Deception: Use of Evidence in; Detection of Deception in
Children; Statement Validity Assessment (SVA)Further Readings
Bond, C. F., Jr., & DePaulo, B. M. (2006). Accuracy of
deception judgments. Personality and Social Psychology
Review, 10,214–234.
DePaulo, B. M., Zuckerman, M., & Rosenthal, R. (1980).
Humans as lie detectors. Journal of Communication,
30,129–139.
Granhag, P. A., & Strömwall, L. A. (Eds.). (2004). The
detection of deception in forensic contexts.Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press.
Granhag, P. A., & Vrij, A. (2005). Deception detection. In
N. Brewer & K. D. Williams (Eds.),Psychology and law.
An empirical perspective(pp. 43–92). New York: Guilford
Press.
Kraut, R. (1980). Humans as lie detectors: Some second
thoughts. Journal of Communication, 30,209–216.
Vrij, A. (2000). Detecting lies and deceit: The psychology of
lying and the implications for professional practice.
Chichester, UK: Wiley.DETECTION OFDECEPTION
IN CHILDREN
The credibility and reliability of children’s testimony
are particularly important in instances where children
are called on as primary witnesses in legal proceed-
ings, such as sexual abuse or child custody cases.
Although it is expected for children to provide truthful
statements about given events, children may also give
false reports in these situations for a variety of reasons,
and research suggests that adults are relatively poor at
detecting such lies. Consequently, despite younger
children’s difficulties in concealing their verbal and
nonverbal deceptive behaviors effectively, these may
not be easily detected by adults. Only with extensive
training are adults able to differentiate the verbal state-
ments of a lie or a truth teller at a rate above the chance
level. Adults’ ability to detect children’s lies is affected
by the developmental level of the child, with younger
children having difficulties in maintaining the truthful-
ness of their statements during follow-up questioning.
Although subtle differences are noted in children’s
nonverbal behavioral expressions when in a lie- or a
truth-telling situation, these discrepancies are smalland hard to detect, even for professionals whose job it
is to detect a liar. A credible assessment system to
detect the lies of young children, especially in light of
related factors such as coaching and truth induction, is
needed. As more research is undertaken to detect
children’s deception, the complexity of the relation-
ships between children’s developmental age, adult
biases, and cognitive control of one’s verbal and non-
verbal expressive behaviors will delineate a pathway in
the direction of accurate detection of children’s lies by
professionals and laypersons alike.Children’s Deception
Considerable research has been done on children’s
unintentional false reports due to repeated or sugges-
tive questioning, children’s memory of events, and
children’s ability to distinguish fact from fantasy. Less
attention, however, has been given to children’s inten-
tional and deliberate false reports—that is, reports that
the individual knows are untrue yet are made with the
deliberate purpose of deceiving others. Children may
conceal or fabricate a report about an alleged event at
the behest of an adult or because they are fearful of the
effects their truthful testimony might have, such as
upsetting or disappointing loved ones.
Generally, children lie for the same reasons as
adults: to avoid punishment or negative consequences,
for personal gain, to protect one’s self-esteem, to con-
form to social conventions of politeness, or to spare
another’s feelings. Children’s lie-telling behavior
emerges in the preschool years, with lies to escape
punishment among the first types of lies children tell.
Nevertheless, young children’s ability to deceive is
not very good. Their first lies tend to be false denials
or short verbal responses (e.g., “No, I didn’t do it”). In
the school-age years, children become better able to
elaborate and maintain their lies over extended peri-
ods. Some evidence exists to suggest that children’s
lie-telling abilities are related to their increased cogni-
tive understanding of others’ mental states and their
inhibitory control. Furthermore, as children become
older, they may naturally lie for a range of motiva-
tions. Deciding to lie requires an analysis of the costs
and benefits of telling the truth versus lying. School-
age children will lie for another (e.g., a parent) when
they perceive there are negative consequences for the
other and low costs to their self-interest. In circum-
stances where the consequences of telling the truth
might be very negative, children may be more inclined212 ———Detection of Deception in ChildrenD-Cutler (Encyc)-45463.qxd 11/18/2007 12:41 PM Page 212