SCAN (Scientific Content Analysis)
Definition
A proprietary statement-analysis method developed by Avinoam Sapir that claims to identify deceptive content in written statements through analysis of linguistic features including pronoun use, missing time, and unexplained information changes.
- Developer
- Avinoam Sapir
- Type
- Proprietary statement-analysis method
- Analysed features
- Pronoun use, missing time, unexplained changes
- Scientific status
- Not empirically validated to forensic standard
Common questions
Why is SCAN treated with caution in forensic settings?+
Independent peer-reviewed studies have generally failed to replicate SCAN's claimed accuracy at detecting deception, and its scoring criteria are not fully disclosed for outside testing, which puts it below the reliability threshold most courts expect for scientific evidence.
How does SCAN differ from statement validity analysis (CBCA/SVA)?+
CBCA and SVA are published, peer-reviewed criteria sets with a documented research base, while SCAN's underlying methodology remains largely proprietary, which is a major reason the two are not treated as equivalent in court.
Related terms
- Base Rate Problem
- The statistical challenge facing any deception-detection method: if only a minority of statements examined are actually deceptive, even a method that is...
- Extraneous Information
- Information in a statement that the SCAN analyst judges to be beyond the stated scope of the question. SCAN treats such additions...
- Ground Truth
- In deception-detection research, independently verified knowledge of whether a statement was truthful or deceptive, established through confession, DNA, or other objective means,...
- Lack of Conviction
- A SCAN category covering hedging phrases like 'I think', 'I believe', 'I don't remember', which Sapir proposes signal deception because a person...
- Pronoun Shift
- A SCAN indicator based on the claim that deceptive writers drop first-person pronouns or shift to third-person reference when describing events they...