You Say it Best, When You Say Nothing at All

As Sherlock Holmes said to Doctor Watson, ‘You can see everything. You fail however to reason what you see.’

The below provides some insight into the process that Deception Detection Lab Ltd uses when analysing written and verbal statements. Do you want to be a Sherlock Holmes?

Consider the following sentence. Read it for ten seconds and count the number of F’s you find in it.

‘Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of many years.’

Most people only find three ‘F’s.’ There are in fact six. It’s the little things that make the difference in being effective.

Using Forensic Statement and Linguistic Analysis we examine open-ended written or spoken accounts in which the writer or speaker choose where to begin and what to include in the statements.

This can affirm our, ‘gut’ feeling. We believe that people are telling us the truth and we determine what their statement is truthful of. We identify what is missing. Most people lie by omission (i.e. withheld information) as opposed to commission (i.e. a direct lie which is stressful) and Linguistic Indicators can differ between truthful and deceptive accounts.

Forensic Statement and Linguistic Analysis can be used to analyse both content and style. In analysing a statement, we Consider the Expected vs the Unexpected in Context.

The Expected is that:

-          A statement should be: Clear / Concise / Accurate / Relevant

-          A person either works with us to provide the information or

-          A person works against us to hinder the flow of information.

For commitment to a statement we look for:

-          Strong pronoun usage

-          Past tense verbs

-          Short sentences without the need to persuade

-          Low qualifiers

-          Pronoun and name consistency in context

We adopt the Presumption of Innocence and that everything a subject tells us will be the truth.

This is known in Scientific Content Analysis (SCAN) as Presuppositional thinking – The subject is truthful, but we consider what it is that the statement is truthful of? 90% of deception is via missing information whereas 10% is via a direct lie, which is very rare.

Most deception is via missing information.

We consider why information is ‘missing.’ The most people deceive via missing information is due to the stress caused by making something up. It is easier to express what has come from experiential memory. It’s hard to maintain a lie as memory works chronologically. Deceptive events can often be reported out of sequence.

One reason for this is due to the ‘speed of transmission’ which is the time it takes from the brain to the tongue in selecting words. From a personal, subjective and internal memory of more than 25,000 words, the brain indicates which words to use in a split second.

A lie will interrupt this process resulting in uncomfortable pauses, increased use of non-linguistic utterances such as ‘umm’ and ‘erm’ and non-coherent sentences. When we are relaxed, our conversation flows naturally.

All this is considered in context.

We can apply it to any written or verbal statement. Contact us to see how we can help you. Getting to the Truth, Informs Your Strategy.

All blog subjects are identified, validated and written by the DDL Team. See www.ddlltd.com for more on Deception Detection Lab Ltd.