Are criminals better lie detectors? Investigating offenders' abilities in the context of deception detection

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Simon Schindler
  • Laura K. Wagner
  • Marc André Reinhard
  • Nico Ruhara
  • Stefan Pfattheicher
  • Joachim Nitschke

The present research examined lie detection abilities of a rarely investigated group, namely offenders. Results of the studies conducted thus far indicated a better performance of offenders compared to non-offenders when discriminating between true and false messages. With two new studies, we aimed at replicating offenders' superior abilities in the context of deception detection. Results of Study 1 (N = 76 males), in contrast, revealed that offenders were significantly worse at accurately classifying true and false messages compared to non-offenders (students). Results of Study 2 (N = 175 males) revealed that offenders' discrimination performance was not significantly different compared to non-offenders (clinic staff). An internal meta-analysis yielded no significant difference between offenders and non-offenders, questioning the generalizability of previous findings.

Original languageEnglish
JournalApplied Cognitive Psychology
Volume35
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)203-214
Number of pages12
ISSN0888-4080
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.01.2021
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • beliefs about deception, dark triad, deception detection, offenders
  • Psychology

DOI