Catching Liars Through Drawings

A study answered the question of whether you can find liars by having them draw.

Subjects were given a “mission” that included going to a designated location and meeting a person with whom they would exchange information. In all, four different missions were conducted. The particulars of the missions were constructed such that about half of the participants would, when interviewed, be able to tell the truth about what happened, and half would have to lie (the researchers used a fabricated espionage theme to work this out–very clever).

More interestingly, significantly more truth tellers included the “agent” (other person in the situation) in their drawings than did liars (80% vs. 13%). In addition, significantly more truth tellers drew from a shoulder-camera view than liars, who by and large drew from an overhead view (53% vs. 19%). In verbal statements, more truth tellers also mentioned the agent than liars (53% vs. 19%).

Using the “sketching the agent” result alone, it was possible to identify 80% of the truth tellers and 87% of the liars–results superior to most traditional interview techniques.

What makes it tough for most liars is that we don’t pay attention to what we do when we are just being normal.  That’s why darting eyes, stammering, and other cues can give unpracticed liars away.  Practiced liars are much better at hiding the truth but even that isn’t foolproof.

In a study it was found that parents trying to guess when their child was lying were only correct half of the time, equal to guessing.  The children had learned how to lie to the parents quicker than the parents had learned to catch the kid.  But the teachers could catch the children in the lie easier.

Drawing is a lie is not something anyone practices yet so they don’t know what normal is.  I wonder if parents could use this on their children to catch the lies?