Chapter 12

DECEPTION – INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

• 2 Truths and a Lie• Turn to a partner.• Tell them two things about yourself that are true and

tell them one thing about yourself that is a lie.• See if they can guess which one is the lie.

EVER PLAY THIS GAME?

• Three possible ways to detect lying – • Nonverbal communication (body language, smiling,

gaze aversion) • Vocal behavior (speech rate, pitch) • Physiological responses. • Problem is that none of these is unequivocal evidence

of lying.

REMEMBER “LIE TO ME”?

• Two kinds of cue to deception – • Thinking cues – inconsistencies in the story itself, or an

over-rehearsed story. May speak more slowly. • Feeling cues – fear (and also excitement) produces

higher-pitched voice, more speech errors.

HOW DO WE DETECT DECEPTION?

• Three factors affect a liar’s nonverbal behavior. • Emotional reactions of guilt, fear or excitement (gaze

aversion, decreased illustrators, physiological arousal indicators such as blinking, self-touching, speech hesitations and errors, raised pitch)

• Cognitive effort • Attempted behavioral control (decreased movement,

lack of spontaneity; unnaturally measured speech rate)

CONTINUED…

• Self-presentational perspective. • ***Truth-tellers and liars have much in common –

nervous truth-tellers may resemble liars. • Liars may endorse their self-presentations less (seem

less involved). • Liars take their credibility less for granted, and are

more concerned about the impression they make on others.

• Essentially, we can’t just go off of what we see and hear because people who tell the truth might also do these things.

• More dilated pupils. • Appear more tense physically and vocally. • Chin raised. • Sound more ambivalent and less involved. • Higher pitched voice. • Repeat words and sentences more. • Move arms, hands, fingers, legs and feet less. • However - behaviors indicative of lying can be indicative of

other states too (e.g. anxiety, ambivalence)

META-ANALYSIS OF GENUINE CHARACTERISTICS OF LIARS

• Summary of 39 studies published 1980-2000. • Overall, 56% correct. • Truth bias – people tend to judge messages as true. • Consequently appear better at identifying truthful

messages (67%) and worse at identifying lies (44%).

TRUTH BIAS

• (a) Cues are complex and hard to detect. • (b) People look for the wrong cues. • Experts are no better than general public. • Police training programs emphasize wrong cues. • Lay people may have truth bias, police have a lie bias. • Problems with studying deception: • In lab settings, lying is condoned, so no guilt. • Low stakes, even in studies with financial rewards for

successful lying and penalties for failure.

PEOPLE ARE VERY POOR AT DETECTING LYING, BECAUSE…

• We have a truth-bias.• Our stereotypes aren’t accurate.• Deception/lying is too complex for us research with

great accuracy.

SO…WHAT DO WE KNOW?

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