CREDIBILITY JUDGMENTS OF DETECTIVES - THE IMPACT OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR, SOCIAL SKILLS, AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON IMPRESSION-FORMATION

Ninety-one detectives watched videofragments of 20 confederates who ha d been instructed either to tell the truth or to lie. After each video fragment the detectives indicated whether the confederate was lying. A lthough the study took place in a police context, and thus had higher ecological validity, the results strongly corresponded with those of p revious studies: The accuracy rate was low (49%). Like the students in other deception studies, the detectives used the wrong cues to detect deception, and the actual situation (whether the confederates were te lling the truth) did not predict suspiciousness.