Problems in expert deception detection and the risk of false confessions: no proof to the contrary in Levine et al. (2014)

Abstract

Lie detection research has shown that observers who rely on nonverbal cues or on verbal cues correctly classify on average 54% of truth tellers and liars. In addition, over the years, countless numbers of innocent people have made false confessions and, in analysing the problem, researchers have implicated both a suspect's vulnerability and the persuasive influence of certain police interrogation tactics. Levine et al. (2014) aim to contribute to these vast bodies of literature by reporting two studies purportedly showing that expert interviewers Downloaded by [New York University] at 23:58 29 May 2015

Accurate expert deception detection: Faulty premises in Vrij et al. (2015)

“…We agree with Vrij et al (2015) that research prior to 2006 documents that accuracy in deception detection experiments is approximately 54% plus or minus 10%, and that past research has found that experts perform similarly to students. This was explicit in the literature review of our 2014 paper.…”

“…On face, our findings appear to contradict the findings and claims of our critics' programs of research. Our critics (Vrij et al, 2015) would have readers believe that their own findings are unassailable and our findings are pure artifact easily dismissed as unscientific.…”

“…Outside of the core of the Vrij et al (2015) critique there are also a number of additional ancillary straw people presented to bolster their argument. The first is that a simple decision rule about the number correct can yield 80% accuracy.…”

“…The question is, was the high accuracy in our experiments wholly attributable to the idiosyncrasies of Levine and Blair 9 our research paradigm as Vrij et al (2015) suggest or was it because the experts linguistically created an unusually diagnostic environment though skilled questioning? If Vrij or one of his colleagues had done the questioning, could they have done as well as any of our experts?…”

“…To be sound, the premises of the argument must be true and the conclusions must follow from the premises. Vrij et al (2015)'s arguments contending that our conclusions lack scientific contribution and are dangerous are based on a series of false premises. Here we show that their critique is a string of fallacious straw person arguments.…”