Logo image
Back
Police, personality and the ability to deceive
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Police, personality and the ability to deceive

Monica Semrad and Bridie Scott-Parker
International Journal of Police Science & Management, Vol.22(1), pp.50-61
2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461355719880568
url
https://doi.org/10.1177/1461355719880568View
Published Version

Abstract

Criminology Policy and Administration Law Enforcement lie production police selection tests personality traits individual differences lying undercover
Effectiveness as an undercover operative or human source (informant) handler relies on the believability of police in fictious roles, yet the use of deception by law enforcement in covert fields of policing and criminal interviews remains relatively underexplored in the literature. Moreover, selection processes for these critical police roles do not currently include a test of deception ability. This study investigates the lie production and truth production ability of 50 Australian police officers-in-training by comparing their results on a game of deception with their personality traits as tested by the HEXACO-PI-R-100 item version, the Short-D3 and the MSCEIT. Results indicate that sex, age, dark triad traits and emotional intelligence have no relationship with either truth or lie production. HEXACO results indicate low social self-esteem was related to high lie production ability. Further research is needed to explore extraversion, social skills, and confidence as they relate to the credibility of a 'storyteller'.

Details

Metrics

84 Record Views
Article has an altmetric score of 1

See more details

41 readers on Mendeley
Logo image