Interrogate suspects separately and get them to incriminate one another—that's how cops do it. New research suggests that a better way to catch colluding criminals might be to interview them together.

In a recent experiment in the Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition with more than 40 pairs of subjects, half were told to steal £10 and then convince an interviewer of their innocence. The other pairs were told the money had gone missing. The truth tellers interrupted one another four times as often and were much more likely to add to or correct their friend's account. The liars said less and hardly interrupted.

The deceivers were not simply more taciturn, however. “It's a myth to think suspects are reluctant to talk,” says social psychologist Aldert Vrij of the University of Portsmouth in England. “Mainly U.S. police manuals promote this myth.” Further, in the antiterrorism situations for which Vrij's research is designed, a “no comment” could lead a person to be taken off a plane or denied entry to a country. Because liars must talk in such situations, an interviewer who paid attention to a pair's interruptions and contradictions might better tell truth from fiction than one seeking only suspicious silent types. [For more on how to spot a scoundrel, see page 70.]

A simple, straightforward narrative only hints at falsehoods when suspects share a cover story, Vrij says. One truth teller and one liar in a pair will act differently from either two liars or two truth tellers.

Because many terrorist acts are planned by groups, this finding suggests group interviews can be a useful tool for law enforcement and border patrols. As Vrij explains, “truth tellers' interaction with one another comes naturally and is not natural for liars.”

This article was originally published with the title Group Interrogation Reveals Liars.

6 Comments

1. 1. Johnay 09:07 AM 9/18/12

   I think there's a mismatch between the article and the title.
   
   Admittedly I've not bought the whole issue and have read only the first five paragraphs, but from that it does not seem to touch on the subject "Eye Contact Quells Online Hostility" at all but rather discusses group vs individual interrogation.

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2. 2. aberganza 09:50 AM 9/18/12

   I agree with Johnay about the mismatch. I think it would be a good idea to verify if people will become less hostile after eye contact, given that everything else remains the same. This is important in these times when many interactions take place over the Internet.

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3. 3. Hakusan 05:44 PM 9/19/12

   
   
   
   
   The phenomenon refered to in the title only ( but not the content) of this blog is of particular interest to this autistic Sociologist. It has been commonly observed that autistic persons typically have a strong aversion to to, as the expression has it, "looking someone in the eye". This characteristic, so often observed in unsuccessful used car salesmen, attorneys and autistic people such as myself, generates in neurotypical persons feelings of distrust and dislike. With regard to the first two of these, the feeling is properly prophylactic. Applied, as it is to the autistic, the result is lonely ostracism and thoughtless cruelty and disadvantagement.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

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4. 4. bucketofsquid 04:18 PM 9/20/12

   Why are you complaining? The 3 of us are too cheap to pay for the whole article. You get what you paid for. Actually we read some useful ideas so we got more than we paid for.

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5. 5. aberganza 04:51 PM 9/20/12

   Dear bucket, I am not complaining. What are you complaining about?

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6. 6. samispence 04:32 PM 11/20/12

   Incredible. I will have to remember this when I am quizzing my students. At least if they interrupt they are probably honest. Does the same thing apply to chat? For instance if I am trying to <a href="http://pyramidtoolbox.com">buy tools online cheap</a> and the person chatting me about them interrupts are they telling the truth?

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