Spy the Lie: Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Detect Deception

by Philip Houston

SELECTIVE MEMORY. When a person says, “I don’t remember,” that’s a difficult statement to refute without some definitive, tangible evidence. It’s a psychological alibi, and it’s a hard alibi to crack. Another problem with selective memory is that it can easily be legitimate. Suppose you ask the CEO of a corporation of twenty-five thousand people, “Has anyone in your company committed fraud in the last twelve months?” If he responds with a resolute “No,” that would be somewhat odd, because he probably would have no way of really knowing that. A more reasonable response would be, “Not to my knowledge,” a response that in other situations could raise a red flag. If you had asked the CEO if he had engaged in any fraudulent activity in the last twelve months and you got that response, you’d clearly have a situation on your hands that you’d need to pursue. So, context is especially important when identifying this particular behavior.