Credibility Judgments of Detectives: The Impact of Nonverbal Behavior, Social Skills, and Physical Characteristics on Impression Formation

Abstract

Ninety-one detectives watched videofragments of 20 confederates who had been instructed either to tell the truth or to lie. After each videofragment the detectives indicated whether the confederate was lying. Although the study took place in a police context, and thus had higher ecological validity, the results strongly corresponded with those of previous studies: The accuracy rate was low (49%). Like the students in other deception studies, the detectives used the wrong cues to detect deception, and the actual situation (whether the confederates were telling the truth) did not predict suspiciousness.