Verbal lie detection

Verbal lie detection has a long history. Around 900 b.c. a papyrus of the Vedas mentioned that a poisoner ‘does not answer questions, or gives evasive answers; he speaks nonsense’ (Trovillo, 1939, p. 849). In the 1850s the French forensic expert Tardieu reported that ‘quantity of detail’ needs to be considered in children’s alleged sexual abuse cases (Lamers-Winkelman, 1999), and in 1886 the American forensic medical doctor Walker noted that in alleged child sexual abuse cases, in contrast to physical examinations, the way in which children tell their stories in their own words and the expressions they use are amongst the best cues to distinguish truth from deception (see Lamers-Winkelman, 1999).