Veracity assessment: aspects of the account, the source and the judge that influence judgements of plausibility

Decades of deception detection research have revealed that people are poor lie detectors in general, hovering at chance level (Bond, C. F., & DePaulo, B. M., 2006). As well as generating considerable research effort towards establishing what does actually indicate deception, this stark finding draws attention to the need to understand how people are making these (poor) judgements. This can be broken down into a series of questions about what it is about the account given that people focus on, what it is about the individuals giving the accounts and the context in which they are giving these that influences judgement processes and finally, what it is about those making the assessments that has a bearing on the way they make decisions. Understanding the issues relevant to the judgement process offers insights as to why veracity judgements are wrong as often as they are right.