Originally Posted by
Mats
But I'm stuck on the idea that behavior detection questions are a form of screening, and this screening is taking place before the TSA has jurisdiction.
Wouldn't TSA response be "Well there is a sign when you enter the queue that informs you of screening will take place." I know that has been a legal standard for many years when reviewing airport screening, consent, and the 4th Amendment - that standard being was the individual on notice that screening was occurring. So I would agree that BDO questions is a form of screening.
This was a mock customs inspection in which travellers were given fake contraband, and judgments of their behavior were made by customs inspectors versus "laymen." Behavior predicted if a passenger would be searched, not that he or she was carrying contraband:
Paul Eckman wrote something recently that "mock" situations do not provide an accurate view of things.
My research and the research of many other scientists found that when there’s a lot to lose (death or imprisonment) emotions are generated which are very hard to conceal and often leak out in what I call micro-expressions. The SPOT personnel are trained to identify these and many other signs of emotional overload. When there is not only the threat of dire punishment for failure but great reward promised for success whether it be money or 72 virgins it puts a lot of pressure on people's ability to think, producing cognitive overload, and subtle changes in speech. The SPOT people are trained to detect the subtle signs of emotional and cognitive overload. Of course they didn’t catch the play-actors. They had nothing to lose and nothing to gain if their “bombs” were detected. There was no cognitive or emotional overload. I am all for testing it, but lets not do it in such a shoddy, half-baked, invalid fashion.