MALTREATED CHILDREN’S FACIAL EXPRESSIONS DURING DECEPTION

Abstract

Detecting deception in maltreated children has critical legal implications. Researchers have turned greater attention to developing new techniques to detect deception, as well as new interviewing methods (e.g., putative confession) to elicit children’s honesty. The current study aimed to explore the use of facial expressions in detecting deception by 4-to-9-year old maltreated children. In addition, we investigated the efficacy of putative confession in eliciting truth disclosure and how putative confession would change children’s facial expressions during deception. In this study, a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design was introduced with maltreatment status, instructional conditions (putative confession or control) and transgression condition as independent variables, and facial expressions as dependent variables. Results revealed that though maltreated children in general were more likely to display negative emotions, facial expressions cannot serve as a reliable marker of deception. Contrary to literature, putative confession is not effective in eliciting truth disclosure. The emotional implications of adopting putative confession were also discussed.