Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The current study utilizes dynamical systems and embodiment theory to better understand how movement dynamics impactdeception detection. While research has consistently revealed humans are often no better than chance at discriminatinga truth from a lie, individuals may reveal more than they know through the dynamic movement of the face and the bodybeyond discrete gestures traditionally examined in deception detection research (e.g., rise of a brow). As expected, thepresent study found that the dynamic stabilities of facial and body movements were significantly influenced by deceptiveintent such that untruthful statements elicited less stability in both the face and upper body. Moreover, despite detectionlevels no greater than chance, the accuracy of observers to detect deceptive intent covaried with these dynamic stabilities.The research presented provides another piece to the illusive puzzle of deception detection, affording researchers andpractitioners a possible tool to tap into deceptive intent.