Beyond 50%: providing contextual and coaching information substantially improves adults’ ability to detect children’s lies

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present research examined how contextual/coaching information and interview format influenced adults’ ability to detect children’s lies. Participants viewed a series of child interview videos where children provided either a truthful report or a deceptive report to conceal a co-transgression; participants reported if they thought each child was lying or telling the truth. In Study 1 (N = 400), participants were assigned to one of the following conditions that varied in the type of interview shown and if context about the event in question was provided: full interview + context, recall questions + context, recognition questions + context, or full interview only (no context). Providing context (information about the potential co-transgression and coaching) significantly enhanced overall and lie accuracy, but this served the greatest benefit when provided with the recall interview, and participants held a lie bias. In Study 2 (N = 100), participants watched the full interview with simplified coaching information. Detection accuracy was reduced slightly but remained well above chance and the lie bias was eliminated. Thus, detection performance is improved when participants are given a child’s free-recall interview along with background information on the event and potential coaching, though providing specific coaching details introduces a lie bias.