Lying about flying: the first experiment to detect false intent

This article reports the results of, to our knowledge, the first ever experiment to investigate lying about intentions. Sixty passengers in an airport departure hall told the truth or lied about their forthcoming trip in an interview that comprised nine questions. The interviews were transcribed and raters coded the amount of detail in, and the plausibility of, the answers. Raters also coded whether the transcripts included contradictions and spontaneous corrections. Liars’ answers were less plausible than truth tellers’ answers but did not differ in terms of detail. Liars also included more contradictions and fewer spontaneous corrections in their answers. A total of 72% of truth tellers and 74% of liars were detected on the basis of these variables. We discuss the implications of the findings together with the limitations of the experiment and ideas for future research.