People would always say to think before you act or speak. However, that might not always be applicable, as French psychologists warn people that those who pause to think before speaking are often perceived as liars.
Experiments on volunteers who watched and listened to the video and audio recordings of people answering questions in various scenarios showed that people judged slower responses as less sincere regardless of the scenario's seriousness.
Additionally, those who answered or responded longer are perceived by the volunteers as insincere. Experts said that the pause before speaking could result from the responder suppressing automatic, truthful thoughts to fabricate an answer.
The authors of the study believe that this study could be used in legal settings. Although they also think that long responses from innocent suspects may mislead a jury to think of them as insincere and guilty.
Jurors should not rely on the response speed of the defendants in court but only on the evidence presented before them. The language barrier between the interrogator and the suspect may also play a part.
Evaluating Sincerity Based on Response Speed
Dr. Ignazio Ziano at Grenoble Ecole de Management, the lead author of the study, said that "evaluating other people's sincerity is a ubiquitous and important part of social interactions." Their research is focused on how people would perceive other people's sincerity based on their response speed.
In their experiment, they asked participants to either listen to an audio snippet, watch a video, or read an account of a person responding to a simple question. In each scenario, the person being asked delayed their answers for ten seconds.
Participants rated the sincerity of the responses from 1 (not at all sincere) to 7 (very sincere). Big World Tale reported that the researchers found that the participants have consistent ratings on the responses. The participants rated less sincere to those delayed responses regardless of the question.
Other factors could reduce this effect. The researchers noted that socially undesirable answers also influenced participants. The study essentially showed that response speed could influence how to perceive others as honest or a liar.
Finding Liars In the Workplace or Other Settings
"These results can be applied to a wide range of interactions, going from workplace chit-chat to couples and friends bickering," Dr. Ziano said.
He added that it could also be used in job interviews and court hearings and trials, MailOnline reported. People in these settings are tasked to judge how sincere responders are with their words.
However, even with its major implications in the legal setting, Ziano warns that it would be unfair for the responder (crime suspect) to be misjudged if the response delay is attributed to insincerity and that thought to be suppression to fabricate lies.
On the other hand, this study could also be used in hiring applicants. Those who can answer quickly are more likely to be seen positively than those who responded slower.
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