Magdalene Ng: ‘Please Come Home, I Miss You’ (But Killed You): Verbal Analysis of Genuine and Deceptive Television ‘Missing or Murdered Relatives’ Cases

Duration: 16 mins 23 secs

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Created:	2015-09-28 16:20
Collection:	Decepticon 2015
Publisher:	University of Cambridge
Copyright:	Dr S. Van der Zee
Language:	eng (English)
Keywords:	Deception;


Abstract:	Narratives of 39 high-stakes television appeals cases from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were explored to establish honest and deceptive appeal cues. 33 variables were constructed from these narratives and analysed using Smallest Space Analysis. Results revealed different patterns of frequencies for genuine and false appealers. These narrative content differences can be attributed to underlying psychological and social preoccupations of these appealers. New verbal cues to honesty and deception were discovered; genuine appealers are significantly more likely to to take an Active stance in their appeals, to cooperate with their community, more likely to express their emotions or mental state, to talk about the victim in the present tense, whether they are missing or dead and adhere to higher agencies. Supporting previous research, they are more likely to express hope, and to be more emotionally positive. False appealers are significantly more likely to divulge that they were present at or close to the time of event when their relative went missing or died, to verbally repudiate that they have killed their relative or been in any way culpable, and declare the infamous ‘I didn’t do it’, and state conditional clauses regarding victim. To the best of the current researchers’ knowledge, none of these deceptive cues have been previously detected in a high stakes sample within the context of television appeals. Genuine appealers appear to have more of a narrative structure or a set of structures, whereas false appealers do not rely on a typical narrative structure other than to remain Passive (88.2%) in their appeal narratives. Variables that never occur for both groups are also of note. For Genuine cases, variables that never occur (% frequency) are swearing, conditional clauses regarding victim, helplessness, ‘somebody must be scared or guilty’, and ‘I didn’t do it’. For False cases, the variables that never occur are mention of religion, hope, miss and imagining the victim. Correspondence to grief theories, loss responses and malingering is further discussed.

Abstract:

Narratives of 39 high-stakes television appeals cases from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were explored to establish honest and deceptive appeal cues. 33 variables were constructed from these narratives and analysed using Smallest Space Analysis. Results revealed different patterns of frequencies for genuine and false appealers. These narrative content differences can be attributed to underlying psychological and social preoccupations of these appealers. New verbal cues to honesty and deception were discovered; genuine appealers are significantly more likely to to take an Active stance in their appeals, to cooperate with their community, more likely to express their emotions or mental state, to talk about the victim in the present tense, whether they are missing or dead and adhere to higher agencies. Supporting previous research, they are more likely to express hope, and to be more emotionally positive. False appealers are significantly more likely to divulge that they were present at or close to the time of event when their relative went missing or died, to verbally repudiate that they have killed their relative or been in any way culpable, and declare the infamous ‘I didn’t do it’, and state conditional clauses regarding victim. To the best of the current researchers’ knowledge, none of these deceptive cues have been previously detected in a high stakes sample within the context of television appeals. Genuine appealers appear to have more of a narrative structure or a set of structures, whereas false appealers do not rely on a typical narrative structure other than to remain Passive (88.2%) in their appeal narratives. Variables that never occur for both groups are also of note. For Genuine cases, variables that never occur (% frequency) are swearing, conditional clauses regarding victim, helplessness, ‘somebody must be scared or guilty’, and ‘I didn’t do it’. For False cases, the variables that never occur are mention of religion, hope, miss and imagining the victim. Correspondence to
grief theories, loss responses and malingering is further discussed.

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