Imposing cognitive load to unmask prepared lies

The aim of our study is to examine whether the overall organization of behavior differs when people report truthful vs. deceptive messages within the framework of the T-pattern model. We tested the hypothesis that the differences between liars and truth tellers will be greater under high cognitive load conditions. We argue that recalling stories in reverse order will produce cognitive overloading in subjects, because their cognitive resources are already partially spent on the lying task; this should emphasize nonverbal differences between liars and truth tellers. Results support the hypothesis that discriminating behavioral patterns between truth and lie could be easier under high cognitive load condition. Moreover, they suggest that future research on deception detection may focus more on patterns of behavior rather than on individual cues.