RT Article
T1 The Verifiability Approach to detection of malingered physical symptoms
JF Psychology, crime & law
VO 23
IS 8
SP 717
OP 729
A1 Boskovic, Irena
A1 Merckelbach, Harald 1959-
A1 Vrij, Aldert 1960-
A1 Bogaard, Glynis
A1 Hope, Lorraine
LA English
YR 2017
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1736000411
AB Inspired by recent research showing that liars are reluctant to include verifiable details in their accounts, we explored in two studies (N = 125; N = 105) whether participants who report fabricated symptoms (‘malingerers’) present fewer verifiable details than participants who report genuine ill-health symptoms. In Study 1, participants were instructed to describe a typical day on which they had experienced a genuine or malingered symptom. Truth tellers’ statements included significantly higher proportions of verifiable details concerning the reported symptoms than malingerers’ statements. Compared with truth tellers, malingerers generated longer statements with more unverifiable details. In Study 2, we informed participants that their statements may be assessed for verifiable or checkable details. Malingerers often mentioned ‘false’ witnesses to provide checkable information and differences between malingerers and truth tellers in statement length, and checkable and uncheckable details were no longer significant. The utility and implications of the Verifiability Approach to detection of malingering are discussed.
K1 Verifiability Approach
K1 Detection of deception
K1 Malingering
K1 Physical symptoms
K1 Symptoms report
DO 10.1080/1068316X.2017.1302585