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Intrapersonal Behavioral Coordination and Expressive Accuracy During First Impressions. Nonverbal Communication Club

By 4 Mins Read

Friends of the Nonverbal Communication Club, this week we present the paper “Intrapersonal Behavioral Coordination and Expressive Accuracy During First Impressions” by Latif, N.; Human, L. J.; Capozzi, F. and Ristic, J. (2021). In this article the authors examine whether expressive accuracy is related to the variability in the coordination between a person’s head and body movements.

If there’s something that worry us in social interaction is, without doubts, the first impression. How do others perceive us? Are we transmitting how we really are or, on the contrary, a wrong image altered by being nervous?

During the history of the nonverbal behavior, numerous aspects have been studied in order to understand other people’s personalities attending to how they express theirselves. For instance, and as we already know, much attention has been paid to facial expressions, gestures, or body movements.

What’s new about this study is the authors choose a very specific aspect (variability in the coordination between a person’s head and body movements) and try to find a nexus between it and how accurately people perceive our personality in first impressions.

But why this topic?

Simply because head and body movements play a very special role in social communication. As an example: we use them to transmit interest in a conversation, to show we are listening or paying attention, maybe that we want to go…

Due to the importance of these movements, and to the interest in writing an article about a very specific aspect of human behavior, authors decided to investigate whether expressive accuracy, and how others perceive our personality, is related to the variability in the coordination between a person’s head and body movements.

In order to that, they made an experiment which consisted in recruit, on one hand, 105 volunteers, at least 18 years of age (the observed group) and, on the other hand, 94 (the observer group).

The observed group completed an initial personality questionnaire, plus, family or friends of each individual were asked about their personalities to contrast the information and consolidate a personality profile. In addition to that, each one of the members of the observed group completed a video-recorded interview, so the other group could examinate their nonverbal behavior.

The observer group watched the interview and answered the personality questionnaire for each volunteer of the other group.

The results were clear: people that, during the interview showed a great variability in coordination between head and body movements, were perceived (according to the personality profile obtained at the beginning of the experiment) more accurately than the ones with a low variability.

Plus, a correlation between expressing a higher variability and being perceived as socially skilled was observed.

Other important data obtained in the study, is that these movements’ variability seems to have a relation with personality traits that are easily to observe, such as if we are extroverted, energetic or nice to others. It happens the other way round if we are talking about personality traits hard to observe, for instance being depressed or blue: this seems to have less relation.

It’s important to mention that, when variability in head and body movements’ coordination is low, looks like others don’t detect our personality so easily.

But, why does variability in head and body movements’ coordination seem to promote expressive accuracy?

Chiefly, is possible that, when this variability is high, it’s easier for us to shed clues to others about our personality. If we move our head and hands when we’re talking about something, and then somebody changes the topic and we stop moving and freeze, the person we’re talking to is eager to think that the first subject was more important to us than the second. We’re giving clues to our listener.

Secondly, variability in coordination of these movements affects to our interlocutor’s attention. Namely, these changes keep the person listening to us, watching our faces, our body, our gestures. The opposite happens when the variability is low. Thus, when variability is high, the person we’re talking to would catch more easily our personality traits, just because pays more attention to us.

Despite the results of the study and its conclusions are solid, authors mention the necessity of keeping delving into the subject, of obtaining corrections, to get more accurate answers to such complex issues.

Nonverbal communication is crucial in all of our interactions. If you want to delve deeper into how body signals influence communication, the Master in Nonverbal Behavior is perfect for you. This online program offers flexibility and provides you with an accredited degree from Evidentia University, a university licensed in the United States, where the education system is recognized for meeting the highest standards of quality. All of this from just $208 USD per month.

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Non-verbal communication

Sorry, not sorry: the nonverbal language of genuine apologies and fake apologies. Nonverbal Communication Blog

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Nonverbal Communication Blog, this week we present the paper “Sorry, not sorry: Effects of Different Types of Apologies and Self-Monitoring on Non-verbal Behaviors” by Yamamoto, K.; Kimura, M. y Osaka, M. (2021), in which authors carry out a laboratory experiment to see the differences between true apologies and fake apologies.

One of the topics studied with more interest within nonverbal language is deception detection. Inside this, which is very complex and extensive, we find apologies: is there a way to know when they are genuine and when they are false?

What we know for sure is that apologies serve the important social function of facilitating interpersonal forgiveness. However, they are not always effective. Whether or not you resolve the conflict generally depends on the perception of the apology: is it trustworthy, genuine, and sincere? Then, surely, it will be successfully accepted.

We can divide the apology into two types: on the one hand, we have the sincere apology, made from the heart, which requires feeling guilt, recognition and acceptance of responsibility; on the other hand, we have the instrumental apology, made with a purpose, such as avoiding punishment or rejection, without acknowledging guilt or accepting responsibility.

The latter do not resolve conflicts because the reasons of them are repeated over and over again when there is no acceptance of responsibility or awareness of guilt. However, these apologies can be helpful when it comes to simply appeasing the emotions of others, as may be the case with seller/server-customer relationships.

Regarding nonverbal behavior in apologies, several studies have shown that nonverbal displays of sadness and/or remorse facilitate the positive effects of apology more than smiling. Furthermore, they also reduce the negative feelings of the aggrieved part.

There is a social belief that looking away is a reliable indicator of deception but appears that the opposite is true. Experts have shown that people who lie make more eye contact than those who tell the truth, because they have the intention of appearing convincing. Taking this into account, and also the fact that the feeling of guilt typical of a genuine apology is related to the aversion of the gaze, authors consider that in instrumental apologies there will be greater eye contact.

On the other hand, authors investigate self-control. Individuals with a high level of self-control are more concerned with the adequacy of their social behavior according to the context in which they find themselves, so they are more likely to adapt their behavior according to the situation. In other words, it is logical to think that these people would find it easier to adjust their facial expression to simulate a genuine apology.

Authors conducted an experiment to explore all these questions. In it, they gathered a total of 53 people, assigning 27 of them to the condition of sincere apology and 26 to the condition of instrumental apology.

Participants were instructed to watch a video where a waiter offered a glass of water to a customer: it was spilled on the customer, making him angry. For those participants assigned to sincere apology status, it was the waiter’s fault. For those participants assigned to instrumental apology status, it was the client’s fault. Both types of participants were asked to represent an apology.

The first hypothesis that authors propose was that the aversion to the gaze was more likely to occur in a sincere apology than in an instrumental apology. In this regard, the results suggest that a person with high self-control tries to convey a sincere apology by maintaining greater eye contact, whether we are talking about a genuine apology or an instrumental apology.

On the other hand, authors hypothesized that instrumental apologies would facilitate longer lasting facial expressions than sincere apologies. This was one of the main ideas because numerous experts have shown that fake facial expressions last longer than those that are sincere.

Supporting this hypothesis, the results show a longer duration of expressions in the upper half of the face in instrumental apologies than in sincere apologies.

In a nutshell, people with high self-control and good public performance tried to convey an apology to the client by combining increased eye contact and facial displays of remorse, even though they did not feel guilty.

There are some limitations of the study, for example, the nonverbal behavior obtained in a role-playing game can be different from the spontaneous expression.

In addition to continuing to investigate this dynamic, authors recommend delving into issues such as how the burden of an instrumental apology affects the person who apologizes.

They also consider that the findings of this study are important to improve the relationship between salespeople or servers and customers, and also interpersonal relationships in general.

Nonverbal behavior has a significant impact on both personal and professional relationships. If you want to better understand this impact, the Master in Nonverbal Behavior is for you. Study online at your own pace and earn a degree from Evidentia University, a university licensed in the United States, guaranteeing high-quality education that meets the highest international standards. Study from just $208 USD per month.

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Emotions

Nonverbal Behavior speaks relational messages of dominance, trust, and composure. Nonverbal Communication Blog

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Nonverbal Communication Blog, this week we present the paper “Nonverbal Behaviors ‘Speak’ Relational Messages of Dominance, Trust, and Composure” by Burgoon, J. K.; Wang, X.; Chen, X.; Pentland, S. J. and Dunbar, N. E. (2021), in which authors wonder what the nonverbal signals of dominance, trust and composure are, and, moreover, how easily is for technological devices to perceive them.

We know that, thanks to nonverbal signals we can interpret more accurately the messages we receive in interpersonal relationships, as well as we are able to emit them more effectively.

Due to their importance, without them our communication skills would be greatly diminished.

Until few years ago, we only had the human capacity of observation to study nonverbal behavior, but with the development of new technologies, it seems that the precision with which this type of behavior is investigated, could become more objective and studied in more detail.

Authors of this paper choose three relevant traits of personality, which are dominance-submission, composure-nervousness and trust-distrust.

In addition, they propose to detect them with the help of technological devices. In this way, authors can check to what extent we can trust technology in this matter.

We will talk about dominance-submission first. Dominance is one of the most recognized human personality and behavior traits in personal relationships.

Authors point out some nonverbal behaviors that may be related to dominance. For instance, silence, lower vocal pitch, loudness or rapid speech rate, in relation to prosody.

Previous studies have reported that facial expressions such as lowered brows or a non-smiling mouth are associated with perceived dominance too.

Regarding body movements, the contraction of the body and gaze avoidance would be associated with the opposite extreme of dominance, that is, submission.

In dominant people, more expansive body postures appear, with upward inclinations of the head.

On the other hand, we have composure-nervousness. Generally, when levels of composure or calm increase during interactions, more positive outcomes appear. For instance, manager composure leads to increased employee satisfaction.

People with this personality trait are thought to have a pleasant facial gesture, frequently showing emotions in their voices, being expressive, talking a lot. They have a relaxed head and body posture and tend to be relaxed in general.

Regarding prosody, they tend to have a lower tone of voice, a contained and relaxed laugh and a moderate volume.

On the other hand, it is considered that people who are nervous are more rigid, tense, tend to avoid eye contact and have a higher tone of voice.

Finally, trust-mistrust appears. This is expressed in interpersonal relationships, and usually appears in the form of reciprocity, convergence and synchrony when two or more people interact. Furthermore, it seems that it is difficult to associate these traits with nonverbal behaviors objectively.

To carry out their study and find out if technological devices can be used to study these mental states in an objective way and precisely, authors designed an experiment.

A total of 379 people participated in it. Authors used board games with a certain role-playing component, in which volunteers interacted in small groups.

These groups were divided into two, creating a rivalry between them within the same game.

Participants’ faces, gestures and body movements were measured with cameras and microphones that were in the devices each one of them had in front of.

Later, after watching the recordings of their companions, they were told that they had to rate other participants on the dimensions of dominance-submission, composure-nervousness and trust-distrust, according to a list of relevant factors.

Results showed that dominance was associated with the majority of factors (101/150). The perception of dominance, according to the results, was associated with a high volume of voice, a more expressive facial nonverbal behavior, more head movements and longer speaking turns.

On the other hand, we have the nonverbal signals of nervousness and composure. Authors originally believed that nervousness would be perceived by a high-pitched tone of voice, but results were not consistent with this idea. However, they did confirm others, such as that people who are nervous tend to have a more rigid body posture.

Finally, we have trust-mistrust. It was the most difficult to detect. No facial expression or body movement was found to suggest that an individual was dealing with a person who could be trustworthy.

Authors suggest this happened because none of the participants knew each other and, therefore, it was very difficult to establish a relationship of trust or mistrust in such a short time.

In a nutshell, results tell us that, although thanks to technological devices we can objectively register nonverbal behaviors, the help of people is still needed, so that nothing is overlooked.

An important advance of this study is that for the recognition of personality traits, groups of people were used, instead of making pairs, which has been the most common way to carrying out this type of studies.

Authors propose to continue improving technological resources in order to make their performances better and, in the future, to use them as 100% accurate nonverbal detectors.

Effective communication goes beyond words—it’s in behavior. With the Master in Nonverbal Behavior, you will learn to interpret gestures and micro-expressions that reveal what is left unsaid. The program is 100% online, giving you the freedom to study from wherever you prefer. You will also earn a degree from Evidentia University, a university licensed in the United States that guarantees internationally recognized, high-quality education. Study from just $208 USD per month.

If you prefer, you can obtain your Certificate in Nonverbal Communication by clicking here.

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Non-verbal communication

How does nonverbal behavior influence facial identification at passport controls? Nonverbal Communication Blog

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Nonverbal Communication Blog, this week we present the paper “Body language influences on Facial Identification at Passport Control: an exploration in virtual reality” by ummon, H. M.; Allen, J. and Bindemann, M. (2020), in which authors study the influence of nonverbal behavior in the identification of people at passport controls using virtual reality’s tools.

Nowadays, we live in a globalized world, where it is possible to move around for (almost) the whole planet without problem.

That is why it is necessary to correctly identify people, in order to carry out a record of who gets in and out of the countries.

People in charge of passport controls are forced to routinely observe a large volume of passengers, usually through photographic documentation, comparing the image of the passport with the person in front of them.

A security problem arises with imposters and identity thieves, who travel with illegal documents, property of someone who looks like them, in order to not being detected.

Authors thought that they could investigate this problem from an approach that had not been studied until now.

We know that nonverbal behavior influences practically any area of life and interpersonal relationships, but does it also affect the identification of people at airports? And if so, how?

Generally speaking, there is already some evidence that information transmitted by body affects the identity match.

For instance, although face is more important when it comes about identifying a person, the precision with which this task is performed is greater if the body and face are both present.

That is, people are easier to distinguish when they are complete, than when just appear isolated faces or bodies.

Authors comment some commonsense ideas that we all think are true. For example, that impostors, by seeking to remain undetected, can fail on their intentions by transmitting behavioral signals of anxiety, such as changes in their body posture or movements with their limbs.

To investigate this matter, authors carried out a total of 6 experiment. Their results are explained in the following paragraphs.

In general, they all consisted on participating subjects identifying and matching, in a virtual reality environment, people with the photographs of their passports.

The first experiment investigates whether unusual body language influences the person’s identification with his/her passport photograph. The most important idea obtained was that the level of body language activity did not seem to influence the identification of the person in the first instance.

Therefore, the second experiment was carried out to investigate the possibility that the intensity differences were very subtle, and that that was the reason why there were no differences observed. Still, the results appeared to be inconclusive.

An argued possibility was that, since participants did not know that they should look specifically at nonverbal behavior, it had not influenced their opinions. At the third experiment, they were told they should pay attention to it.

Obtained results indicated that those avatars that exhibited unusual body language tended to be classified as not concordant with their passport photo. Nevertheless, most of the avatars whose behavior was classified as unusual, had very vivid body movements.

Therefore, authors asked themselves whether avatars had been classified as non-concordant with their passports simply because they increased normal body language. This is what was explored in the fourth experiment.

In this one, avatars with a calm attitude influenced participants much less than those with a livelier body behavior, suggesting, again, that what most affects when it comes about identifying a person with their passport, is the increasement in body language.

To verify this point, authors carried out the fifth experiment with only two types of avatars: inactive and very active. Previously, there was a third group of avatars with a halfway behavior between both extremes, but it was suppressed for the fifth experiment.

The result was that, indeed, it seems that presenting a body language considered unusual, such as an exaggerated or very lively body behavior, would affect the matching of faces and, therefore, the identification of people and their passport photos.

In the final experiment, authors attempt to investigate why this identification bias arises.

They conclude that there are several potential explanations for this effect. For instance, it could be that the occurrence of a high level of activity in body language, in an unexpected or unusual way, distracts people so that they cannot extract relevant visual information from faces in order to perform identification tasks successfully.

Despite all this, authors point out that it seems that body language would only decisively influence in this context when people are aware of that they must pay attention to it.

A limitation of this study is that, despite carrying out six experiments, authors do not consider that enough tests were achieved.

Therefore, they emphasize that it is necessary to delve into this topic to know how the knowledge of nonverbal behavior can help to improve security in this type of controls.

Would you like to become an expert in nonverbal behavior analysis? With the Master in Nonverbal Behavior, you will master the art of interpreting gestures, expressions, and body language that reveal more than words. This program is 100% online, allowing you to study at your own pace, and earn an accredited degree from Evidentia University, a university licensed in the United States, ensuring a high-quality education that meets the highest international standards. All of this from just $208 USD per month.

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Non-verbal communication

Students’ perceptions about verbal and nonverbal behavior during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Nonverbal Communication Blog

By 4 Mins Read

Friends of the Nonverbal Communication Blog, this week we present the paper “Students’ perceptions of verbal and non-verbal communication behaviors during and after the Covid-19 pandemic”, by Dragomir, G. M.; Fărcasiu, M. A. and Simon, S. (2021), in which authors carry out a study to know how the modification of interpersonal relationships during and after Covid-19 has affected university students.

We all know that the Covid-19 pandemic has shaken and disrupted the physical health and emotional state of the whole world.

It has wreaked havoc on people’s lives and changed their behaviors in record time like never seen before.

As a result of the confinement, the separation, isolation and fear of the unknown, not only the psychological well-being of health workers at the forefront of risk has been impaired, but also in the general population.

In addition to all this, it became clear that the disease has also affected relationships between people by influencing the way we communicate with each other both verbally and nonverbally.

On an interpersonal level, communication has suffered a lot due to masks, which undoubtedly help our health and fight against the virus, but strain our daily face-to-face communication.

It has also suffered due to the rules of social distancing, which forced people to adapt to these new living conditions by adopting contactless meetings, or by changing in-person communication for online platforms such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

Previous studies have shown that personality traits such as extraversion and introversion play a huge role in the burnout result from working from home and using these platforms.

For example, extroverts were more exhausted than introverts, since the latter felt more comfortable in this configuration.

In addition, the level of intimacy achieved in video calls, with close-ups and direct gazes, is usually reserved for intimate relationships but it has become the new way of interacting with co-workers and acquaintances, and it seems to disrupt our productivity.

On the other hand, despite being necessary to protect our health, masks have a great disadvantage for interpersonal communication: they hide people’s facial expressions.

Having been studied from different perspectives, these expressions are considered the most important part of our non-verbal arsenal, since they communicate emotions and, in addition, they are a part of the body that we pay a lot of attention to in our interactions.

Nonverbal behavior has the function of helping to decode the interlocutor’s verbal message, as well as her/his feelings. Unfortunately, the masks cover the middle and lower area of ​​the face, which partially and negatively affects this decoding.

This study sheds light on this moment in our lives when face masks and the virtual world have become our new normality.

It is focused on university students, very young and energetic people, and therefore very affected by the pandemic.

It analyzes the impact of this on young people and also how they think it will affect them in the future. That is, whether they will maintain some of the behaviors adopted during the pandemic in the future or not.

It was conducted using an online questionnaire between April 1 and May 30, 2021.

The results obtained regarding to verbal communication reveal that students seem to have adopted the rules very well and effortlessly when it comes about switching to the online world, thanks to being already accustomed to using technology.

By wearing masks, to make themselves being understood better, students seem to have got accustomed to repeat sentences sometimes, using the voice, its pitch, and volume as compensation. In addition, they mentioned focusing more on the upper part of the face, sometimes exaggerating the movements of these areas. They try to listen more accurately and use more or bigger gestures.

Some of the respondents reported having enjoyed social distancing rules at some point, which is consistent with the findings previously mentioned about extraversion and intraversion.

On the other hand, they admit that some new practices, such as greeting each other in a different way in the future or exaggerating the movements of the upper face area and make them livelier, will probably leave a mark on their future behavior.

Nonverbal behavior has a significant impact on both personal and professional relationships. If you want to better understand this impact, the Master in Nonverbal Behavior is for you. Study online at your own pace and earn a degree from Evidentia University, a university licensed in the United States, guaranteeing high-quality education that meets the highest international standards. Study from just $208 USD per month.

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Justice

Are the beliefs about deception that police officers’ have correct? Nonverbal Communication Blog

By 6 Mins Read

Friends of the Nonverbal Communication Blog, this week we present the paper “Strong, but Wrong: Lay People’s and Police Officers’ Beliefs about Verbal and Nonverbal Cues to Deception” by Bogaard, G.; Meijer, E. H.; Vrij. A. and Merckelbach, H. (2016),in which authors carry out a study to know how are police officers’ and civilians wrong about the cues to detect deception. 

Deception is the main character of nonverbal communication. There are studies that report that we tell about two lies a day. However, more recent studies have shown that there are many differences at individual levels when it comes to lies and that idea cannot be considered absolute.

Despite this, what all the research says is that we have a lot of experience when it comes about lying and being lied, and yet our ability to detect deception is rarely above the level of chance, including for the police.

One possible explanation may be that people often have incorrect beliefs about what cues are sign of deception. For example, the belief that liars tend to look away has been proven flawed, but most people still trust it. Strömwall and Granhag reported that gaze aversion and increased body movement were strong signals of deception for police, judges, and prosecutors.

People tend to rely heavily on nonverbal cues when delivering verdicts of deception. However, numerous research shows that deception cannot be reliably inferred through only behavior. We also need to pay attention to verbal cues.

Masip (who has been, in several occasions, one of the professors of our master’s degree in Nonverbal Communication and Lie Detection) and Herrero conducted a study in which they asked police officers and civilians how lies could be detected. Both groups mentioned that they relied primarily on nonverbal cues.

Because people tend to rely on nonverbal cues, verbal content is often largely ignored, despite research showing that diagnostic accuracy can be improved when content is trusted. Surprisingly, little research has investigated the beliefs about these types of cues.

Some truth evaluation methods have been developed that are based specifically on the content of a claim, such as criteria-based content analysis (CBCA) or reality monitoring (RM).

The CBCA consists of 19 criteria that are expected to be more present in true statements than in fake ones. For example, there is evidence that liars tend to tell a less coherent story and are less likely to make spontaneous corrections to their stories. Also, they tend to describe fewer replays of conversations.

The CBCA was originally created to assess children’s testimonies in cases of alleged sexual abuse but has been successfully used in numerous studies with adults in different contexts.

The RM is used to analyze whether a memory is originated from a real experience or an imagined event. The reason for this is that a memory made of a real experience arises from perception and, consequently, will contain more sensory, contextual and affective information than memories that originate in the imagination.

Support has been found in previous studies for some RM criteria, for example, that liars include less perceptual, spatial, and temporal information in their stories, and that liars’ stories are less plausible than true stories. 

In the study we are talking about, authors explore participants’ views of verbal and nonverbal cues through open questions, and to further examine their views of verbal cues, they were asked a series of closed questions, obtained from the CBCA and the RM.

The sample consisted of 95 police officers and 104 university students from the Netherlands. Police officers were professional detectives or interrogators with an average experience of 22 years.

When the students and police officers were given the opportunity to list the cues that they believed indicated deception, they spoke of stereotypical, unscientifically unsupported nonverbal cues, such as gaze aversion, nervousness, exaggerated movement, or sweating.

In addition, they mentioned more nonverbal than verbal cues for diagnosing lying, which is in line with previous research.

In the open questions, police officers mentioned fewer clues than the students in general, but among those they did mention, verbal clues predominated.

Most of the behavioral signs mentioned by the participants are based on the idea that lying makes liars anxious, and this anguish is shown in their facial expressions (they blush, sweat, blink…), or in their gestures (they are restless, their body moves, illustrative gestures appear…). However, people underestimate the importance of situational factors that can influence someone’s behavior. For example, truth tellers may also be nervous for reasons apart from deception, if, for instance, the style of the interview is intimidating, or they are afraid of not being believed.

Police officers are more cautious when it comes to talking about signs of deception, probably because making mistakes in their jobs is more serious for them than for the students interviewed.

Probably, these beliefs are so persistent due to the lack of feedback. In other words, no one confesses whether they have actually been lying after an interview, much less in a police environment.

A limitation of the study is that only beliefs about lying were investigated and the actual deception detection performance was not observed.

Although several studies have already shown the dangers of relying on stereotypical nonverbal cues, the current study reveals that people still believe these cues are useful in unmasking liars. 

For professionals, these beliefs are especially harmful. Being aware of them might be enough to gradually shift their attention to verbal cues, which, based on the findings of this article and previous literature, should be more precise.

If you want to know more about nonverbal behavior and how it influences our personal relationships, visit our Nonverbal Communication Certificate, a 100% online program certificated by the Heritage University (Washington) with special discounts for readers of the Nonverbal Communication Blog. 

Effective communication goes beyond words—it’s in behavior. With the Master in Nonverbal Behavior, you will learn to interpret gestures and micro-expressions that reveal what is left unsaid. The program is 100% online, giving you the freedom to study from wherever you prefer. You will also earn a degree from Evidentia University, a university licensed in the United States that guarantees internationally recognized, high-quality education. Study from just $208 USD per month.

If you prefer, you can obtain your Certificate in Nonverbal Communication by clicking here.

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Non-verbal communication

Does our ability to detect deception improve with unconscious thought? Nonverbal Communication Blog

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Nonverbal Communication Blog, this week we present the paper “Do not think carefully? Re-examining the effect of unconscious thought on deception detection” by Wu, S.; Mei, H. and Yan, J. (2019) in which authors carry out two studies to know whether the unconscious thought improves our deception detection’s ability compared to conscious thought.

Nonverbal language studies about deception detection have found that, actually, people are not very good at differentiating between truths and lies. In fact, our hitting percentage is usually slightly above the probability level.

Psychologists have given numerous explanations for these results: it may be that individuals cannot consciously process so much complex information in such a short time, due to our limited cognitive resources; furthermore, the differences between liars and those who tell the truth are very subtle; finally, individuals held incorrect beliefs about how to discover liars.

Researchers, in one of their many attempts to overcome this percentage of precision, have proposed that the unconscious thought could improve our ability to detect lies.

Why? Because all the reasons mentioned above are related to consciousness, then it is possible that we can improve the ability to detect deception by restricting conscious thought or promoting the unconscious one.

But what do these words mean? The theory of the unconscious thought proposed that people who are dedicated to this, can obtain better results when making complex decisions.

Conscious thinking refers to thought processes relevant to the objective of the moment, which occurs when attention is also focused on the objective task. Unconscious thinking refers to thought processes that are also relevant to the objective of the moment, but occur when conscious attention is focused on distracting tasks.

In an experiment mentioned in the article, was found that the performance of individuals on a target task improved after the distraction task. However, in other studies, no substantial evidence of this effect was found. Even studies that obtained significant effects were criticized for having very small samples and other limitations.

Online experiments have also been conducted, but it is difficult to monitor and control the real behaviors of the participants under these conditions.

Therefore, the first objective of the article is to observe the effects of unconscious thinking in the detection of deception through laboratory experiments.

To better understand the effect of unconscious thinking, it is helpful to identify specific signals or information that unconscious thinking uses to decide. In an experiment cited in the article, natural position, vocal tension, and length of pauses were found to be effective cues that helped participants with the unconscious thinking condition make accurate decisions.

Since these are nonverbal cues, unconscious thought may be more sensitive to nonverbal cues. Plus, coincidentally, there is some evidence with the contrary for conscious thinking.

The first of the experiments was carried out with 145 students, who were the research subjects. Another 16 were invited, who would be those who would produce the stimuli. Then they were asked to describe the experience of a trip, some of them had to lie and others had to tell the truth. Later, they were videotaped as they narrated their journey.

Research subject students were randomly assigned either the immediate decision condition or the unconscious thinking condition.

In the first case, they had to make a judgment immediately after each stimulus was presented to them. These stimuli consist of videos and audios.

In the case of the subjects assigned to the unconscious thinking condition, they were first asked to listen to the stimuli without making judgments. Then, have them do a Sudoku game for 3 minutes. Finally, they had to make their decision about the narratives.

The mean precision of all participants was 47.93%. The results did not, at first, support the authors’ hypothesis. Unconscious thinking showed no advantage in deception detection compared to immediate decision.

Bearing this in mind, it is considered too early to draw conclusions in one direction or the other.

In the second study, the stimulus was presented to distract the subjects while they had to make the target decisions.

The overall precision of the unconscious thinking group was higher in the second study than in the first. One explanation may be that in the second study subjects were given 20 minutes to complete tasks, instead of just 3.

To better understand these conflicting results, researchers must construct a more specific theory that focuses on the limits and requirements of the effect of unconscious thinking, to explain how, when, and why unconscious processes can enhance the ability to detect deception.

If you want to know more about nonverbal behavior and how it influences our personal relationships, visit our Nonverbal Communication Certificate, a 100% online program certificated by the Heritage University (Washington) with special discounts for readers of the Nonverbal Communication Blog.

Nonverbal communication is crucial in all of our interactions. If you want to delve deeper into how body signals influence communication, the Master in Nonverbal Behavior is perfect for you. This online program offers flexibility and provides you with an accredited degree from Evidentia University, a university licensed in the United States, where the education system is recognized for meeting the highest standards of quality. All of this from just $208 USD per month.

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Lie detection

Interpersonal coordination and its relationship with deception. Nonverbal Communication Blog

By 5 Mins Read

Friends of the Nonverbal Communication Blog, this week we present the paper “A liar and a copycat: nonverbal coordination increases with lie difficulty” by Van Der Zee, S.; Taylor, P.; Wong, R.; Dixon, J. and Menacere, T. (2020) in which authors investigate whether interpersonal coordination increases or decreases when somebody is lying.

We have talked about deception, how to recognize it and the observable effects it has on people, several times so far.

For this reason, we already know that most studies on deception and nonverbal behavior focus on the behavior of the interviewees, who have the task of lying or telling the truth, and on the behavior of the interviewers, who have the task of determining the veracity of the story.

However, few consider the whole interaction.

This surprises authors, because the impact that the interlocutor has on the interviewee is part of the explanations of why behavior changes when we lie.

For example, it is believed that the increasement of cognitive effort associated with the lying process is due, in large part, to the need to create and maintain a coherent story while paying attention to the interviewer’s reactions.

That is, most of the literature suggests that behavioral signals of the cognitive and social processes of lying are probably best observed in a dynamic of interpersonal behavior.

One of these behavioral signals that seem fundamental, both for interpersonal interaction and for lying, is nonverbal coordination, the synchronous movements that occur between two or more people when they are sharing an interaction.

It is believed that this type of coordination may have evolved to allow individuals to maintain harmonious relationships with members of a group, facilitating social behavior.

However, in the animal kingdom, mimicking the behaviors of the preys is a deceptive technique that allows many predators to survive.

We can extrapolate it to human relationships if we think that, as described in an article mentioned in this work, there would be a greater coordination of head movement in deceptive conversations compared to honest conversations.

Authors believe that lying could affect interpersonal nonverbal coordination in two radically opposite ways.

On the one hand, lying could increase coordination following the idea that the cognitive demands of deception would leave the liar with fewer resources to control her/his social behavior.

Why? There are studies that suggest that leading one’s own rhythmic behavior, rather than following the behavior of the interlocutor, would require inhibiting the interlocutor’s actions, or at least improving the representation of one’s own actions. And this is a behavior that demands a great cognitive effort.

Therefore, if liars have fewer cognitive resources to manage their social cues, they could be expected to demonstrate greater coordination.

On the other hand, the other option is related to the tendency of people to paralyze in response to stressors or social threats. This “freezing” could lead to decreased coordination.

Signs of deception, such as pupil dilation or increased tension, could indicate that lying is indeed stressful. Thus, liars who “freeze” might be expected to show reduced coordination compared to people who tell the truth.

To verify this, authors carried out two experiments in which, basically, participants were explained that they should lie at different levels (simple, complex or very complex lies), infiltrate in a group, among other activities. What is interesting is that their nonverbal behavior was monitored while the participants carried out these tasks.

Among the results obtained are the following ideas.

The main and most interesting thing is that there seems to be evidence that nonverbal coordination increases along with the difficulty of lying.

This would be consistent with the first hypothesis, which maintains that mimicry would increase when the cognitive effort appears, due to a greater dependence on the automatic processes of interpersonal behavior.

Furthermore, this finding is consistent with the idea that automated processes can become more frequent when people are cognitively loaded.

Having obtained these results makes automatic mimicry a hitherto unexplored clue to deception.

When trying to appear credible, liars may implement countermeasures such as avoiding behaviors associated with lying or deliberately displaying behaviors associated with honesty. It could also be possible that the consequence of these effects may be reciprocal coordination, which has the effect of diminishing the interviewer’s ability to identify deception.

This would suggest that lying is not always more difficult than telling the truth, especially when it comes to simple lies.

In future investigations, the authors would like to investigate who is leading the change in the degree of coordination, whether the interviewee or the interviewer, since they consider it a very interesting point.

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