Who can Best Catch a Liar? A Meta-Analysis of Individual Differences in Detecting Deception‪.‬

Abstract A meta-analysis was conducted to determine if there were individual differences in the ability to detect deception. On the basis of 108 studies covering 16,537 subjects, the results indicated that confidence (r = .05, K = 58, N = 6,315), age (r = -.03, K = 72, N = 2,025), experience (r = -.08, K = 13, N = 1,163), education (r = .03, K = 4, N = 522), and sex (d = -.03, K = 53, N = 6,023) were not significantly related to accuracy in detecting deception. The study also found that "professional lie catchers" such as police officers, detectives, judges, and psychologists (M = 55.51%, N = 2,685) were no more accurate at detecting deception than were students and other citizens (M = 54.22%, N = 11,647). There were not enough available studies to investigate the relationship between personality dimensions and accuracy in detecting deception.