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It is well documented that lying during interviews takes up more cognitive energy than telling the truth. A new study by the University of Portsmouth found that investigators who used this finding to their advantage by asking a suspect to carry out an additional, secondary, task while being questioned were more likely to expose lie tellers. The extra brain power needed to concentrate on a secondary task (other than lying) was particularly challenging for lie tellers.
[...] "Our research has shown that truths and lies can sound equally plausible as long as lie tellers are given a good opportunity to think what to say. When the opportunity to think becomes less, truths often sound more plausible than lies. Lies sounded less plausible than truths in our experiment, particularly when the interviewees also had to carry out a secondary task and were told that this task was important."
[...] Professor Vrij said: "The pattern of results suggests that the introduction of secondary tasks in an interview could facilitate lie detection but such tasks need to be introduced carefully. It seems that a secondary task will only be effective if lie tellers do not neglect it. This can be achieved by either telling interviewees that the secondary task is important, as demonstrated in this experiment, or by introducing a secondary task that cannot be neglected (such as gripping an object, holding an object into the air, or driving a car simulator). Secondary tasks that do not fulfil these criteria are unlikely to facilitate lie detection."
So if you think your significant other is hiding something from you, grill them when they're driving a car.
Journal Reference:
Aldert Vrij et al., The Effects of a Secondary Task on True and False Opinion Statements [open], Int J Psychol Behav Anal, 8, 2022
DOI: 10.15344/2455-3867/2022/185
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Saturday May 14 2022, @11:42AM (5 children)
(Score: 4, Informative) by helel on Saturday May 14 2022, @01:19PM (1 child)
That is not how ADHD works.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Saturday May 14 2022, @06:17PM
I imagine the interrogation scenario could work either way. It might reduce liar tells of the interrogation, if the secondary task eases the ADHD needs, or make things worse. I can see it going either way.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @05:08PM (2 children)
ADHD doesn't do that. ADHD is a lack of control over where the focus goes, not ability to focus. It gives a near super power to focus on something, just not typically the something that you want to be focused on.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday May 14 2022, @06:05PM (1 child)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @10:03PM
It is totally about focus, but I feel like there is something to your anecdote. Switching tasks more often might keep an ADHD brain engaged just by the novelty of different tasks. Will stop working if each task becomes boring and their brain switches to avoudance.