Are criminals better lie detectors? Investigating offenders' abilities in the context of deception detection

Abstract

The present research examined lie detection abilities of a rarely investigated group, namely offenders. Results of the studies conducted thus far indicated a better performance of offenders compared to non-offenders when discriminating between true and false messages. With two new studies, we aimed at replicating offenders' superior abilities in the context of deception detection. Results of Study 1 (N = 76 males), in contrast, revealed that offenders were significantly worse at accurately classifying true and false messages compared to non-offenders (students). Results of Study 2 (N = 175 males) revealed that offenders' discrimination performance was not significantly different compared to non-offenders (clinic staff). An internal meta-analysis yielded no significant difference between offenders and non-offenders, questioning the generalizability of previous findings.