An empirical test of the decision to lie component of the Activation-Decision-Construction-Action Theory (ADCAT)

[EN]Meta-analyses reveal that behavioral differences between liars and truth tellers are small. To facilitate lie detection, researchers are currently developing interviewing approaches to increase these differences. Some of these approaches assume that lying is cognitively more difficult than truth...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Masip Pallejá, Jaume, Blandón-Gitlin, Iris, Riva, Clara de la, Herero, Carmen
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Salamanca (USAL)
Repositorio:GREDOS. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Salamanca
OAI Identifier:oai:gredos.usal.es:10366/159752
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10366/159752
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:ADCAT
Decision to lie
Cognitive load
Deception detection
Descripción
Sumario:[EN]Meta-analyses reveal that behavioral differences between liars and truth tellers are small. To facilitate lie detection, researchers are currently developing interviewing approaches to increase these differences. Some of these approaches assume that lying is cognitively more difficult than truth telling; however, they are not based on specific cognitive theories of lie production, which are rare. Here we examined one existing theory,Walczyk et al.'s (2014) Activation-Decision-Construction-Action Theory (ADCAT). Wetested the Decision component. According to ADCAT, people decidewhether to lie or tell the truth as if they were using a specificmathematical formula to calculate the motivation to lie from (a) the probability of a number of outcomes derived from lying vs. telling the truth, and (b) the costs/benefits associated with each outcome. In this study, participants read several hypothetical scenarios and indicatedwhether theywould lie or tell the truth in each scenario (Questionnaire 1).Next, they answered several questions about the consequences of lying vs. telling the truth in each scenario, and rated the probability and valence of each consequence (Questionnaire 2). Significant associations were found between the participants' dichotomous decision to lie/tell the truth in Questionnaire 1 and their motivation to lie scores calculated fromthe Questionnaire 2 data. However, interestingly,whereas the expected consequences of truth telling were associated with the decision to lie vs. tell the truth, the expected consequences of lying were not. Suggestions are made to refine ADCAT,which can be a useful theoretical framework to guide deception research.