Draw Me a Picture of the Murder Scene

We've looked at statements from suspects, interviewed and interrogated them, but have we asked them to draw us a picture?

Maybe we should according to leading lie researchers in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, in an article titled, 'Drawings as an Innovative and Successful Lie Detection Tool.'

Researchers hypothesized that several tendencies would become evident in the scribbles and sketches of liars not found in those of non-liars. For instance, they suspected that liars, when asked to sketch out the particulars of a location where they hadn’t really been to meet someone they hadn’t really met, would provide less detail in their drawings. They also suspected that the drawing would seem less plausible overall, and would not include a depiction of the person they allegedly met.

Finally, they hypothesized that non-liars would use a “shoulder-camera” perspective to draw the situation – a direct, line-of-sight view that previous research suggests is more indicative of truth telling. Liars, they suspected, would use an “overhead-camera” perspective, indicating a sense of detachment from the situation.

Then they set up an elaborate "spy mission" where they were to meet someone. They orchestrated the mission where, at the end, half would have to lie and half would tell the truth.


Then they asked them:

"Draw the particulars of their experience."

What they found was:

Interestingly, significantly more truth tellers included the “agent” (other person in the situation) in their drawings than did liars (80% vs. 13%).

In addition, significantly more truth tellers drew from a shoulder-camera view than liars, who by in large drew from an overhead view (53% vs. 19%).

In verbal statements, more truth tellers also mentioned the agent (53%) than liars (19%).

Using the “sketching the agent” result alone, it was possible to identify 80% of the truth tellers and 87% of the liars – results superior to most traditional interview techniques.

The main reason drawing seems to be effective in identifying liars is that they have less time to work out the details. Someone who is telling the truth already has a visual image of where they were and what happened, but liars have to manufacture the details. It’s easier to concoct something verbally than to first visualize and then create it on paper.


Source: Vrij, A., Leal, S., Mann, S., Warmelink, L., Granhag, P., & Fisher, R. (2009). Drawings as an Innovative and Successful Lie Detection Tool Applied Cognitive Psychology DOI:◦

Draw Me a Picture of the Murder Scene

Science behind 'Lie to Me' - Increasing Cognitive Load to Facilitate Lie Detection: The Benefit of Recalling an Event in Reverse Order

You may remember a particular episode where a person was asked to state what they claimed to do as their alibi in reverse order.

For more about the science of deception:
Increasing Cognitive Load to Facilitate Lie Detection: The Benefit of Recalling an Event in Reverse Order. Aldert Vrij , Samantha A. Mann, Ronald P. Fisher, Sharon Leal, Rebecca Milne and Ray Bull, Law and Human Behavior; Volume 32, Number 3 / June, 2008 [Journal Article]

Abstract: In two experiments, we tested the hypotheses that (a) the difference between liars and truth tellers will be greater when interviewees report their stories in reverse order than in chronological order, and (b) instructing interviewees to recall their stories in reverse order will facilitate detecting deception. In Experiment 1, 80 mock suspects told the truth or lied about a staged event and did or did not report their stories in reverse order. The reverse order interviews contained many more cues to deceit than the control interviews. In Experiment 2, 55 police officers watched a selection of the videotaped interviews of Experiment 1 and made veracity judgements. Requesting suspects to convey their stories in reverse order improved police observers’ ability to detect deception and did not result in a response bias.◦

Science behind 'Lie to Me' - Increasing Cognitive Load to Facilitate Lie Detection: The Benefit of Recalling an Event in Reverse Order

Analysis of Last Week's Lying Game

Let's take a closer look at the Liar's Game from last week. If you haven't seen it go ahead and view it by clicking here.

When I teach Television Editors and Reporters about what I do, I'm always telling them they do not need to catch every micro expression or gesture because you can always review the tape. Then I teach them how to review the tapes. One of the things I tell them to play it once at a normal speed, then once at a fast speed, then once slow speed. Why? Fast speed can show you tendency gestures, when they gesture less, and their normal gestures that becomes part of the baseline. Slower speeds can show you the leakage gestures and expressions.

What I would suggest for you to do now, is to place a piece of scotch tape right below the video timeline below, with a pen mark the starting and ending points of each statement. Watch it fast a couple of times.

Does anything stand out? It should. During the lie there is a decrease in gestures. The difference is barely noticeable when played at a normal speed, but when playing it faster it becomes obvious. Here are a couple of articles from The Journal of Nonverbal Behavior about this:

The impact of deception and suspicion on different hand movements. Caso,
Letizia; Maricchiolo, Fridanna; Bonaiuto, Marino; Vrij, Aldert; Mann, Samantha;
Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, Vol 30(1), Mar 2006. pp. 1-19. [Journal Article]

Individual differences in hand movements during deception. Vrij, Aldert;
Akehurst, Lucy; Morris, Paul; Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, Vol 21(2), Sum
1997. pp. 87-102. [Journal Article]

When you marked the timeline something else should have stood out. There is one particular statement that takes longer than the others. When people lie they tend to "explain" it more in an attempt to make it more believable. There are too many articles on this to cite just a couple- search online. I've created programs that "count" emotional words, and determine learning styles, etc. but here is the thing with computers, people are usually better and quicker than computers in this area- but more on that in another post.

Did you have trouble spotting the lie? Why this one was hard to read? Well, because it was based on a half truth.

What I want to do is put together a group of 50 really good 'The Lying Games' or statements and develop a web based application, like METT, where the barely noticeable becomes obvious because you have been trained through repetition. It is important to notice more/less gestures, and blinking, and the like. Too much I want to do, very little time.◦

Analysis of Last Week's Lying Game

Prediction: Next Season 'Lie to Me' Science Behind the Show Spotlight

Blinking during and after lying.

As cognitive processing occurs there is a decrease in eye blinks, directly followed by an increase in blinking after the lie is told. Truth tellers do not change blink rate...

For more about the science of deception:
Blinking during and after lying. Leal, Sharon; Vrij, Aldert; Journal of Nonverbal
Behavior, Vol 32(4), Dec 2008. pp. 187-194. [Journal Article]◦

Prediction: Next Season 'Lie to Me' Science Behind the Show Spotlight