When people plagiarize other people’s written work e.g., copying or paraphrasing something that another person wrote without acknowledging that it is their intellectual property etc., they usually embellish, aggrandize and enhance their “version”.
Rarely do they simplify and shorten the original. They try to disguise what they are doing by being more rather than less verbose i.e., they add rather than subtract. The idea that those who engage in deception often talk excessively has been known for a long time.
The Hebrew Bible in the book of proverbs (written around 700 BC) has the verse, “When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.” (Proverbs 10:19) i.e., those who lie extend and add to their testimony.
The knowledge that those who engage in deception talk/write too much is nothing new and has been understood/known for a long time. Those who engage in deception do this for a number of reasons (possibly more than just one), and it is worth examining some of these below, to understand why “Too Much Information” can be an indication of deception.
Deception & Overcompensation
Those who engage in deception often believe that the more information and facts that they present, the more truthful and accurate their account will appear.
If we look at Mike’s statement it is loaded with a lot of unverifiable background information, about his car, college friends, a road trip etc. Another signal that can indicate deception is correction and over-correction of minor facts. In his statement he corrects the length of time that he hasn’t seen his college friends i.e., “I’ve been planning the trip with some college friends who I haven’t seen in three years, no actually, it’s probably five”.
Those who engage in deception may correct themselves concerning trivial/irrelevant details in order to convey the impression that their goal is to be accurate and therefore truthful.
Someone engaged in deception will try to predict how their story/narrative will be interpreted, questioned and scrutinized. Rather than wait for such a process to happen naturally through normal conversation, such as you possibly asking why they need this car maintenance manual they try to get ahead and answer your question before you have an opportunity to ask it.
Their over-explanation is an attempt to close potential loopholes that they may catch themselves out with later. They may also repeat things, making repetitive statements, restating things in order to reinforce credibility i.e., believing that the more someone hears something the more likely they are to believe it to be true.
Deception & Distraction
Another reason why “Too Much Information” may be an indication of deception is that the bombardment of irrelevant facts can be a distraction that shifts the attention from the core issue of what they actually want, lessening its significance.
Whilst you are processing all the tangential and anecdotal information that has been presented to you, you are not asking the most important question i.e., why has your partner’s best friend turned up unexpectedly at your house asking for a book that you’ve never heard of/been told about.
By talking anecdotally about college friends, a holiday road trip, car troubles etc., Mike may be trying to build a rapport with you and get you to see him as a person that you have things in common with e.g., who hasn’t had car problems at some point in their lives? Who hasn’t got friends/college friends they haven’t seen in a while, and wouldn’t it be good to catch up with them?
He may hope that by engaging more with a narrative/story you the listener will focus on his personality rather than taking the time to scrutinize his words.
Deception & Cognitive Load
Engaging in deception takes more mental effort than telling the truth. Someone engaged in deception has to:
1. Create a plausible/believable false narrative
2. Remember this plausible/believable false narrative in order to maintain consistency
3. Monitor the listeners’ reaction to the false narrative
This increases the “load” or “demand” on cognitive processes, which can result in impairing a person’s self-monitoring, causing the deceiver to lose track of how much they’re actually talking.
They may also try to fill in the gaps of a conversation because they feel threatened by the “silence”.
Silence gives the person listening to the narrative the opportunity to question it, and this is something that someone who is engaged in deception obviously wants to avoid. This means that silence can be used as a “tool” for identifying deception e.g., if you don’t respond to something that someone is saying, do they try to fill that gap with more information i.e., do they appear overly eager to get you to believe what they are saying etc.
Deception & Statement Structure
Looking at statement structure is more easily done when looking at written rather than verbal statements, however by asking a simple question about where/how the “main event” happens in someone’s narrative can help us detect deception.
In Mike’s account the main event is him wanting to pick up a car maintenance manual in order to fix/repair the car i.e., that is why he has come to the house. Where the main event – what does the person’s narrative actually want to achieve - occurs in a statement can indicate deception.
In a truthful statement a person normally leads with a short introduction/beginning, gets quickly to the main event, and then ends with a short closing statement etc. Deceptive statements tend to bury the main event, either with a long introduction, or an introduction, which has as much weight and detail as the main event.
A truthful statement has few tangential statements (those which head off in a different direction/aren’t relevant to the main event), that distract from the main event, generally lack verbosity and don’t contain repetitive statements.
Deception Conclusion
Those that regularly engage in deception – such as sexual predators who use deception to target individuals, and use it to deny/deflect attention from themselves after committing their offenses – know the urban myths around detecting deception e.g., they know that most people have been told that someone who is engaged in deception will avoid eye-contact, and so they will look you squarely in the eyes, when they lie to you.
However, there are some things which they find very difficult to avoid and one of these is talking too much, and this should be a warning sign that we look out for. On its own it may not signal harmful intent, as it could be nervousness etc., however when it is combined with other warning signals we should take note.