Study Says Conversations Are More Effective for Airport Security

A new study says that asking airline passengers open-ended, conversational questions is 20 times more successful at catching deceptive passengers than the screening method traditionally used in the U.S. and other countries. 

In the study, which was funded in part by the British government and published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 204 mock airplane passengers — including acting students and undercover police detectives — were given cover stories, and asked to attempt to deceive security agents in real airport screenings in Europe. As an extra incentive, the mock passengers were given money if they successfully avoided detection by the security agents.