Can trained investigators really tell when someone is lying based on nonverbal reads? And if not, what should they be focusing on instead? I talk with Maria Hartwig, a leading researcher on deception and interviewing, and Christian Cory, a former homicide detective and investigations commander, about the growing movement toward science-based interviewing. They are Co-Directors at the Aletheia Project (project-aletheia.org), which brings together researchers and law enforcement practitioners to improve interview techniques. We discuss their view that traditional interrogation methods are built around a misguided “confession obsession,” why bad ideas and exaggerated claims about body language and lie detection are so persistent and popular, and how techniques like the Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) can help investigators gather more reliable information. We discuss the work of Paul Ekman and Joe Navarro, what the science really says about micro-expressions, and we explore why people seem so drawn to false, exaggerated ideas about reading behavior.
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