< Hunting for Deception in Mediation – Winning Cases by Understanding Body Language by Jeffrey Krivis and Mariam Zadeh.
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Strategic Cues
Deceivers can be expected to display the following behavioral, image and/or information management cues intended on improving their chances of deception success:

  1. Intentional communication of vagueness1
  2. Withdrawal from the conversation2
  3. Attempts to maintain a positive image to avoid detection3
  4. Speaking in a less immediate or more distancing manner4
  5. Use of irrelevant information in their messages by making statements that are unrelated to the theme of the message5
  6. Use more generalities and “allness” terms (e.g. “all,” “none,” “nobody,” “everyone,” “always,” “never”)6
  7. Speaking for shorter lengths of time, allowing the deceiver to disclose less information7
  8. Frequent use of modifiers (e.g., “some of the time” and “usually”)8
  9. More group references and fewer self-references (e.g. “we” and “us” vs. “me” and “I”)9
  10. Use longer response latencies allowing deceiver additional time to prepare successful deceptive answers.10

1 Buller, Supra note 16; Burgoon, Supra note 6; Burgoon, Supra note 26.

2 Buller, Supra note 16; Burgoon, Supra note 6; Burgoon, Supra note 26.

3 Buller, Supra note 16; Burgoon, Supra note 6; Burgoon, Supra note 26.

4 Kuiken, D. (1981). Nonimmediate language style and inconsistency between private and expressed evaluations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 17, 183 – 196;  Mehrabian, Supra note 38; Wagner, H., & Pease, K. (1976). The verbal communication of inconsistency between attitudes held and attitudes expressed. Journal of Personality, 44, 1 – 16;  Wiener, Supra note 38.

5 Knapp, M. L., Hart, R. P., & Dennis, H. S. (1974). An exploration of deception as a communication construct. Human Communication Research, 5, 270 – 285.

6 Id.

7 Id;  Kraut, R. E. (1978). Verbal and nonverbal cues in the perception of lying. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 380 – 191.

8 DePaulo, Supra note 12.

9 Knapp, Supra note 45.

10 Rockwell, P., & Buller, D. B. (1997). The voice of deceit: Refining and expanding vocal cues to deception. Communication Research Reports, 14(4), 451 – 459.

 

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Copyright © 2006. Jeffrey Krivis and Mariam Zadeh

June 2006

Copyright © 2006, The Negotiator Magazine