Lie to Me: Can training improve social deception detection abilities in neurotypical adults?

Social lies are integral to communication; people deceive others an average of one to two times a day during social interactions. This study investigated whether training using the Psychologically-Based Credibility Assessment Tool (PBCAT) improved detection of social lies. Twenty neurotypical participants were randomly assigned to either a training or no training condition. Those in the training condition received information about truth and lie detection based on cues in the PBCAT. The untrained group did not receive any training. Participants in both conditions viewed videos of social interactions in which people were either telling the truth or lying. The results indicate that the PBCAT training did not significantly improve neurotypical adults’ abilities to identify social lies, which is in line with previous research findings of an approximately 54% rate of detection accuracy. All participants – with or without training – showed a bias toward believing communication partners were telling the truth in social contexts and all were more accurate at identifying true statements than lies.

Author

• Goldberg, Julie Anne

Language

• en

Keyword

• deception detection
• social cognition
• speech-language pathology
• traumatic brain injury

Date created

• 2019

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Speech-Language Pathology

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Bamdad, Michael
• Brundage, Shelley

Committee Member(s)

• Clare, Andrew

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/h415pb10b