Research Article

Is the Truth in Your Words? Distinguishing Children’s Deceptive and Truthful Statements

Table 1

The mean frequency (standard deviation) of the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count categories by narrative type.

Dimension ExampleLieTrue
YoungerOlderAdultsYoungerOlderAdults

Word count78.56 (48.55) 142.53 (96.72) 300.53 (126.45)112.6 (88.59)110.21 (55.77)304.57 (109.45)
Words per sentence 9.97 (6.37) 19.20 (13.30) 55.45 (46.87) 23.56 (24.36)16.77 (6.91) 29.27 (11.89)
Words longer than six letters11.20 (6.78) 7.54 (2.82) 10.92 (2.37)8.63 (5.14)8.87 (3.86)10.66 (1.98)
Unique60.85 (12.73)55.75 (14.18) 46.16 (6.03)54.37 (20.60)57.97 (15.09)45.49 (5.51)
First person singularI, my10.41 (5.09) 7.44 (4.65) 6.12 (2.71)6.72 (3.19)6.13 (2.22)5.84 (3.41)
First person pluralWe, us 00.92 (1.96) 5.38 (4.70) 3.01 (2.22)5.79 (5.10)4.32 (3.20)3.16 (2.70)
Total self-referencesI, we10.22 (5.31) 11.56 (4.97) 9.13 (2.40)12.06 (3.75)10.46 (3.31)9.00 (2.24)
Second person pronounsYou, your0.00 (0.00)−0.67 (1.22) 0.57 (0.65)0.53 (1.69)0.60 (1.43)0.37 (0.58)
Third person pronounsShe, their3.38 (3.77)1.51 (1.52) 1.9 (1.43)1.38 (2.43)1.13 (1.47)2.06 (1.59)
Positive emotionsHappy, pretty0.48 (0.80)1.16 (1.73)2.01 (1.36)0.58 (0.73)1.76 (1.62)1.87 (1.07)
Negative emotionsHate, enemy0.57 (0.61)1.03 (0.48)0.87 (0.92)0.08 (0.22)0.08 (0.22)1.05 (0.91)
Cognitive processesKnow, ought3.8 (2.62)2.17 (1.44)5.92 (1.91)1.89 (1.84)2.82 (1.89)5.63 (2.14)
Discrepancy termsShould, would0.29 (0.57)0.28 (0.44)1.79 (0.99)0.60 (0.78)0.99 (1.61)1.61 (1.01)
Tentative termsMaybe, guess1.10 (2.55)0.36 (0.65)2.78 (0.65)0.97 (1.23)1.26 (1.09)2.39 (1.41)
Sensory/perceptual processesSee, touch1.72 (1.47) 1.48 (1.07)1.52 (1.15)0.80 (1.02)1.56 (1.21)1.34 (0.99)
TimeHour, day3.89 (4.02)4.82 (3.12)3.96 (1.74)4.21 (4.70)4.15 (2.66)4.17 (1.81)
SpaceAround, over3.43 (3.70)4.50 (2.50)4.29 (1.25 )6.79 (5.19)5.79 (3.23)4.26 (1.60)
ExclusiveBut, without1.48 (1.60)2.00 (1.80) 3.61 (1.25)2.67 (2.32)3.50 (2.93)3.93 (1.37)
MotionWalk, move 3.12 (2.14) 4.26 (2.97)3.39 (1.49)4.42 (2.52)3.67 (2.56)3.94 (0.95)
CertaintyAlways, never 0.24 (0.53)0.53 (0.73)2.75 (1.51)0.26 (0.62)0.53 (0.80)2.47 (1.00)