Pathological lying and deception in psychopathic personalities : Facial expressions analysis
Résumé
Lie detection is a difficult task, though evidence suggests that success in lie detection is influenced by the ability to identify micro-expressions, brief facial emotional expressions. This study examines the relationship between the levels of psychopathic traits and emotional deception. We test the hypothesis that facial responses involved during the presentation of pictures inducing emotional states that normally accompanies the lie are impaired in psychopaths. We examine the presence and the duration of universal micro-expressions in truthful and deceptive emotional narratives. This study compares undergraduate students (N = 35) with high psychopathic traits according to the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale to low psychopathic traits. Facial measure’s analysis by an assessor in micro-expression recognition suggests that micro-expressions were exhibited by 94% of participants. In deceptive narratives only, participants with high psychopathic traits exhibited fewer facial expressions in response to pleasant and unpleasant images, compared with low psychopathic traits.