Credibility assessment: A multi-ethnic analysis of truth and deception

MENA Dubai 2003 Abstract

Author Michel Sabourin
Copy Deception is usually defined as an action with a deliberate intention to create in others a belief or knowledge that the deceiver knows to be untruthful. In the same sense, witness credibility refers to the will or the capacity of a person to formulate a truthful or a deceptive statement. In this presentation, we intend to examine witness credibility in a multi-ethnic situation within the context of a police interrogation. We will first examine if the verbal, non-verbal and paralinguistic qualifiers to truth and deception vary according to the ethnic origin of the speaker, i.e. the witness; then, we will verify how credibility assessment made by police officers concerning witnesses of a different ethnic origin compare with assessments made with witnesses of the same origin. In conclusion, we will compare the universality hypothesis of deception, i.e. that all deceivers whatever their cultural background or ethnic origin present the same basic reactions, with the belief that the behaviors associated with truth and deception vary according to the ethnic origin of the speaker.