Anatomy of a Liar

Everyone is stressed at the beginning of an interview. But with the honest person, stress usually subsides as the interview progresses, according to former Atlanta police officer and polygraph examiner, Glenn Foster.

But for the person who might try to lie about something — say, an insurance claim, for example — the stress never really dissipates. It manifests itself in the liar’s speech patterns.

Foster brought his one-man road show, entitled Anatomy of a Liar, to the Insurance Institute of Ontario’s offices in Toronto on Mar. 4, 2010.

In his one-day presentation, the self-described extrovert touched on some of the highlights from his detailed handout. He tested his theories of personality analysis on various members of the insurance audience, working the crowd with his folksy wit and wisdom. A typical Fosterism: “Do not place too much confidence in the man who boasts of being ‘Honest as the day is long.’Wait until you meet him at night.”

Foster teamed up with Frederick J. Link to develop the “Kinesic Interview Technique.” They published a book by the same name in 1980.

The Kinesic Interview Technique is a study of the deceptive behaviours of humans in stress, Foster said. It teaches guidelines, not ironclad rules. The technique is not reliable with children in puberty, mentally disturbed people, people with an IQ under 70 and people who have difficulty speaking English, he warned.

Foster suggested an interviewer or interrogator use all five of the following diagnostic areas before forming a conclusion about whether or not a person is attempting to deceive:

• self-initiated verbal behaviour;

• statement analysis;

• body language (non-verbal behaviour);

• “mood” profiling, moods of the guilty (Three directions of fight or flight); and

• case fact analysis.

Foster encouraged insurers to have insureds write out their own statements, because state- ment analysis is the most accurate diagnostic area. When audience members informed him that insurers in Ontario seldom get to work with such statements, he encouraged insurers to videotape or audiotape their statements. When audiotapes are being transcribed, he suggested that everything be included, such as: (coughed), (mumbled and inaudible), (laughed) and (paused).

Foster said body language and verbal deception almost always occur at the same time, but it is easier and more reliable for the interviewer to concentrate on reading the voice signals.

According to Foster’s materials, the seven main things that a liar does with his voice are:

• repeat a question;

• speed up or mumble;

• nervous or false laughter;

• hesitation or mental blocks;

• fragmented or incomplete sentences;

• voice changes or throat clearing (the throat tightens up when someone is lying); and

• inconsistencies of statement.

“Listen for the first complete sentence to come out of a person’s mouth and diagnose it,” Foster advised. Deceptive people will use six key words when rationalizing, projecting or minimizing an answer to a relevant area. Foster calls this ‘N. O.J.A.B.S.’ — never, only, just, always, because and since. “Watch for a NOJABS in the first sentence when you ask a relevant question,” he advised. If the subject is telling the truth, there is no need for him to justify what he has just said.

Foster analyzed Bill Clinton’s famous statement, “I never had sex with that woman.”

“Never” is a NOJABS, and “that” is an attempt to shrink away from the event, Foster observed. Also, Clinton coughed 114 times in his deposition.

Foster said he watches for changes in voice and speech patterns, words and phrases. The key is to establish the norm — the subject’s unstressed behaviour pattern — and look for any deviations from that baseline behaviour. Inner tension in a person normally causes speech flow and volume to increase; however, speed, volume and pitch may go either up or down at the point of a lie, he said.

The liar must remember everything that he has said continuously, and must remember what really happened and separate that from his alibi at all times, Foster said. Therefore, the liar’s mind is racing. Often liars will only hear a portion of what the interviewer is saying, since they have so much information in their minds. Beware of people who repeatedly ask for clarification, repetition and are greatly confused, he said.

If the liar loses control, one or more of the following will occur:

• pausing;

• stalling;

• speech disturbances;

• conjunctions — and, but, for, nor — may disappear;

• a subject may become emotional or disengaged; or

• sentences may become broken, with verbs disappearing.

When the interviewer sees evidence of the above, Foster said, he should go back and get the subject to complete the thought that he or she started.

Foster suggested an interviewer should use the same technique if the subject experiences either of the following in relevant areas of questioning:

• memory failure (e. g. “I cannot recall.”)

• creating a ‘time bridge,’ by which Foster means removing a block of time (eg. when a subject uses expressions such as “later on,” “after a period of time,” “the next thing I knew” or “eventually”).

In either of the above two scenarios, the interviewer should return almost immediately to the area of the memory failure or time bridge and rephrase the question. Always pin the subject down to a “yes” or “no” if you can, he said.

Also, watch for a subject’s rate of speech to speed up in an area. “This is the rehearsed part of the story,” Foster wrote in his materials. “Many times, when doing this, they will start using the expression, ‘And then,” he added.

Questions in response to your questions represent a stall tactic, Foster said. He referenced the biblical story of Cain and Abel, in which Cain kills Abel after God rejects Cain’s offerings of produce, but accepts the animal sacrifices brought by Abel. Cain was asked for the whereabouts of his brother, to which he responded: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” This was an early example of a red flag, Foster said.

Sometimes a guilty person will use “yes” and “no” in the same sentence, Foster said. For example, “Look, I know I was involved in a lot of claims, but I wasn’t involved in this one.” The subject is saying something truthful in the sentence and then adding something false at the end, hoping that the interviewer will cluster them together, Foster said.

Foster suggested the interviewer always first ask the subject how much time elapsed in total, and then how much time elapsed for each event in the sequence of events. Later the interviewer can add up the times for each event to see if they match the total time period given to the interviewer at the outset.

“Pausing is the most accurate indication of deception,” Foster said. Pausing is done when the question catches the subject off guard. Foster said to watch for stalling sounds like “ah, er, uh, um,” or a quick intake of air when faced with relevant questions.

Speech disturbances, when used in relevant areas of questioning, are all forms of stalling, Foster said. Speech disturbances are sounds, not words. They are usually uttered before a sentence, and include groaning, moaning, laughter and grunts. Foster gave the following example. A wife asks her husband, “Do you still love me?” The husband responds, “Uh, huh. Yeah.”

Foster doesn’t recommend that interviewers practice their kinesic interview techniques on their own spouses.

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Deceptive people will use six key words when rationalizing, projecting or minimizing an answer to a relevant question. This is called ‘NOJABS.’ (Never. Only. Just. Always. Because. Since.) Watch for NOJABS in the first sentence.

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Sometimes a guilty person will use ‘yes’ and ‘no’ in the same sentence. ‘Yes, I did before, but no, not this time.’ The subject is saying something truthful in the sentence and then adding something false at the end, hoping the interviewer will cluster them together.

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Questions in response to your question represent a stall tactic. An early example of a ‘red flag’ occurs in the biblical story of Cain and Abel. After Cain kills his brother Abel, God asks Cain where Abel is. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain responds.