Detecting deception through telephone sketches in an insurance setting

In the present experiment, carried out via Zoom, we examined the effect of (i) sketching and (ii) having the video turned on or off on the verbal accounts of truth tellers and lie tellers. Truth tellers reported an incident of loss, theft or accidental damage they experienced in the last 24 months, whereas lie tellers made up an incident. Half of the participants were asked to sketch the event whilst reporting it, whereas the other half did not sketch. Half of the participants were interviewed with the video turned on and the other half with the video turned off. We measured, total details, complications, plausibility and ‘it could have been worse’ (playing down the incident). We expected truth tellers to provide more total details, more complications, more ‘It could have been worse’ comments and more plausible statements than lie tellers, particularly when they sketch with the video turned off. Truth tellers provided more complications, more plausible statements and, particularly, more ‘It could have been worse’ comments than lie tellers. The sketching and video factors yielded no effects.