Artful Dodging in the Courtroom

While being deposed about his alleged steroid use, former baseball MVP Barry Bonds was asked directly if he had ever had a syringe injected into him by his former trainer. Bonds answered: I’ve only had one doctor touch me. And that’s my only (sic) personal doctor. Greg, like I said, we don’t get into each other’s personal lives. We’re friends, but I don’t – we don’t sit around and talk baseball, because he knows I don’t want – don’t come to my house talking baseball. If you want to come to my house and talk about fishing, some other stuff, we’ll be good friends, you come around talking about baseball, you go on. I don’t talk about his business. You know what I mean? That’s what keeps our friendship. You know, I am sorry, but that – you know, that – I was a celebrity child, not just in baseball by my own instincts. I became a celebrity child with a famous father. I just don’t get into other people’s business because of my father’s situation, you see… This rambling and disjointed answer – which might best be described as him answering the question, “How has being the child of a celebrity affected your life?” – led to his conviction on obstruction of justice, for dodging the question he was asked and offering such an egregiously unrelated answer. Our research has explored two questions: how and when can people manage to dodge questions without being detected, and how can we prevent these “artful dodgers” from getting away with it?