Funding

Competition funded (UK/EU and international students)

Project code

PSH50070125

Department

School of Psychology, Sport and Health Sciences

Start dates

October 2025

Application deadline

17 January 2025

Applications are invited for a fully-funded three year PhD to commence in October 2025.

The PhD will be based in the Faculty of Science and Health within the School of Psychology, Sport and Health Sciences, and will be supervised by Dr Haneen Deeb, Dr Aldert Vrij and Dr Nicola Palena. 

Candidates applying for this project may be eligible to compete for one of a small number of bursaries available. Successful applicants will receive a bursary to cover tuition fees at the UK/EU rate for three years and a stipend in line with the UKRI rate (£19,237 for 2025/26). Bursary recipients will also receive a contribution of £1,500 per year towards consumables, conference, project or training costs..

Costs for student visa and immigration health surcharge are not covered by this bursary. For further guidance and advice visit our international and EU students ‘Visa FAQs’ page.

The work on this project will involve:

  • Comparing individual differences among talkative and non-talkative interviewees
  • Comparing individual differences among talkative and non-talkative truth telling and lie telling suspects
  • Employing qualitative and quantitative measures to test these differences
  • Publishing the findings in top-tier academic journals
  • Meeting with a supportive team of internal and external supervisors

The PhD candidate will investigate individual differences amongst interviewees with a focus on forensic settings. Previous research has shown that interviewees vary in the amount of detail they provide due to different reasons including memory, personality, and deceptive strategies (Breil et al., 2019; Deeb et al., 2022). However, there is a lack of research that examines individual characteristics which define talkative and non-talkative interviewees. The PhD candidate will thus develop profiles of such interviewees by assessing characteristics that have been shown to explain variance in being talkative, including demographics, personality, and loneliness, and test these characteristics in a forensic setting. 

The PhD candidate will also examine individual differences within truth tellers and lie tellers. Lie detection research has shown that laypeople and professionals are poor at detecting lies due to minor differences between truth tellers and lie tellers (Hartwig & Bond, 2011) and to variability within truth tellers and lie tellers themselves (Levine et al., 2022). The majority of previous research has focused on differences between truth tellers and lie tellers but not on differences within them. 

Non-talkative suspects can be problematic within the forensic interview (Deeb & Severino, 2023). Non-talkative truth tellers can be perceived by the interviewer as resistant and hiding information and thus at risk of being mistaken for lie tellers. Non-talkative lie tellers who remain silent are often accurately viewed as lie tellers, but they make it difficult to gather information. Talkative lie tellers can also be wrongly judged as forthcoming and thus honest. 

Understanding individual differences among interviewees will help (a) practitioners in assessing why specific suspects (do not) provide rich accounts, and (b) researchers in designing experiments and interview protocols that account for these differences and thus enhance information gathering and lie detection. 

 

Entry requirements

You'll need a good first degree from an internationally recognised university (minimum upper second class or equivalent, depending on your chosen course) or a Master’s degree in an appropriate subject. In exceptional cases, we may consider equivalent professional experience and/or qualifications. English language proficiency at a minimum of IELTS band 6.5 with no component score below 6.0.

The successful candidate is expected to have some knowledge of psychology and lie detection research and to be familiar with the use of statistical software. The candidate should be willing to set up experiments and to analyse quantitative and qualitative data.

How to apply

If you have any project-specific questions please contact Dr Haneen Deeb (haneen.deeb@port.ac.uk), quoting the project code.

When you are ready to apply, please use the online application form of the respective project on our PhD scholarships page. Please note that email applications are not accepted.

 Make sure you submit a personal statement, proof of your degrees and grades, details of two referees, proof of your English language proficiency and an up-to-date CV.  Our ‘How to Apply’ page offers further guidance on the PhD application process.

If you want to be considered for this funded PhD opportunity you must quote project code PSH50070125 when applying.