism controlling the length and tension of a stretched muscle caused by the finite transmission delay between neurons to and from the target muscle. There micro tremors are also present in the vocal cords and during times of stress, this micro tremor shifts in frequency. Further reliability tests are necessary. 

What is brain-based lie detection?

Brain activities can be measured in different ways, the most frequently used methods are transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and brain fingerprinting (EEG). 

What is EEG?

EEG is focused on detecting a specific electroencephalograph wave. The theory is that the brain processes known and relevant information differently from the way it processes unknown or irrelevant information. The processing of known information is revealed by a specific pattern in the EEG. This method is very reliable, but there are complications for the application in criminal offences. Researches need a sufficient amount of information about the event and the perpetrator in order to document the suspect’s EEG patterns when the correct answer is provided. Also, due to the media, a person could possess a lot of information about a crime without being the perpetrator. It is also more expensive and time consuming than the standard polygraph. 

What are fMRI and PET?

These methods focus on the activity of the central nervous system. These methods show which areas of the brain are active when a person is lying. However, most studies are done with young and healthy adults. The results of these methods are not sufficiently precise and lack strong empirical foundation. There are also problems with replication, large individual brain differences, and unspecified brain regions associated with truth telling. 

What are the limitations of these techniques? 

Four limitations of these techniques are identified:

• The human brain can defend itself by occupying the brain with different activities to disturb the results. 

• The experiments are done mainly in the laboratory with student participants. Their results may not correspond with the results of other tested groups. 

• The experimenters are asked to deceive, and so it is not a spontaneous lie. 

• Different people with the same kind of fraud can have a different type of attitude. The personalities and attitudes of the individuals need to be taken into account.