Detecting Deception from Thin Slice Communications

Detecting Deception from Thin Slice Communications

Research suggests that people are not very skilled at detecting deception from ordinary communications (Vrij, 2000). A recent meta-analysis (Bond & DePaulo, 2006) indicated that the average accuracy in discriminating a truthful from a deceptive statement was 54%, when chance is 50%. Another line of research has shown that people are able to make remarkably accurate inferences from very brief exposures (or “thin slices”) of nonverbal behavior (Ambady & Rosenthal, 1993; Willis & Todorov, 2006). We propose that the ability to detect deception may actually be greater when people observe thin slices communications rather than longer communications. In a within- participants design, 80 college students will attempt to discriminate truthful from deceptive communications based on either long or thin-slice videotaped clips of people discussing their friendships. The findings may have important implications for the fields of deception detection and interpersonal perception.