Psychological Whitespace: Our Secrets “Lie” in the Spaces Between Handwritten Words

Psychological whitespace is the space patterns in handwriting, which reveal information that people do not consciously share. It is a quantitative behavioral model I first developed in 2016 while researching deception detection. Continued research demonstrated that psychological whitespace is far broader in application, offering insight not just into truthfulness, but into cognition, intention, and behavioral disposition.

By 2024, the data was compelling enough to share publicly. I recognized that credibility assessments are widely needed yet poorly addressed. Today they appear under many labels: background checks, medicolegal evaluations, security clearances, financial vetting, KYE (Know Your Employee) procedures, and credibility determinations. In practice, they are qualitative, subjective, and highly variable.

Why Traditional Behavioral Assessments Fall Short

We have all taken personality tests or satisfaction surveys. They rely on a scaled rating system that allows researchers to “quantify” answers. But the interpretation is based on population comparisons, not individual cognition. What does a 5 out of 7 truly mean to you? Or to me?

The answer: something different in each case.

These scales are grounded in perception, not empirical measurement. Consider a pregnancy test: it is binary. There is either a sufficient level of HCG hormone present, or there is not. But a survey response of “5” has no universal meaning.

In traditional survey-based tools, personal uniqueness is removed from the equation.

Behavior, however, is dynamic. Human behavior changes as their surrounding environment, stress, and knowledge evolve. Personality characteristics, however, are static deeper cognitive traits, which remain consistent. Handwriting serves as a precise real-time diagnostic window of a person’s thoughts and emotions.

Why Handwriting Works

Handwriting reveals segmentation of thought. The spacing between words corresponds directly to cognitive boundary shifts. Features like letter shape, slant, or stroke pressure often reflect personality traits which are static and measurable, but only yielding correlations.

When I developed the deception-detection tool based on psychological whitespace, I ensured the model aligned directly with cognitive-load principles and deception theory. It was constructed to be defensible in forensic contexts. The model demonstrated statistical significance, validity, and reliability.

The model is quite simple: “When a person writes, the pen stops when the brain’s signals to write, pause.”  

Handwriting is the perfect diagnostic tool, because there are no outliers in handwriting; each spacing discrepancy has meaning. Credencis does not discard data, homogenize data, nor force uniform assumptions. The data dictates its own meaning. Correlation metrics become irrelevant because the signal exists in the structure, not in aggregated trends.