Teo Degas' Books & Decks

Unlike Spy the Lie, by the same authors, Get the Truth is not as much as how to spot a lie but what and how to do to extract the truth from the person who is lying and might want or not want to confess. Or in any interpersonal exchange where two sides have conflicting agendas. It’s about the process of exerting influence to elicit truthful information from a person who has a reason to want to withhold it.

This book is not a learn-how sort of book as much as see-how-we-do-it sort of book. However, readers will learn many things about interviewing, interrogation and negotiation because of the author's long years of expertise doing what they do and, at this stage, everything they do it appears natural, genuine and easy.

The book per se finishes about half way.

The first appendix by Peter Romary, has 13 short chapters, which elaborate on the principles on which the authors' system relies, which can be applied to everyday life. Those principles of persuasion were revealed long ago by Cialdini's classic book on influence and persuasion, mostly based on how to exploit human biases to get what we want: optimism bias, confirmation bias, the power of liking somebody and wanting to be liked, the consistency bias, the power of sharing experiences and bonding, the principle of reciprocity, among others. If you have read the classic by Ciadini, you will find that what Romary says is basically Cialdini applied to specific contexts. If you have never heard or read Cialdini's classic, this is a great approach to the principles on which persuasion, the effective one, feeds. In any way, they are useful because sometimes those principles can be used against us or we can be blind-sided by them. This appendix also includes a discussion of the five states of successful negotiation, which I found really helpful for daily life, with great advice about being fair, non-confrontational, respectful and sincere. It also advises on how to deal with the cognitive dissonance of criminals and untruthful people by keeping them in short-thinking mode, and using rationalisation, minimalisation and socialisation, and by setting a pace that is slow but steady with non-coercive questions, then the other person will 'cross the bridge' to your side when they are ready; not being judgemental, being kind and friendly, speaking calmly. Understanding what motivates one person, most wants or fears, make the other person feel comfortable and not judged, genuinely consider all viewpoints and don't be a win-at-all-costs person. 

The second appendix, also by Romary, is just a reminder of how important is preparation and practice to get good at getting the truth. You need to understand the background (ideological, religious, political) of the person you are interrogating, or negotiating with. Romary mentions where to get information about anybody, both in public and private records and online media. Most of what he says is simplistic and nothing you don't already know, and nothing that deserves an appendix.

The third appendix is a transcript of the actual interview with O.J. Simpson, whose interrogation is mentioned and used throughout the book to exemplify good and bad interrogation techniques.

BIG YAIS
A good summary of some of the points discussed in the book can be found in the boxed summary 'lessons we have learned', pp. 144-148.

One of the main points that the authors make is that to get a confession you don't need to be coercitive, aggressive, violent or use torture, because that would hardly get you the truth. Most of chapter 13, the elefant in the room, is full of great sound advise and  makes great points on why does not work, and where do you draw the line.

The book also has a glossary and an subject index, which, to my delight, is hyperlinked.

DOWNSIDES

If you have read Spy the Lie, you will find that some of the examples, real-life cases, described there are also repeated here. They are lovely to read, but I would have appreciated them bringing something new to the table. 

Although the authors advise being genuine and sincere, they advise something I consider unethical. For example,

But coming across as sincere is absolutely essential, and accomplishing that sometimes forces you to lie, especially when feeling any sense of genuine sympathy is simply impossible. (p. 46).

Also, in the first appendix, Romary says : 

"There is no such thing as a human lie detector"  (p. 14).

I cannot believe that a book that is so packed with information is also one of the most entertaining books I've read lately.

Three ex-CIA agents, now working privately with information and methods that were unclassified in 1996 (and so they can be taught and shared) spill the beans on the system they apply to detect lies. This method, called L-Square Mode System, works by observing what 'the suspect' says, does and reacts, and by learning to make the right kind of questions to spot deceiving behaviour. It all comes down to body language, congruency in speech and behaviour within the subject's own idiosyncrasy. It also come down to being aware of our self-defeating beliefs and limitations  to spot a lie: the belief that people will not lie to us, and are innocent until proved  guilty, the reliance on behavioural myths, the complexity of communication, our own biases, the 'global' influence, and how smart we think we are.

The system relies on getting clusters of deceiving information, not just individual clues. However, one of the most surprising statements in their method to me is that if we can identify the first deceiving behaviour (verbal or non-verbal) in the first 5 seconds (yes, seconds!) we can reasonable conclude that that behaviour is directly linked with the stimulus. (p. 31). And, of course, the higher the number of deceiving behaviours exhibited by a person, the most likelihood of deception.

One of the most important things to keep in mind when applying this system is that its virtue relies on its simplicity, that deceiving clues do not always equal deceit or a lie, that the system is not bullet-proof, that the more we practise the better we get at it, and part of the success depends on obtaining information in a non-confrontational non-judgemental non-aggressive way. The authors have successfully applied this system for years, and once we go through the book and see some of their examples (especially the long transcript and examination in appendix 2), you will notice that you can, too, start spotting deceiving behaviour.

The book has a glossary with simple explanations of all the specialised terms the authors use throughout this work. I always appreciate the effort when electronic books have the index properly hyperlinked, which is the case here.

The main downside of the book is that is not particularly didactic if you want a step-by+step sort of book. Some of the things that prevent the book from being more user- friendly are:
> I usually love end of chapters' summaries or key points, as they are really useful bits to go back when one wants to re-read a book. Oddly enough, some of those summaries are placed in the middle of a page, interrupting the narration and some of them not directly related to what's immediately said.
> The amount of information and types of questions they offer can be complicated because they are called in a certain way, and because they all involve different and dynamic approaches that vary depending on how the subject of interest reacts. Why not creating a cheat-sheet scheme to have it at hand?
> I would have loved a section with exercises for us to practise, with hidden solutions at the end of the book. Just a suggestion!
> Some of the statements about body language are familiar to me, but it would have been really useful having some figures or photos with some of those mentioned in the book.

Overall this a fascinating book that left me wanting to know more and dig deeper. I find it very useful to unleash your inner Matahari or inner Bond, get a gist of the approach to interrogation that Intelligence and law-enforcement agencies use, and most importantly, provides readers with tools to use it with family, friends and co-workers to obtain true information or spot deceiving behaviour.