Abstract

ANTA RUESGA, Juan Ángel; BRAVO MORANTE, Guillermo; GONZALEZ TORRES, Isabel  and  ILLANGUAS SANCHEZ, María. Truthfulness vs. deception: detecting verbal-bodily cues in speech. Rev. Crim. [online]. 2025, vol.67, n.2, pp.25-47.  Epub Oct 18, 2025. ISSN 1794-3108.  https://doi.org/10.47741/17943108.590.

In this study oral speeches were analysed with the aim of detecting verbal (and paraverbal) and non-verbal (bodily and facial) communication cues that would help to discriminate false speeches from truthful ones. The results of the study show that in both truthful and false speeches, certain cues are detected repeatedly and significantly. Thus, it is determined that a speech tends to be truthful when a greater number of emotions are detected facially, a greater number of congruent emotions, when fear, disgust and contempt are detected and are congruent, and when more time is spent in telling the story. Likewise, a discourse can be determined to be false when there are more incongruent emotions throughout the discourse, when facially incongruent fear and indifference are detected, when there are more empty pauses, and when there are verbal slips. This suggests that the detection of certain verbal, paraverbal, facial and bodily cues in a discourse could indicate whether that discourse is truthful or untruthful.

Keywords : Deception; emotions; non-verbal; incongruence; truthfulness.

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