Truth Biases and Aroused Suspicion in Relational Deception

Abstract

Relatively stable perceptions of truthfulness tend to develop in relationships, although situations may arise causing partners to become suspicious of one another. The truth bias that grows as relationships develop was conceptualized as a cognitive heuristic for judging a partner's veracity. This study of relational partners investigates the influence of the truth bias and aroused suspicion on judgments of truthfulness. Using a 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design, one partner was assigned the role of interviewee who responded either truthfully or deceptively to questions about his or her emotional reactions to a pair of film clips. The other partner was assigned to the role of an interviewer who was either suspicious or not suspicious and made judgments about his or her partner's veracity. Findings were consistent with the truth bias hypothesis. Partners in well-developed relationships demonstrated a strong truth bias, resulting in greater judgments of truthfulness and (somewhat) lower detection accuracy. Suspicion aroused by a third party served to offset this heuristic and lead to greater judgments of deceptiveness. The implications of these findings for research on social cognition and deceptive communication are discussed.

ALIED: Humans as adaptive lie detectors.

“…People are more likely to make lie judgments when made suspicious than when they are not suspicious (e.g., Levine & McCornack, 1991; McCornack & Levine, 1990;Stiff et al, 1992;Toris & DePaulo, 1985), even when cognitive resources are limited by means of a cognitive load (M. G. Millar & Millar, 1997 …”

“…In fact, in contrast to default theories, in certain contexts it may take more effort to believe what others say is true. People are more likely to make lie judgments when made suspicious than when they are not suspicious (e.g., Levine & McCornack, 1991;McCornack & Levine, 1990;Stiff et al, 1992;Toris & DePaulo, 1985), even when …”

Group Performance in Military Scenarios Under Deceptive Conditions

“…Receivers will generally believe others and accept message content at face value (DePaulo et al, 1985). Stiff and Kim (1992) identified truth bias as something consistently present in the background until it was determined by the receiver to be no longer warranted due to increasing suspicion, discovery of deceit, or an external warning of deceit. Stiff and Kim want on to say that this truth bias also extends to strangers.…”

Training effects on judgment accuracy in a computer-mediated environment

“…The second training plan focuses on the indicators that are evident during a deceptive communication Kalbfleisch, 1985;Zuckerman and Driver, 1985). The final training plan describes the cognitive heuristics, or mental short cuts, that accompany deceptive communications, and how to utilize them to detect deception (McCornack and Parks, 1986;Stiff, Kim, and Ramesh, 1992). These three training plans will be measured on the level of deception detection performance the participants' exhibit upon completion of each training session.…”

“…Traditional training, or "training where a time lag exists between when the training occurs and when the task to which the training is to be applied takes place," (Biros et al, 2002:4) based on the reliable verbal and nonverbal indicators of deception should improve deception detection performance. False alarms, or "non-deceptive data incorrectly identified as being deceptive," (Biros et al, 2002:4) occur when individuals are highly aroused or suspicious (Miller and Stiff, 1993;Parasuraman, 1984;Stiff et al, 1992). Traditional training, by its definition, allows for a time lag between when the training is given and when it is to be applied to a task.…”