Researcher reveals home truths on the art of lying

Date Published: 03-Feb-2011

By Denise McNamara

Lie detector tests such as polygraphs have long been held up as the definitive way to catch out a liar, even in a court of law.

But studies have consistently thrown up doubt over their accuracy with some academics questioning whether such stress tests have any scientific basis whatsoever.

New research by a Galway student may well help devise a better way of detecting deception. For his final year thesis in psychology at NUI Galway, Mike Nopprapun evaluated a well-known model of the lying process and made some surprising discoveries.

His paper so impressed his professional colleagues he was asked to present it at the annual conference of psychologists late last year.

The 23-years-old native of Knocknacarra examined a 2003 study (Walczyk, Roper, Seemann & Humphrey) that put forward a theoretically-based method of lie detection in which response time was found to be a cue to deception. In other words, liars take longer to answer questions.

As Mike explains, lying is a fundamental part of human communication. “There are certain lies we need to tell. If you go for a meal and the host makes a dinner you didn’t like you’re going to say you did. Or, if your partner asks if her bum looks big you will probably say it looks lovely. But then there’s the more serious lies relating to tax evasion and perjury in court – they’d be the lies that would be psychologically interesting,” he states.

During his studies he believed he had uncovered a number of serious errors with the way the 2003 study was carried out. So, he decided to repeat the same experiments but with variations. This involved interviewing 104 first year psychology students and presenting them with a series of questions.

Under supervision by chartered forensic clinical psychologist Dr John Bogue at NUIG, his work earned him a first class honour. He was invited to present his paper at the Psychological Society of Ireland’s annual conference last November in Athlone, which is quite a feat for a student. He hopes to continue his studies in clinical and forensic psychology.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.