A Critical Review of Cognitive Load Lie Detection

This article critically examines the idea that cognitive load interventions can expose lies. I discuss the theoretical ambiguities of seven popular justifications of cognitive load lie detection. For example, liars must suppress the truth while lying: this handicap makes lying challenging such that one can exploit the challenge by inducing more cognitive load to expose lies. Each of those seven justifications can hardly be falsified. Moreover, the theoretical fitness of each justification is variable and unclear. A thematic review indicated that researchers substantially rely on the customary seven justifications to support cognitive load lie detection despite the shortcomings. I propose research questions whose answers could help ascertain the theoretical fitness of the seven justifications and the cognitive load lie detection premise. Going forward, stakeholders must focus on falsifying the basic premise of cognitive load lie detection: such efforts will determine the future of the idea.