Matching the baseline approach to the use of a checklist: Effect on observers accuracy in lying detection

Training programmes, checklists, and interviewing techniques are being developed to help lie detection. In this experiment, we combined the baseline technique (either comparable truth – where the baseline section is comparable to the section of the interview dealing with the event under investigation, the target section – or small talk – where the baseline is obtained through chit-chat) with the use of a checklist. One-hundred and twenty participants took part in the experiment and rated ten interviewees, who either told the truth or lied, using a checklist. Observers made their veracity decisions according to how much different they thought the senders appeared between the two phases of the interview (the baseline section and the target section). Accuracy rates did not differ between the two baseline conditions. The results therefore indicated that it is inadvisable to implement the use of a checklist with the baseline approach and the reasons for such results are discussed.