Miller, Gerald

Miller's Research

In 1979, Miller and colleagues published their study examining deception detection accuracy and verbal, vocal, and visual cues, in which participants judged videotapes of a speaker's head and body, a close up of the face or only the body. The study also varied because the videotape was filmed in both black and white and in color and included audio and visual cues or only visual cues. In 1980, Miller and colleagues published a study examining how familiarity with another person's communication behaviors and style affected deception detection accuracy. This type of work is known as a baseline study because it gave observers a baseline of communication behaviors to compare to the communication behaviors that were being judged for deception.

In 1985, Miller and Mark deTurck published a study that introduced an “aroused truthful” condition, in which arousal was induced in some research participants by subjecting them to intermittent bursts of white noise, prior to and during an interview. Thus, they were able to delineate cues that were elicited by general arousal from those elicited by deception. In 1986, Miller and James Stiff published their study examining how probing influences deception detection accuracy. Speakers were either positively probed by experimenters who agreed with the speakers' comments or negatively probed by experimenters who were skeptical of the speakers' comments. These conversations were videotaped and judged by participants for deception. In 1993, Miller & Stiff's book Deceptive Communication was published.

The last graduate seminar Miller taught at Michigan State University before succumbing to cancer was a doctoral seminar on deception. The legacy of G. R. Miller and his continuing contributions to the field of interpersonal communication and the literature on deception live on in the work of students who knew him as their professor, mentor, colleague, and friend.