Cross-Cultural Differences in Beliefs About Lie Detection: A Comparison of Arab and Non-Arab Australians

In the Australian criminal justice system, police and jurors (members of the general public) judge a suspect's credibility to determine guilt. Studies show that the general public and some Australian police officers have stated that they often use nonverbal behaviour to detect lies. However, nonverbal behaviour is an unreliable lie detection method, particularly when used cross-culturally, given cultural differences in nonverbal behaviour and perceptions. There is a lack of cross-cultural lie detection research in Australia, and no studies have investigated the lie detection methods used by Arab-Australians. This study utilised an open-ended question and a 10-item questionnaire created by the Global Deception Research Team to explore potential lie detection method differences between a sample of Arab- (n = 102) and non-Arab-Australians (n = 70). The results showed that while most participants in both groups were confident in their ability to detect deceit, Arab-Australians thought they could detect lies significantly more than non-Arab Australians. Both Arab- and non-Arab participants tended to rely on non-verbal behaviour to detect lies; however, there were some differences, some of which were surprising given purported cultural differences with some nonverbal behaviours. This has significant implications for understanding how cultural context influences perceptions of truthfulness.