How People Really Suspect Lies: A Re-examination of Novotny et al.’s (2018) Data

Abstract

[EN]Abstract Previous research has shown that in real-life situations people detect lies mostly from nonbehavioral information (e.g., physical evidence, third-party information, confessions…) rather than from behavioral cues. Novotny et al. (J Nonverbal Behav 42:41–52, 2018. https ://doi.org/10.1007/s1091 9-017-0263-2) argued that while lies are detected primarily from non-behavioral information, initial suspicion of a lie can be triggered primarily from behavioral cues. They conducted two studies and claimed support for their hypotheses. However, there are a number of problematic issues with Novotny et al.’s research and conclusions. We conducted analyses based on the frequencies and percentages they reported, and used meta-analytical techniques to combine their findings concerning discovered lies with those of previous research. The results show that lies are indeed detected from nonbehavioral information more often than from behavioral cues. However, contrary to Novotny et al.’s assertions, suspicion is not triggered primarily from behavioral cues—rather, there is a trend in favor of non-behavioral information. Even so, behavioral cues play a bigger role in eliciting suspicion than in lie discovery.