Originally Posted by
CXYYZ
3) Repeating a question over and over again is not the way to judge someone's reaction to guess if they're lying. For having stamps in my passport that contained Arabic, I did once get yelled at crossing at Buffalo. While I consider the agent rude, ignorant and paranoid, at least her approach to questioning was more sound. She asked me a baseline question (how long had in been in Taiwan), asked more questions, and the came back to her baseline question. Far more effective than asking me where Bahrain was 20 times in a row.
Actually, yes, it is.
If one is asked the same question mutiple times, it checks consistancy with the answer as well as their reactions. If one is scared they start to crack which is typical with interrogations. If there are holes in the answers, there are holes that the person being question would need to answer and address.
Ever watch a police/detective tv show? They often ask the same question multiple times, sometimes with different form or throwing a wrench in it, but that's a very common investigative technique.