PART FOUR: A Four-Domain Model for Detecting Deception: Perception Management

Written by Guest Contributor Joe Navarro.
Joe Navarro is a 25 year veteran of the FBI where he served on the National Security Division's Behavioral Analysis Program. He is on the adjunct faculty at Saint Leo University and the Institute for Intergovernmental Research where he teaches nonverbal communications. For 35 years he has been teaching and utilizing the study of nonverbal communications as well as its practical applications in everyday use and in forensic settings. He has lectured throughout the world including Wayne State University School of Medicine and at the Baylor College of Medicine - Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in Houston, Texas. Mr. Navarro brings together his academic background, scientific research, and practical experience catching spies to the art of observing and interpreting human behavior. Mr. Navarro is also the author of: Advanced Interviewing Techniques: Proven Strategies for Law Enforcement, Military, and Security Personnel; Hunting Terrorists: A Look at the Psychopathology of Terror; Phil Hellmuth Presents Read 'Em and Reap: A Career FBI Agent's Guide to Decoding Poker Tells; and his most recent book, What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People.

Perception management occurs both verbally and nonverbally. During interviews, liars often use perception management, a concept with which psychopaths are well acquainted, to influence their intended targets of deception.

For instance, nonverbally, subjects will yawn excessively as if to show that they feel bored. If the person is sitting, they may slouch or splay out on a couch, stretch their arms, and cover more territory as if to demonstrate their comfort.

Verbally, liars will try to vocalize their honesty, integrity, and the implausibility of their involvement in committing a crime. They will try to “look good” to the interviewer.

They may use perception management statements, such as “I could never hurt someone,” “Lying is below me,” “I have never lied,” “I would never lie,” or “I would never do such a thing,” all of which should alert investigators to the possibility of deception. Other statements, such as “to be perfectly frank,” “to be honest,” “to be perfectly truthful,” or “I was always taught to tell the truth,” are solely intended to influence the perception of the interviewer.

Other forms of perception management include attending the interview with someone of prominence in the community or a retinue of so-called close friends. Further, subjects may self-medicate through the use of alcohol or prescription drugs to appear placid and content. They may change their clothing or hair styles to appear more genuine or more socially conventional.

In all of these examples, subjects attempt to manage the perception of the interviewer. People practice perception management every day, such as getting dressed for a date. However, when it manifests itself in an interview setting, investigators should recognize such efforts and question the intent.


Conclusion
The detection of deception remains a difficult task. Interviewers can enhance their ability to detect deception by focusing on four domains—comfort/discomfort, emphasis, synchrony, and perception management—rather than merely trying to detect traditional signs of deception, which, in some cases, may be misleading.

The research in this area over the last 20 years is unequivocal. Nonverbal behaviors, in and of themselves, do not clearly indicate deception.

However, when interviewers notice a display of discomfort and a lack of comfort,
emphasis, synchrony, and perception management, a greater certitude for assessing deception exists.

Investigators can expect subjects to react poorly in one or two areas. But, to do so in all four domains indicates communication problems, which may originate from the interviewee’s antipathy toward the interviewer or law enforcement or result from culpability, guilty knowledge, or dishonesty. Regardless, in these cases, information likely did not flow freely from the interviewee, which rendered an interview of limited value or, worse, a complete fabrication.

Source

J. Reid Meloy, The Psychopathic Mind:
Origins, Dynamics, and Treatment (Northvale,
NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1998), 139.


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PART FOUR: A Four-Domain Model for Detecting Deception: Perception Management