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INTERPRETING ANSWERS |
2 Pages - Page 2 |
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The following list of phrases and their interpretations should primarily be used to stimulate follow-up questions during an interview, rather than as a clear indication of lying. Some of the guidelines list as (1): the most typical interpretation, and (2): a secondary consideration. A good exercise is to monitor your own use of these phrases. After you have used one of them, ask yourself why you chose to use it and what another person could have asked you at that point during a conversation to learn more about your answer. As with all behavior symptoms, it should be remembered that there are no universal words or phrases that are always associated with truthfulness or deception and that the context in which a phrase is used is a critical assessment.
"As far as I can remember..."
"To the best of my knowledge..."
"If I recall correctly..."
"At this point in time..."
(1) I am not 100% certain of what I am saying.
(2) I am blaming my poor memory for not telling you the complete truth.
"The next thing I knew..."
"Before I knew it..."
"Eventually..."
(1) I am leaving something out of my account.
(2) This happened very quickly
"To be honest with you..."
"To tell you the truth..."
I have not been completely honest (truthful) with you up to this point (usually through omission).
"Quite frankly..."
"Quite honestly..."
(1) What I am about to tell you is only part of the truth.
"As crazy as it sounds..."
"Not to evade your question, but..."
"You probably won't believe this..."
(1) I want you to accept my response even though it is crazy, is evasive or is not believable.
"As I told the other investigator..."
"Like I wrote in my statement..."
"Earlier I told you..."
"As I previously testified..."
(1) I don't want to lie twice about this.
(2) I am frustrated having to go through this again.
"I swear on the eyes of my children..."
"I swear on my mother's grave..."
"As God is my witness..."
"You've got to believe me..."
(1)You shouldn't believe what I am about to say.
(2) You probably won't believe what I am about to say.
"I can't remember"
"I can't tell you..."
"I can't help you out."
(1) It is not in my best interest to remember, to tell you, or to help you out.
(2) Because of some reason (embarrassment, fear, anger) I don't want to talk about this.
"I probably..."
"Most likely I..."
"It would be typical for me to..."
(1) It is possible that something other than what I said in my response really happened.
"My answer would be..."
"I would have to say..."
(1) I am offering an estimation and don't know for certain.
(2) If I tell you what happened I would incriminate myself.
"I feel..."
"I believe..."
"I think..."
(1) I am offering an opinion, but have no specific proof to back up my position.
"I know..."
"I remember..."
"I heard..."
"I saw..."
(1) I am telling you something that I personally witnessed.
"I don't know"
"I don't remember"
(1) The suspect has no knowledge or memory of the event.
(2) The suspect is being guarded and does not want to expand on his answer.
"There's no doubt in my mind..."
"I'm absolutely sure..."
"I'm certain..."
"I'm positive..."
"Of course..."
(1) The suspect is accepting full responsibility for his response and is confident in it.
(2) The suspect is purposefully being too certain in his response to fend off further questions.
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