Children’s knowledge of deceptive gaze cues and its relation to their actual lying behavior

Abstract

Eye gaze plays a pivotal role during communication. When interacting deceptively, it is commonly believed that the deceiver will break eye contact and look downward. We examined whether children’s gaze behavior when lying is consistent with this belief. In our study, 7- to 15-year-olds and adults answered questions truthfully (Truth questions) or untruthfully (Lie questions) or answered questions that required thinking (Think questions). Younger participants (7- and 9-year-olds) broke eye contact significantly more when lying compared with other conditions. Also, their averted gaze when lying differed significantly from their gaze display in other conditions. In contrast, older participants did not differ in their durations of eye contact or averted gaze across conditions. Participants’ knowledge about eye gaze and deception increased with age. This knowledge significantly predicted their actual gaze behavior when lying. These findings suggest that with increased age, participants became increasingly sophisticated in their use of display rule knowledge to conceal their deception.

Comparing a Perceptual and an Automated Vision-Based Method for Lie Detection in Younger Children

“…Nevertheless, some research suggests that lie-tellers tend to exhibit slightly more positive non-verbal behaviors, such as smiles, relaxed and confident facial expressions, and a positive tone of voice (Lewis et al, 1989). However, other research suggests that children have poor control of their non-verbal behavior, which points toward opposite and conflictive directions of what has been previously reported (Vrij et al, 2004; McCarthy and Lee, 2009). For instance, a study has reported that children between the ages of 7–9 years old show less eye contact when lying rather than when answering the truth while older children show longer eye contact, which is similar to what adults exhibit during a lying situation (McCarthy and Lee, 2009).…”

“…However, other research suggests that children have poor control of their non-verbal behavior, which points toward opposite and conflictive directions of what has been previously reported (Vrij et al, 2004; McCarthy and Lee, 2009). For instance, a study has reported that children between the ages of 7–9 years old show less eye contact when lying rather than when answering the truth while older children show longer eye contact, which is similar to what adults exhibit during a lying situation (McCarthy and Lee, 2009). Another study suggests a decrease of movement during a lie-tell, particularly on the hands and fingers (Vrij et al, 2004).…”

The development of fine-grained sensitivity to eye contact after 6years of age

“…In the current experiment, 6-year-olds perceived eye contact over a wider horizontal range of positions than did older children and adults and, thus, may be less sensitive to the social signals associated with averted gaze. This, along with less knowledge of the display rules associated with eye gaze (see McCarthy & Lee, 2009), could be why 6-year-olds are less likely than 9-year-olds and adults to attribute deception to a person displaying averted gaze (Einav & Hood, 2008). Children's sensitivity to the other social signals associated with averted gaze (e.g., attention toward an event in the environment, avoidance) has not been reported.…”

Children’s lying behaviour in interactions with personified robots

“…Previous research has proven that in order to produce a successful lie, children need, first of all, to understand their own mental state as well as the mental state of the person to who they are lying (first order belief), and also to keep semantic control over the entire lie (second order belief) (Talwar et al, 2007). Additionally, it is known that children leak some verbal and nonverbal cues while telling a lie despite the fact that previous studies showed inconsistent results regarding which cues are the most relevant and reliable for lie detection (Feldman et al, 1979;Lewis et al,1989;McCarthy & Lee 2009;Talwar & Lee, 2002a ;Vrij et al, 2004). Therefore, it is relevant to explore if children exhibit similar verbal and nonverbal cues while lying to robots, as the ones that they show during human interaction.…”