Biography

I was awarded my PhD in 1991 at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and came to the UK in 1994, when I joined the Psychology Department as a Senior Lecturer. In 1996 I was promoted to Reader and in 2000 to my current position: Professor of Applied Social Psychology.

Research interests

My main research interest is deception, resulting in more than 600 publications and more than 30,000 citations. I received grants from British Research Councils, Trusts and Foundations, Insurers, Federal Bureau of Investigation and American, British, Dutch, and Singapore Governments, totalling > $11,500,000.

I work closely with practitioners (police, security services and insurers) in terms of conducting research and disseminating its findings. My book Detecting Lies and Deceit: Pitfalls and Opportunities (published by Wiley) is a comprehensive overview of research into (non)verbal and physiological deception and lie detection.

In 2016 I received the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group (iiiRG) Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of my significant contribution to investigative interviewing. 

Research outputs

2025

Impacts of physical and testimonial evidence on South Korean police interrogator’s selection of tactics

Jang, M., Luke, T. J., Granhag, P. A., Vrij, A., Woohyun, L.

6 Jan 2025, In: Psychiatry, Psychology and Law

Research output: Article

“Tell me about your trip”: Introducing the Enhanced Ghostwriter Lie Detection Tool

Burkhardt, J., Vrij, A., Leal, S., Deeb, H., Vernham, Z.

1 Jan 2025, In: Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. 14, 1, p. 74–84

Research output: Article

Omission lies: the effect of omitting little or much information on verbal veracity cues

Vrij, A., Leal, S., Deeb, H., Fisher, R. P.

1 Jan 2025, In: The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context. 17, 1, p. 25-37

Research output: Article

2024

In my opinion you are wrong! Adding a Model Statement to the Devil’s Advocate Approach to detect true and false opinions

Leal, S., Vrij, A., Deeb, H., Fisher, R. P.

2 Dec 2024, In: Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition

Research output: Article

Lie detection through observing nonverbal behaviour: its present state and future

Vrij, A., Fisher, R. R. P.

24 Nov 2024,

Research output: Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Honesty repeats itself: comparing manual and automated coding on the veracity cues total details and redundancy

Deeb, H., Vrij, A., Palena, N., Hypšová, P., Dib, G., Leal, S., Mann, S.

21 Oct 2024, In: Applied Psycholinguistics. 45, 5, p. 934-962, 29p.

Research output: Article

Veracity judgments based on complications: a training experiment

Deeb, H., Vrij, A., Burkhardt, J., Leal, S., Mann, S.

19 Sep 2024, In: Behavioral Sciences. 14, 9, 15p., 839

Research output: Article

Introducing the high-context communication style interview protocol to detect deception in pairs

Leal, S., Vrij, A., Ashkenazi, T., Vernham, Z., Fisher, R., Palena, N.

1 Sep 2024, In: Acta Psychologica. 249, 20p., 104440

Research output: Article

All mouth and trousers? Use of the Devil’s Advocate questioning protocol to determine authenticity of opinions about protester actions

Mann, S., Vrij, A., Deeb, H., Leal, S.

1 Sep 2024, In: Psychiatry, Psychology and Law. 31, 5, p. 909-931

Research output: Article

Verbal cues in omission lies: The effect of informing sources about the essential part of the event

Leal, S., Vrij, A., Deeb, H., Fisher, R. P.

1 Aug 2024, In: Applied Cognitive Psychology. 38, 4, 12p., e4232

Research output: Article

View all my research outputs