New airport security screening method

[cronus]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 110514.php

New airport security screening method more than 20 times as successful at detecting deception

WASHINGTON - Airport security agents using a new conversation-based screening method caught mock airline passengers with deceptive cover stories more than 20 times as often as agents who used the traditional method of examining body language for suspicious signs, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

In experiments spanning eight months, security agents at eight international airports in Europe detected dishonesty in 66 percent of the deceptive mock passengers using the new screening method, compared to just 3 percent for agents who observed signs thought to be associated with deception, including lack of eye contact, fidgeting and nervousness. The suspicious-signs screening method is widely used in airports in the United States, United Kingdom and many other countries, even though it has not been proven to be effective in laboratory or real-life settings, said researcher Thomas Ormerod, PhD, head of the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex in England.

"The suspicious-signs method almost completely fails in detecting deception," Ormerod said. "In addition, it costs a lot of money, absorbs a lot of time and gives people a false sense of security."

The new Controlled Cognitive Engagement method (CCE), which is based on previous laboratory studies, had the highest rate of deception detection in the first large-scale study of screening methods conducted in a real-life airport setting. This could have important implications for thwarting terrorist attacks and catching other criminals, according to the research. The study, which was funded in part by the British government, was published in APA's Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Ormerod previously worked with the British government to improve security at athletic venues during the 2012 London Olympics.

"The U.K. government gave us a challenge that if we didn't think the current airport screening method worked well, then we should come up with a better one," said Ormerod, who conducted the research with Coral Dando, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Wolverhampton and former London police officer.

In the CCE method, security agents engage in friendly, informal conversation by asking passengers seemingly unrelated and unpredictable questions about knowledge the passenger should possess. The agent then gauges whether a passenger's responses become more evasive or erratic. "If you're a regular passenger, you're just chatting about the thing you know the best -- yourself," Ormerod said. "It shouldn't feel like an interrogation."

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[Tero]

So now the old "are you a terrorist" and "have you been to any muslim run training camps" questions are out?

[Hermit]

Not while waterboarding is still the in thing. Or if you get another Joe McCarthy. "Are you, or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party ISIS?"

[cronus]

"Do you take ISIS with your onboard beverages?" and watch their reaction...shifty or in a panic? clams up?

[Hermit]

That's one thing I've learnt a few years ago: Do not joke at any fucking all in any fucking way when interacting with airport security. Not even in some backwoods airfield of a minor city that handles around 150 passengers a day max.

[cronus]

That's one thing I've learnt a few years ago: Do not joke at any fucking all in any fucking way when interacting with airport security. Not even in some backwoods airfield of a minor city that handles around 150 passengers a day max.

Imagine a few here learnt the hard way with that one?

[Hermit]

That's one thing I've learnt a few years ago: Do not joke at any fucking all in any fucking way when interacting with airport security. Not even in some backwoods airfield of a minor city that handles around 150 passengers a day max.

Imagine a few here learnt the hard way with that one?

I think I would have been arrested if I wasn't travelling with my partner at the time. She immediately made disapproving noises about my comment, which probably tipped the scales in my favour. Just.

I was so incensed by their busybody bloody-mindedness that I would have set off a bomb, had I one clipped on my belt.

[JimC]

What if you are a morose old bastard who doesn't want to fucking chat with anyone?

[Svartalf]

Like me?

[JimC]

Except you're not old...

[Svartalf]

I feel old, I no longer wank as often as I used to.