Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Accuracy of deception judgments.

Charles F Bond1, Bella M DePaulo

  • 1Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA. CBOND@TCU.EDU

Personality and Social Psychology Review : an Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc
|July 25, 2006
PubMed
Summary

People are only slightly better than chance at detecting deception, with accuracy around 54%. This lie detection accuracy is influenced by factors like whether the lie is audible or visible, and a potential double standard in judging deceit.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Predicting social relations model effects from conditional expectations.

Psychological methods·2022
Same author

A Longitudinal Study of the Development of Emotional Deception Detection Within New Same-Sex Friendships.

Personality & social psychology bulletin·2015
Same author

Direct and indirect measures of lie detection tell the same story: a reply to ten Brinke, Stimson, and Carney (2014).

Psychological science·2014
Same author

Why do lie-catchers fail? A lens model meta-analysis of human lie judgments.

Psychological bulletin·2011
Same author

Embodiment, agency, and attitude change.

Journal of personality and social psychology·2009
Same author

Individual differences in judging deception: accuracy and bias.

Psychological bulletin·2008

Area of Science:

  • Social Psychology
  • Forensic Psychology
  • Behavioral Science

Background:

  • Assessing the accuracy of human lie detection is crucial for understanding interpersonal dynamics and legal contexts.
  • Previous research indicates variable accuracy in distinguishing truth from deception.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To synthesize existing research on the accuracy of deception judgments.
  • To determine the average accuracy of lie-truth discrimination across numerous studies and judges.
  • To identify factors influencing lie detection accuracy.

Main Methods:

  • Meta-analysis of 206 documents involving 24,483 judges.
  • Analysis of studies where individuals judged lies and truths in real-time without aids.
  • Calculation of accuracy metrics, including percentage correct and signal detection measures (d').

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Average accuracy in lie-truth judgments is 54% (47% of lies and 61% of truths correctly classified).
  • Lie detection ability is statistically significant (d' ≈ 0.40), comparable to large effects in social psychology.
  • Accuracy is higher for audible lies than visible lies; individuals perceived as motivated to be believed appear deceptive.

Conclusions:

  • Human lie detection accuracy is only marginally above chance.
  • A proposed 'double standard' where individuals judge others' deceit more harshly than their own may explain accumulated findings.
  • Understanding these biases is key to interpreting deception detection research.