Does anyone know of any linguistic, computational, and/or psychological research on identifying verbal cues that could indicate information concealment (and/or secrecy)? If so, I'd appreciate your citation, link, or perhaps a one sentence summary with a lead. Much obliged.
J M Barrie, in his expose of social status "The Admirable Crichton", portrays every uncomfortable lie with the prefix "well, the truth is...".
Look for this phrase in any discourse coming from a politician cornered by journalists.
Otherwise, check LNP and the visual cues of recalling a memory vs imagining an event (as originally developed by CIA for interviewing techniques, but later used by pop-culture therapy).
Polygraphs are unreliable - they can be mis-directed.
David Neequaye, thank you for that article. The strategy of revealing information gradually to increase the cognitive load (of deceivers) seems to work well in the interrogation context. Have you seen this term ("information revelation") used in prior research? It's somewhat counter-intuitive, unless you qualify the process as "gradual". I will certainly do a literature search on this term as opposed to synonyms to concealment (like withholding).
Harvey Tuck, thanks, I will follow up on your suggestions. What is LNP exactly, if I may ask you to decode? Thank you!
Victoria, the term has been used and tested in various ways by researchers such as Par Anders Granhag and Marta Hartwig. You may use the following key phrases in your search. The Evidence framing Matrix, Strategic disclosure of evidence.
Sorry Victoria, I gave you the wrong abbreviation...
it is NLP = Neuro Linguistic Programming.
The feature described by this approach is to map eye movements as a pre-response 'involuntary' physical indicator of recall vs imagination.
Hi Victoria! Here is some information you may find helpful.
In at least one study that investigated specific differences between concealment and truth, liars elaborated less (provided less detail) than truth tellers (Nahari, Vrij, & Fisher, 2012).
This information may also be helpfulto you: A strategy that liars often report is to conceal information related to their crime as much as possible (Hartwig, Granhag, Stromwall, & Doering, 2010). Liars try to "keep their story simple" to avoid detection (Stromwall, Hartwig, & Granhag, 2006).
Also, in a meta analysis examining different types of lies, liars tend to provide stories that are less compelling, and tend to include few ordinary imperfections (e.g., admitting lack of memory), and fewer unusual details (DePaulo et al., 2003).
The Criteria Based Content Analysis and Reality Monitoring Criteria are two interesting techniques to examine the truthfulness of a statement. However, the CBCA is affected by a person's familiarity and experience in a situation (Blandon-Gitlin, Pezdek, Rogers, & Brodie, 2005).
I couldn't add more than one attachment. I've attached the meta analysis because this includes lots of good information. Please let me know if I can clarify anything.
Thank you, Elise. Most of what you've cited seems to come from interpersonal psychology and computer-mediated communication (CMC) studies that I'm fairly familiar with (and have cited before). This "classic" deception detection literature is worth re-evaluating for its emphasis on concealment and secrecy. I will certainly do that, thanks for that connection. I am also still on a look-out for unusual connections with secrecy, as well as other less prominent or less known studies that deal with concealment strategies. Thanks again for your thoroughness! And for the attached document.
1. Some communication scholars differentiated between concealment, equivocation (Bavelas) and falsification as different kinds of deception. This paper, for instance, may be relevant:
Buller, D. B., Burgoon, J. K., White, C. H., & Ebesu, A. S. (1994). Interpersonal deception VII: Behavioral profiles of falsification, equivocation, and concealment. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 13, 366-395.
2. Paul Grice's maxim of quantity is relevant here. The violation of this maxim involves concealment. In 1992 McCornack suggested that the violation of any of Grice's maxims (quantity, quality, relevance, and manner) may reflect deception. See McCornack, S. (1992). Information manipulation theory. Communication Monographs, 59, 1-16.
These may be relevant too:
McCornack, S. A., Levine, T. R., Solowczuk, K., Torres, H. I., & Campbell, D. (1992). When the alteration of information is viewed as deception: An empirical test of Information Manipulation Theory. Communication Monographs, 59, 17-29.
Jacobs, S., Dawson, E. J., & Brashers, D. (1996). Information manipulation theory: A replication and assessment. Communication Monographs, 63(1), 70-82.
McCornack, S. A., Levine, T. R., Morrison, K., & Lapinski, M. (1996). Speaking of information manipulation: A critical rejoinder. Communication Monographs, 63, 83-
91.
Yeung, L. N. T., Levine, T. R., & Nishiyama, K. (1999). Information manipulation theory and perceptions of deception in Hong Kong. Communication Reports, 12, 1-11.
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