New study finds group discussion improves lie detection

We can see this on Facebook. Many people never seem to learn to reserve judgement when dramatic news is reported, or someone posts an article from a satirical web site.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/uocb-nsf061115.php

Public Release: 11-Jun-2015
University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Though many people believe they can recognize when someone is lying, detecting deception is difficult. Accuracy rates in experiments have proven to be only slightly greater than chance, even among trained professionals.

But a new study published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) finds that groups are consistently more accurate in distinguishing truths from lies than one individual is.

In 'Group discussion improves lie detection,' by University of Chicago Booth School of Business Professor Nicholas Epley and Chicago Booth doctoral student Nadav Klein, the researchers designed four experiments in which groups consistently distinguished truth from lies more accurately, demonstrating that the group advantage in lie detection comes through the process of group discussion, not the product of a 'wisdom of crowds' effect.

In other words, groups were not simply maximizing the small amounts of accuracy contained among individual members, but were instead creating a unique type of accuracy altogether.

'We find a consistent group advantage for detecting small 'white' lies as well as intentional, high-stakes lies told for personal gain,' says Epley. 'This group advantage seems to come through the process of group discussion rather than statistical aggregation of individual opinions.'

•••••

'Interventions to improve lie detection typically focus on improving individual judgment, which is costly and generally ineffective,' Epley says. 'Our findings suggest a cheap and simple synergistic approach of enabling group discussion before rendering a judgment.'