ERIC Number: EJ1460825
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jan
Pages: 7
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0888-4080
EISSN: EISSN-1099-0720
Available Date: 2025-01-16
Training Humans to Detect Children's Lies through Their Facial Expressions
Alison M. O'Connor1; Jennifer Gongola2; Kaila C. Bruer3; Thomas D. Lyon2; Angela D. Evans1
Applied Cognitive Psychology, v39 n1 e70024 2025
The accurate detection of children's truthful and dishonest reports is essential as children can serve as important providers of information. Research using automated facial coding and machine learning found that children who were asked to lie about an event were more likely to look surprised when hearing the first question during an interview about said event. The present studies explored if humans can be trained to look for surprised expressions to detect children's deception. Participants made lie-detection judgments after seeing children's expressions in very brief clips. In Study 1, we compared performance across a training condition and control condition, and in Study 2 we modified the training. With training, adults could detect children's lies at above-chance levels by viewing their facial expressions. Detection accuracy was further improved with modified training (Study 2), but participants held a consistent lie bias. Challenges with using facial expressions to detect deceit are discussed.
Descriptors: Deception, Nonverbal Communication, Recognition (Psychology), Children, Interviews, Accuracy, Ethics, Artificial Intelligence, Comparative Analysis, Training, Video Technology, Adults
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (DHHS/NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: HD101617
Author Affiliations: 1Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada; 2University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA; 3University of Regina, Regina, Canada