title: Finding a needle in a haystack: toward a psychologically informed method for aviation security screening.
abstract: Current aviation security systems identify behavioral indicators of deception to assess risks to flights, but they lack a strong psychological basis or empirical validation. We present a new method that tests the veracity of passenger accounts. In an in vivo double-blind randomized-control trial conducted in international airports, security agents detected 66% of deceptive passengers using the veracity test method compared with less than 5% using behavioral indicator recognition. As well as revealing advantages of veracity testing over behavioral indicator identification, the study provides the highest levels to date of deception detection in a realistic setting where the known base rate of deceptive individuals is low.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology.
authors.forename: Thomas C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Ormerod
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Wolverhampton.
authors.forename: Coral J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Dando
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D059028:Airports; D003617:Dangerous Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008014:Lie Detection; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012449:Safety; D012637:Security Measures; D012919:Social Behavior