Back to the Future: Asking About Mental Images to Discriminate Between True and False Intentions

Abstract

In this study we asked participants to mentally travel back to the future. The participants were asked to remember and report on a mental image of the near future. We predicted that participants who, during an interview, told the truth about their intentions would differ in their descriptions of their mental images compared to participants who lied about their future intentions. We found partial support for this overarching assumption. More specifically, we found that more truth tellers than liars reported to have had a mental image activated during the planning of their intentions. We also showed that liars (vs. truth tellers) found the question on the mental image more difficult to answer. However, they did not differ in other aspects (number of words and amount of details reported, and subjective perception of the mental image activated). The suspects were interviewed twice, with an interval of one week, and in line with our prediction we found that liars' (vs. truth tellers') reports were less consistent over time. This study departures from episodic future thought and aims to contribute to the development of a scientifically based interview protocol for discriminating between true and false intentions.

Been there before? Examining “familiarity” as a moderator for discriminating between true and false intentions

“…Prospection, and mental images in particular, have recently also become of interest in deception research related to future actions (e.g., Granhag and Knieps, 2011; Warmelink et al, 2012; Knieps et al, 2013a,b). The goal of this research is to distinguish between individuals telling the truth about their intentions and individuals trying to mask their criminal intentions with a cover story (false intentions).…”

“…Recent research has examined whether mental images may be helpful in discriminating between true and false intentions (Granhag and Knieps, 2011; Knieps et al, 2013a,b). In these studies participants were asked in an investigative interview whether they had experienced a mental image while planning their future action.…”

“…The results show that almost all truth tellers did in fact report a mental image whereas a participant who did not report a mental image was typically a liar. If a mental image was reported, truth tellers tended to provide relatively more words to describe it (Granhag and Knieps, 2011; Knieps et al, 2013b). However, the content of the description did not reveal differences between liars and truth tellers (Knieps et al, 2013a,b).…”

“…If a mental image was reported, truth tellers tended to provide relatively more words to describe it (Granhag and Knieps, 2011; Knieps et al, 2013b). However, the content of the description did not reveal differences between liars and truth tellers (Knieps et al, 2013a,b). However, when asked to rate the vividness of their mental image in a post interview questionnaire, truth tellers tended to experience their mental images more vividly than liars (Granhag and Knieps, 2011; Knieps et al, 2013b).…”

“…However, the content of the description did not reveal differences between liars and truth tellers (Knieps et al, 2013a,b). However, when asked to rate the vividness of their mental image in a post interview questionnaire, truth tellers tended to experience their mental images more vividly than liars (Granhag and Knieps, 2011; Knieps et al, 2013b). However, this effect seems to be moderated by the temporal distance between experiencing a mental image in the planning phase and how it is perceived a week later (Knieps et al, 2013a).…”