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Does the truth come out in the writing? Scan as a lie detection tool
Galit Nahari1, Aldert Vrij, Ronald P Fisher
1Department of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel. naharig@mail.biu.ac.il
Law and Human Behavior
|April 5, 2012
Summary
Scientific Content Analysis (SCAN) failed to detect lies, unlike Reality Monitoring (RM). This study questions SCAN
Area of Science:
- Forensic Psychology
- Deception Detection
- Verbal Analysis
Background:
- Scientific Content Analysis (SCAN) is a widely used verbal lie detection tool.
- Federal law enforcement and military agencies globally employ SCAN.
- The efficacy of SCAN in distinguishing truthful statements from deceptive ones requires empirical validation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the accuracy of the Scientific Content Analysis (SCAN) tool.
- To compare the lie detection capabilities of SCAN against Reality Monitoring (RM).
- To determine the suitability of SCAN for law enforcement and military applications.
Main Methods:
- Sixty-one participants provided written statements about recent activities.
- Statements were categorized as truthful, outright lies, or concealment lies.
- Statements were analyzed using both SCAN and Reality Monitoring (RM) protocols.
Main Results:
- Reality Monitoring (RM) significantly differentiated between truth-tellers and outright liars.
- RM also effectively distinguished truth-tellers from concealment liars.
- SCAN did not achieve significant discrimination between truth-tellers and either type of liar.
Conclusions:
- The findings raise concerns about the reliability of SCAN as a lie detection instrument.
- RM demonstrated superior performance in discriminating deception compared to SCAN.
- Further research is needed to ascertain the practical utility of SCAN in forensic contexts.
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