In all honesty: Study from BGSU researcher finds that telling the truth is correlated with better criminal justice outcomes

Associate sociology professor Thomas Mowen, Ph.D., found that lying behaviors proved to be an ineffective strategy in criminal justice contexts

Research from a Bowling Green State University faculty member found that one of the best strategies in the context of the criminal justice system was an old-fashioned virtue: telling the truth.

Thomas Mowen, Ph.D., an associate professor of sociology at BGSU, published a study in the journal Deviant Behavior that examined whether lying behaviors – purposely being deceitful in an attempt to gain an advantage – actually worked in the criminal justice system. 

Using a sample of emerging adults, Mowen and co-authors Amanda Heitkamp, Ph.D., and Kyle Bares, Ph.D., found that people who said they regularly participate in lying behaviors also believed they were effective at influencing others by lying. 

But Mowen found a gap in previous research.

“Lying to gain an advantage sounds really straightforward, but there’s a critical question: Does it actually work?” Mowen said. “There has not been a lot of literature about whether lying is really a good strategy.”

Mowen said he hoped the research would provide a key data point about the criminal justice system, in which many stakeholders are influenced by the prospect of lying behaviors. 

Given the high stakes of being charged with a crime and possibly incarcerated, Mowen said many stakeholders believe lying is at play in most criminal justice settings

“We say that a person is innocent until proven guilty, but in the context of the criminal justice system, if someone is on trial, there often is the perception that they are guilty,” Mowen said. “Almost everyone who is on trial says they are innocent, so there is a widespread presumption that a lot of them are lying, but we don’t often talk about it that way.”

To quantify the behavior, the research team used a sample in which participants were asked big-picture questions about what role certain behaviors played in their lives. The team then isolated questions about how frequently they lie, how much it’s part of their lifestyle and whether they lie simply for the sake of lying. 

Mowen said the group originally hypothesized that lying was similar to a skill, in which consistent repetition would lead to improvement.

After reviewing data from their sample, however, Mowen said the research team was stunned to find the opposite was true. In the case of lying behaviors, experience did not prove advantageous in the criminal justice system. 

The people who said they were skilled in the art of lying actually were far more likely to go to prison than those who were generally truthful. 

“My co-authors and I thought that the more practice you had, you would be better at it: you ought to be able to convince a judge or a jury that you’re innocent more effectively than a person who is truthful,” Mowen said. "What I found was that those folks were way more likely to go back to prison than the people who said they tended to be more honest in their interactions. That was really shocking.”

When compared to the rest of the sample size, Mowen said the data showed a strong correlation between lying behaviors and incarceration.

In the end, researchers found something of a paradox: the self-described “good liars” were in fact more likely to face negative criminal justice outcomes.

“People who think they’re better at lying – they tell more lies, and they know it – say they use lies to try to get others to do what they want them to do,” he said. “These people not only tell lies, but they believe they’re good at it. 

“Really, lying doesn’t help you at all in the criminal justice system; in fact, lying really puts you at greater risk of incarceration.”