Publication Name: Current Research In Social Psychology
Date: 10 June 2009
Title of Article: Indirect Detection Of Deception: Looking For Change.

1. What is the target population of this study? * I think that the target population is everyone. I mean obviously some people (lawyers, judges, juries, teachers, parents, etc.) would benefit more from this study than others, but I still believe that everyone can benefit from this study. 2. Who are the subjects? * “Participants were 104 (53males, 51 females) undergraduate students at a small coeducational university in the southern United States” (Hart pg. 5). They all were picked from psychology classes and each participant was given extra credit for doing this. Their socioeconomic background, ethnic background and geographical locations were not included in the information. I have no clue why they weren’t included; maybe they felt it didn’t matter. I think not knowing much about their background has a huge effect on the study. Depending on how they grew up (morals, values, etc.), what kind of family they had, all of that could depend on their lying ability or even if they lie. 3. Are the subject’s representatives of the target population? Why or why not? * No. I believe no because all they asked are students. More people in the world lie or even would benefit from this study rather than just students. They didn’t go to a court house or a PTA meeting or anything. I’m not sure why they didn’t choose to do it that way because even in their stimulus they chose a variety of ages. They used people between the ages of 19 to 61. That would be more beneficial, so I’m not sure why they did it for the stimulus and not for the actual study. 4. What is the independent variable? * The independent variable is the direct lie detection and the indirect lie detection. To see which group is able to detect whether people are being truthful or lying. Although they didn’t make it very clear. 5. What is the dependent variable? * The dependent variable is “their ability to accurately distinguish between liars and non-liars” and also “how the two groups differed in their ability to classify truthful responses” (Hart pg. 6). 6. What is the conclusion of this article? * In the first test (accurately distinguish between liars and non-liars) showed that people in the indirect detection group were more accurate about seeing that people lied and they had more confidence in their decisions. In the second test results (ability to classify truthful responses) there were very small differences in their abilities and also no real difference in confident levels. 7. For whom are these results important? * Psychologists (on if their patients are lying or not and perhaps specifically what they are lying about), Physicians (maybe for the same reason as psychologists), teachers (to be able to see if anything is wrong with their students or to see about who’s lying about a fight), police officers(in order to break a fight up or in a domestic violence case, etc. they might find it helpful to see who’s telling the truth), lawyers(to see if their clients are lying), parents(to see if and when their children are lying), I think are the groups of people that I believe would benefit from this study the most. 8. What statistical analyses were used to draw the conclusion? * For the first results (ability to accurately distinguish between liars and non-liars) they used the t-test. In the second set of results they used a similar set of analyses (I’m assuming just like the t-test). 9. Is this a good study from which to draw a conclusion? If yes, why? If not, why not? * I say that this isn’t a good study in the first place and especially not one to get a conclusion (or at least a good helpful one). I don’t think so because the participants are psychology students (which not only limits the age of the target population that this would benefit) but also everyone else who aren’t psychology students. Also, the participants weren’t really willing to do this study. They all got extra credit for doing this. So by getting extra credit in exchange for them doing this, the whole study needs to be thrown out and done over. 10. How can you use, either personally or professionally, the information in this article? * I don’t believe that I could use this information personally or professionally. Just because I think that the people who participated didn’t do it willingly, they did it for an alternative motive. Therefore, I think the results and the study are invalid and can’t be trusted. If this study was done again and certain things were changed, I would use this study. Using it for my patients to see if they are lying to me or not and also for my fellow nurses or even to use on doctors I think would be helpful. Especially since I want to work in the psychology aspect of nursing, I think it can only help. Personally I think it would be great to have this information. I would be able to lie well to my family, haha. Just kidding. I would be able to tell who is lying in my family and friends and maybe change that.