BLI President on CNN: Balloon Boy and Family
Posted on 10/23/09
Janine Driver, President of The Body Language Institute, was on CNN News Saturday, Oct. 17 between 5:30pm and 6:00pm discussing the young boy in the balloon hoax. Below is a short update from CNN and two video links of the family’s interviews.
Below are the comments that she sent to CNN:
(CNN) — After scouring northern Colorado by foot and air, frantically chasing a Mylar balloon for miles and repeatedly interviewing his big brother, authorities ended the search for 6-year-old Falcon Heene where it began — at his house.
6-year-old Falcon Heene says he was hiding in a box in the attic while authorities were searching for him.
He was in a box. In the attic. The whole time.
“I played with my toys and took a nap,” Falcon told a group of reporters outside his home Thursday afternoon.
“He says he was hiding in the attic,” said Falcon’s father, meteorologist Richard Heene, clutching his son. “He says it’s because I yelled at him.”
“I’m sorry I yelled at him,” added Heene, tearfully hugging the boy.
In a later interview with CNN’s “Larry King Live,” Falcon said he heard his parents call for him from the garage.
When asked by his father on-air why he didn’t respond, the boy replied, “You guys said we did this for the show.”
When the father was pressed by Wolf Blitzer, who was filling in for King, to explain what his son meant, he became uncomfortable, finally saying he was “appalled” by the questions, and then adding that Falcon was likely referring to all the media coverage.
First Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI6UONWCq7A (when the little boy speaks about “the show”)
49-51 second in – Dad takes HUGE breath. He is exasperated. Many criminals take a deep breathe once evidence is presented to them that they are involved in the crime
106 -Interviewer: “Why didn’t Falcon come out of the garage at that point?” The dad responds by avoiding the question. This is commonly called a “stalling technique.” It buys the deceptive person time to create an answer.
147-160 – Interviewer: “Did you think it was possible that Falcon was hiding and not in the balloon?” – The mother avoids answering the question and begins telling us all the places she looked.
153-214 – When the mother speaker she begins rubbing her left hand on her left leg. This is called a “manipulator.” They increase when we are under stress. The majority of behavioral signs manifest themselves as a result of a physiological process within the body as a reaction to mental stimulants (i.e. questions). When someone is being deceptive, tension is increased and they show signs of instability. Their anxiety level increases and they attempt to reduce the tension by letting off energy. This energy is usually detected through the observation of various non-verbal signs, such as, fidgeting, change in body position, excessive talking, blinking, and so on.
Second Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxtFXtiUbbw
32-137 – Interviewer: “You want to ask Falcon, why he said, ‘We did this for the show?’” The dad stalls with long pauses and then has the interviewer repeat the question. After being asked the question, he then responded by saying “Could you please repeat the question?” This gives the appearance he did not hear the question. Was he really seeking clarification or stalling for time?
In detecting deception we should: Look for signs of thinking that they should not need to do and be patient and give the individual a chance to reveal themselves. The more they talk, the more likely that they will make a mistake that you can pick-up on. In the end the dad didn’t ask his son the question, instead the dad skirts around the truth.
GENERAL QUESTIONS:
NORMING: Without getting someone’s baseline behavior, also called “norming,” it would be nearly impossible to determine if the person being interviewed is lying. As a matter of fact, detecting deception often stumps the most experienced investigators, police officers, judges, customs officials and other forensic professionals. Research has shown that even agents from the FBI, CIA and Drug Enforcement Agency do not do much better than chance in telling liars from truth-tellers.
LOOKING FOR CLUSTERS: It is important to remember that behavioral signs by themselves may have no specific meaning. They must be observed in groupings or clusters and as a sign or behavior in connection with a verbal response to a question.
CAN YOU BECOME A BETTER LIAR BY PRACTICING?: Most people can successfully lie to anyone if they practice the lie long enough. However, when asked questions to justify the lie, they must create an answer rather than recall from memory. This is where most liars are caught.
STORY BREAKDOWN: All stories have a beginning, during and after. All stories will start with a staging for the event. Normally truthful stories have 25% beginning, 50% during, 25% after. Look at the ending. If the ending is short, this is an indication of deception. The key is a truthful story will have a significant ending comprised of about 25% of the entire story. The incident segment of a deceptive story will be less the 25% of the entire story.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/10/17/nr.body.language.cnn?iref=videosearch
