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Speech timing cues reveal deceptive speech in social deduction board games

The faculty of language allows humans to state falsehoods in their choice of words. However, while what is said might easily uphold a lie, how it is said may reveal deception. Hence, some features of the voice that are difficult for liars to control may keep speech mostly, if not always, honest. Pre...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zhang, Ziyun, McGettigan, Carolyn, Belyk, Michel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8836341/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35148352
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263852
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author Zhang, Ziyun
McGettigan, Carolyn
Belyk, Michel
author_facet Zhang, Ziyun
McGettigan, Carolyn
Belyk, Michel
author_sort Zhang, Ziyun
collection PubMed
description The faculty of language allows humans to state falsehoods in their choice of words. However, while what is said might easily uphold a lie, how it is said may reveal deception. Hence, some features of the voice that are difficult for liars to control may keep speech mostly, if not always, honest. Previous research has identified that speech timing and voice pitch cues can predict the truthfulness of speech, but this evidence has come primarily from laboratory experiments, which sacrifice ecological validity for experimental control. We obtained ecologically valid recordings of deceptive speech while observing natural utterances from players of a popular social deduction board game, in which players are assigned roles that either induce honest or dishonest interactions. When speakers chose to lie, they were prone to longer and more frequent pauses in their speech. This finding is in line with theoretical predictions that lying is more cognitively demanding. However, lying was not reliably associated with vocal pitch. This contradicts predictions that increased physiological arousal from lying might increase muscular tension in the larynx, but is consistent with human specialisations that grant Homo sapiens sapiens an unusual degree of control over the voice relative to other primates. The present study demonstrates the utility of social deduction board games as a means of making naturalistic observations of human behaviour from semi-structured social interactions.
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spelling pubmed-88363412022-02-12 Speech timing cues reveal deceptive speech in social deduction board games Zhang, Ziyun McGettigan, Carolyn Belyk, Michel PLoS One Research Article The faculty of language allows humans to state falsehoods in their choice of words. However, while what is said might easily uphold a lie, how it is said may reveal deception. Hence, some features of the voice that are difficult for liars to control may keep speech mostly, if not always, honest. Previous research has identified that speech timing and voice pitch cues can predict the truthfulness of speech, but this evidence has come primarily from laboratory experiments, which sacrifice ecological validity for experimental control. We obtained ecologically valid recordings of deceptive speech while observing natural utterances from players of a popular social deduction board game, in which players are assigned roles that either induce honest or dishonest interactions. When speakers chose to lie, they were prone to longer and more frequent pauses in their speech. This finding is in line with theoretical predictions that lying is more cognitively demanding. However, lying was not reliably associated with vocal pitch. This contradicts predictions that increased physiological arousal from lying might increase muscular tension in the larynx, but is consistent with human specialisations that grant Homo sapiens sapiens an unusual degree of control over the voice relative to other primates. The present study demonstrates the utility of social deduction board games as a means of making naturalistic observations of human behaviour from semi-structured social interactions. Public Library of Science 2022-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8836341/ /pubmed/35148352 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263852 Text en © 2022 Zhang et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Zhang, Ziyun
McGettigan, Carolyn
Belyk, Michel
Speech timing cues reveal deceptive speech in social deduction board games
title Speech timing cues reveal deceptive speech in social deduction board games
title_full Speech timing cues reveal deceptive speech in social deduction board games
title_fullStr Speech timing cues reveal deceptive speech in social deduction board games
title_full_unstemmed Speech timing cues reveal deceptive speech in social deduction board games
title_short Speech timing cues reveal deceptive speech in social deduction board games
title_sort speech timing cues reveal deceptive speech in social deduction board games
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8836341/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35148352
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263852
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