Lecture 5 - Social Deception

Front 1

Social deception

Back 1

an intentional, conscious act that is intended to foster in another a belief that the deceiver considers false

Front 2

Examples of Deception in Non-human primates

Back 2

• When male animal finds good piece of food, female will go up to him and sexually intirigue him
• Male causes distraction and dominant males go to investigate while he has sex with nearest female

Front 3

Willy the chimpanzee

Back 3

• People could approach the cage and he would hold a piece of straw out to someone in the audience
• In other hand he had the largest handful of crap that he would shove in their face when they tried to take the straw

Front 4

Developmental trends in social deception: The Lewis research paradigm

Back 4

• Peeking at toy
• All children who peeks at 2.5 dont lie but all children who peek at 5 lie about it

Front 5

Wilson’s observational study

Back 5

•Find lies in kids within family and then measure amount of lies two years later
•Boys lie more than girls
- 96% lied at least once.
- 4 year olds lied once every two hours, 2 year olds once every 5 hours.
•High individual differences
•The more transgressions you engage in the more opportunity you have to lie

Front 6

The DePaulo diary studies

Back 6

- The frequency of deception in young adult social interaction
- Almost all accounts that were told had lies somewhere in them

Front 7

UVA students report deceiving in order to:

Back 7

o Avoid embarrassment
o Maintain relationships
o Establish power over the other person
o Avoid social conflict
o protect the other person

Front 8

The Rowatt et al. studies

Back 8

- Write sketch of own characteristics to be shared with each person - who will review 5 or 6 such “profiles” and make a dating choice.
- Own profile altered more for attractive other.
- Own profile altered in the direction of meeting other’s desire for “ideal” date.
- No sex differences in willingness to use deceptive self-presentation.

Front 9

Ekman’s classic study

Back 9

– looked at nonverbal behavior to figured out to detect lies
- Nurse study = watched two videos.. one nice and cute about a puppy and one that was gorey and bloody
- They then went into an interview room and sat down facing another person. They had to either lie about which video was playing or tell the truth because other person couldn’t see the video

Front 10

CUES ACTUALLY ASSOCIATED WITH DECEPTION

Back 10

- Greater pupil dilation.
- Increased blinking.
- Increase in use of adaptors.
- More lower body movement.
- Less face and head movement.
- More speech errors.
- Higher speech pitch.

Front 11

WHY ARE MOST OF US SUCH POOR DETECTORS?

Back 11

1. Suspicion is impolite.
2. Detection complicates interaction.
3. “Truth-telling” & “demeanor” biases.
4. No feedback on actual experiences with lie telling.
5. We attend to the wrong cues.

Front 12

Demeanor bias

Back 12

– studied a boy who’s peers always mistrusted him – his face looked untrustworthy

Front 13

Perceiver Stereotypes

Back 13

1. Frequent postural shifts.
2. Low levels of eye contact.
3. Frequent smiling.
4. Short speech latency.

Front 14

Expert Approaches to Lie Detection

Back 14

- The polygraph = To overcome polygraph – put tack in your shoe and step on it at random points in time to make the test not predictable
- Facial behavior = Frank’s focus on facial behavior
o 3 students given same opportunity to steal and can determine whether they are lying

Front 15

Why are Secret Service agents so good?

Back 15

- Ekman has found that secret service agents are the best at lying
- Why are they so good at lying? = Personality factors, high motivation
- Kleck’s theory – attention to faces and feedback.
- Constantly scanning faces of people in the crowd
- If they are suspicious they automatically test their suspicions