Cognitive Heuristics

Examples of Cognitive Heuristics

Many of the heuristics relevant to lie detection are related to the fundamental attribution error (sometimes referred to as the correspondence bias), or the tendency to attribute people's behavior to personality traits or internal characteristics, rather than the situation or external causes. One example from the lie detection domain is the Othello error, in which nervousness is perceived as a sign of deception, disregarding that the situation (e.g., being interrogated by the police) may actually be the source of the person's anxiety. The Othello error can also be explained by the representativeness heuristic, which in this application would mean being more likely to conclude that someone is deceptive because his or her nervousness is consistent with the prototype of a liar's demeanor.

The facial appearance heuristic pertains to the stereotype that people with more attractive or “baby” faces are more likely to be honest, which often leads people astray. In one study, participants who attributed positive characteristics to the individual they were judging rated that person as more truthful, and consequently, were less accurate at detecting that person's lies.

The truth bias or truthfulness bias is the tendency to perceive the truth over lies when judging a message, or to perceive honesty over dishonesty when judging a person. The truth bias is more pronounced in face-to-face conversations and when interacting with close others such as romantic partners, good friends, or family members, leading some to call it the relational truth-bias heuristic.

Various explanations have been offered for the truth bias, including reliance on other heuristics. One explanation involves applying the availability heuristic or the belief that examples or events that more easily come to mind more frequently occur. According to this explanation, people are more likely to recall examples of honesty, and are therefore more likely to conclude that the statement in question also is the truth, rather than a lie. Others have proposed that one's default assumption is the truth, and only if one has the time, motivation, and energy to think more about a message will they be less credulous. A similar explanation has been offered for the fundamental attribution error; that is, one's default judgment is a disposition, and greater effort is required to adjust that judgment to consider situational factors.

Related to this idea is the application of the anchoring or anchoring-adjustment heuristic, which pertains to the failure to adequately correct away from a starting value (i.e., an anchor). If people are more likely to initially view a message as truthful, then based on the anchoring heuristic, even if they try to adjust, their final judgment still will be closer to the honest than the dishonest end of a continuum.

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