Lies, Crimes and False Confessions - Interactive

In this interactive course, Eve Ash interviews the University of Massachusetts’ Professor Robert Feldman, an expert on lying. He explains that we all lie under various conditions, we can’t necessarily “spot” liars, and false confessions lead to wrongful convictions.

Eve Ash discusses why people tell lies with the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Professor Robert Feldman, a specialist in psychological and brain sciences. He has studied lying for many years and observes that all people tell lies in different situations, many are not truthful on their resumes and in job interviews and sometimes people confabulate to fill memory gaps caused by stressful or traumatic conditions. In crime situations, he explains that false memories occur, and people’s eagerness to find a culprit sometimes leads to the wrong person being convicted. You can’t always tell a liar from their physical cues (eg. excessive blinking, looking away). This can cause deception bias and investigations clouded by tunnel vision. Dr Feldman and Eve Ash discuss the case of Sue Neill-Fraser, convicted and jailed for murder in Tasmania in 2010.

Click here to get the Transcript.

Key Learning Points

Dr Robert Feldman who has studied lying reveals:

• All people lie, at different times
  
• Many are not truthful on their resumes and in interviews
  
• Some confabulate to fill memory gaps
  
• People lie under pressure
  
• False memories happen
  
• Physical cues don’t necessarily reveal whether a person is lying
  
• Wrongful convictions are sometimes the result of false confession and inaccurate polygraph readings
  

This interactive course is designed to help people learn more about human behavior and why people lie. It also provides an interesting exploration of wrongful convictions, false confessions, misidentification by witnesses and polygraphs.

This interactive course is one of the Insights and Strategies Series, featuring psychologist Eve Ash interviewing a range of experts and business leaders who share their experiences and practical strategies for achieving best practice.