Understanding expert use of non-verbal deception and detection of deception

Deceptive actions are common during interpersonal interactions and are recognised as the peak of
social and behavioural intelligence. Despite the significant application to numerous domains,
understanding of and attempts to improve non-verbal deception detection has had limited success. The
common approach across social research to assess non-verbal deception detection has relied on
experimental paradigms that involve participants observing videos of others and making judgments on
what they saw, thus removing the perceiver from the interaction itself. However, there is empirical
evidence that the expert-novice advantage for predicting actions of others is greater for in situ studies,
and that the eye movements used to predict actions are different for in situ compared to screen-based
studies. With advances in modern technology it is now possible to measure the perceivers search
strategy when detecting deceit and identify the body movements used when performing deception in
Discipline Specific Skills:
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Advanced /Specialist Skills,
e.g. Interview skills, use of
ESRC datasets
Use of eye tracking system (Tobii)
Use of Qualisys motion capture
situ. As such, this project seeks to bring together contradictions and issues from developmental and
applied psychology to address the question of how the perception of deception might occur.
Specifically, the proposed PhD will (i) enhance understanding on the processes of deception detection
and its relationship with expertise, and (ii) examine/explore the learning processes underpinning the
ability to detect and deceive. To study these overarching aims; we intend to assess sporting
populations to first determine differences across an elite-novice paradigm before studying the
development of novice sports performers ability to detect and deceive after a period of learning.