206 W H A T EVERY BODY IS SAYING
to detect lies—that I recognize and appreciate the difficulties in accu-
rately assessing deceptive behavior. It is also for that reason that I have
chosen to devote an entire chapter—and to end this book—with a realis-
tic appraisal and application of nonverbal behaviors in detecting decep-
tion. Lots of books have been written on this subject that make it sound
easy, even for amateurs. I assure you, it is not!
I believe this is the first time a career law enforcement and counter-
intelligence officer with a considerable background in this field, and
who still teaches in the intelligence community, has stepped forward to
sound this warning: most people—both laypersons and profession-
als—are not very good at detecting lies. Why make this statement?
Because, unfortunately, I have seen too many investigators misinterpret
nonverbal behaviors over the years, making innocent people feel cul-
pable or unnecessarily uncomfortable. I have also seen both amateurs
and professionals make claims that are outrageous, ruining lives in the
process. Too many people have gone to jail for giving false confessions
just because an officer mistook a stress response for a lie. Newspapers
are replete with horror stories, including the one about the New York
Central Park jogger, wherein officers mistook nonverbals of stress for
deception and pressured the innocent into confessions (Kassin, 2004,
172–194; Kassin, 2006, 207–227). It is my hope that readers of this book
will have a more realistic and honest picture of what can and cannot be
achieved through the nonverbal approach to detecting deception, and,
armed with this knowledge, they will take a more reasoned, cautious
approach to declaring when a person is or is not telling the truth.
DECEPTION: A TOPIC WORTHY OF STUDYWe all have a stake in the truth. Society functions based on an assump-
tion that people will abide by their word—that truth prevails over men-
dacity. For the most part, it does. If it didn’t, relationships would have a
short shelf life, commerce would cease, and trust between parents and
children would be destroyed. All of us depend on honesty, because when