Deceptive Practices in Managing a Family Member with Alzheimer's Disease

Deception in the Alzheimer family shares characteristics with deception in a variety of other settings, in that it becomes routinized and contextualized. However, deception in the Alzheimer family is utilized toward the end of informal social control rather than primarily for information control. A key differentiating feature of the Alzheimer context is the gradually diminishing mental capacity and awareness of the person with the disease. This four-year longitudinal study, involving participant observation of a caregivers' support group and in-depth interviews of its members, examines how deceptive practices are learned; the various forms such practices take, including two-party deception and collusion with others; and conflict posed for the caregiver between treating the family member with dignity and coping with the daily ordeal of managing in the home.     

Sexual deception as a social-exchange process: development of a behavior-based sexual deception scale

The use of deception in association with sexual encounters may take many forms, ranging from outright lies to more subtle, evasive manipulations. To address such deceptions, a behavior-based sexual deception scale was developed utilizing social exchange theory. Participants were 267 individuals associated with two large universities who were surveyed regarding different aspects of their sexual deceptive behaviors. In addition, items addressing sexually related behaviors and attitudes were assessed for validation purposes. Principal components analysis identified three components of sexual deception, labeled Blatant Lying, Self-Serving, and Avoiding Confrontation. Confirmatory factor analysis verified the resulting structure, and promising validity was noted. In general, those using any of these deceptions reported more sexual partners and one-night stands. Those telling blatant lies to have sex were more likely to report greater needs for sex, while those using self-serving lies or having sex to avoid confrontation experienced greater worry about partner loss. Men were more likely to use blatant lies to have sex, while women were more likely to have sex to avoid confrontation. Results support sexual deception as an exchange process, with sex for pleasure and positive relationship outcomes acting as rewards, and unwanted sex and deception consequences as costs. Implications for health interventions and primary prevention applications are discussed.     

Sexual Deception as a Social-Exchange Process: Development of a Behavior-Based Sexual Deception Scale

The use of deception in association with sexual encounters may take many forms, ranging from outright lies to more subtle, evasive manipulations. To address such deceptions, a behavior-based sexual deception scale was developed utilizing social exchange theory. Participants were 267 individuals associated with two large universities who were surveyed regarding different aspects of their sexual deceptive behaviors. In addition, items addressing sexually related behaviors and attitudes were assessed for validation purposes. Principal components analysis identified three components of sexual deception, labeled Blatant Lying, Self-Serving, and Avoiding Confrontation. Confirmatory factor analysis verified the resulting structure, and promising validity was noted. In general, those using any of these deceptions reported more sexual partners and one-night stands. Those telling blatant lies to have sex were more likely to report greater needs for sex, while those using self-serving lies or having sex to avoid confrontation experienced greater worry about partner loss. Men were more likely to use blatant lies to have sex, while women were more likely to have sex to avoid confrontation. Results support sexual deception as an exchange process, with sex for pleasure and positive relationship outcomes acting as rewards, and unwanted sex and deception consequences as costs. Implications for health interventions and primary prevention applications are discussed.     

Adults' perceptions of children's videotaped truthful and deceptive statements

SUMMARY. This article uses a research study on decisions about children's truth telling to discuss the difficult issues involved in using video-taped evidence in child abuse cases. The adult raters had to decide whether each child recounting a school trip was telling the truth or had only seen a video recording of the day's events. Raters were just above chance in detecting truth and deception, were better able to detect truth tellers than deceivers, and were more successful in decoding deceptive behaviour presented by boys and younger children. Most accuracy-confidence relationships were not significant.     

The effect of comparisons on detecting deceit

The present study examined the impact of viewing condition on accuracy in detecting deception. In Experiment 1, observers saw: 1) a single interview for each subject and then judged whether it was honest or deceptive; or 2) two interviews for each subject, and then judged which one was deceptive. All observers were given the full audiovisual record; they were able to see the face and the entire body and to hear the speech as it was spoken. As predicted, detection accuracy when two interviews were available for comparison was significantly higher than accuracy for a single interview. In both cases, however, mean detection accuracy was not significantly different from chance. In Experiment 2, the impact of viewing order of the two interviews (honest first vs. deception first) was assessed. When honest interviews were shown first, judges' accuracy was significantly greater than when deceptive interviews were shown first, and it was also significantly better than chance. Heuristics such as anchoring and representativeness may account for this phenomenon. Reasons for observers' inability to detect deception in this, and other studies, are discussed.Paul Ekman's work is also supported by a Research Scientist Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 06092) and a previous grant from NIMH (MH11976).     

Beliefs about cues associated with deception

People's beliefs about the association of 19 visual and auditory cues with deception were assessed in one of two questionnaires: Subjects were asked to indicate the association of each cue with deception in their own behavior (self-perception condition) or in other people's behavior (other-perception condition). The 19 behaviors listed in the questionnaires had been previously examined in research on actual behaviors associated with deception; ten of these behaviors had also been examined in research on cues associated with judgment of deception. Stronger association between the various cues and deception were obtained in the other-perception than in the self-perception condition, indicating that people believe they control their own deceptive behavior better than other people control theirs. Beliefs about the association of each behavior with deception (averaged across the two conditions and sex of respondents) correlated .11 with the actual association of each cue with deception, and .44 with the association of each cue with judgment of deception. The possibility that the correspondence between beliefs about deception and actual cues to deception is higher for some specific types of lie-telling was discussed.     

Patterns of Nonverbal Behavior Associated with Truth and Deception: Illustrations from Three Experiments

The digital age has brought with it new and powerful computer-based methods of analyzing heretofore elusive patterns of nonverbal behavior. C-BAS (Meservy 2010) is a computer-assisted behavioral observation tool for identifying and tracking nonverbal behaviors from video. THEME (Magnusson, The hidden structure of interaction: from neurons to culture patterns, IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp 4–22, 2005) is a software program that discovers patterns among discrete events in time-ordered data. Together, these tools enable more precise measurement and analysis of nonverbal behavioral dynamics. Applications to three corpora derived from interpersonal deception experiments reveal unique nonverbal patterns that distinguish deceptive from nondeceptive interactions. The first and second experiments produced serial, hierarchically related patterns of behaviors that differed in length and complexity between truthful and deceptive participants during interviews about a theft and cheating, respectively. The third experiment produced differential patterns by and among group members completing a task. Deceivers were inclined toward strategic initiations and interactional control, whereas suspicious group members adopted a more passive, possibly watchful stance. Discovery of these patterns challenges the prevailing view that nonverbal behaviors are too faint and inconsistent to identify deceptive communication. Results have numerous implications regarding the following: the development of new measurement tools locating significant effects of nonverbal behaviors, support for theory that coherent and repetitive relationships exist within and among interactants’ communication, demonstration of the role of nonverbal behaviors in deceptive communication and the dynamic and strategic nature of deception.     

Nonverbal cues to deception among intimates,friends, and strangers

Buller and Burgoon (in press) propose that deceivers attempt to encode strategically nonverbal cues which indicate nonimmediacy and project a positive image. At the same time, deceivers leak arousal and negative affect via their nonverbal display. This experiment tested these predictions, while examining the influence of relational history on deception cues and the stability of deception cues within deceptive conversations. The nonverbal behavior of 130 strangers, friends, and intimates was measured. Results indicated that deceivers signalled nonimmediacy, arousal, and negative affect, but they did not appear to project a positive image. Deception cues were mediated by relational history and showed considerable temporal variation. Strangers leaked more arousal and negative affect than friends and intimates. Further, deceivers, particularly deceiving friends and intimates, seemed to monitor and control their nonverbal behavior during deception by suppressing arousal and negative affect cues and moderating nonimmediate behavior.     

The effect of probing on deceivers and truthtellers

This study examined the effect of probing for additional information on the accuracy of deception detection. One hundred forty-eight experimental interactions were analyzed to see whether deceivers and truthtellers behave differently when probed and whether probing improved deception detection. Probing produced a number of changes in nonverbal behavior, several of which differed between deceivers and truthtellers. Probing may have communicated suspicion or uncertainty; therefore, deceptive sources were motivated to control their nonverbal demeanor to mask deception-related cues and appear truthful. Probing did not improve detection. Instead, probing receivers considered all sources more truthful. It is suggested that suspiciousness and prior knowledge may affect probing's efficacy.     

Deception and reputation – An experimental test of reporting systems

We use a repeated sender-receiver game in which sender behavior is revealed to future counterparts either by (i) standardized computer reports or (ii) individual reports composed by the receivers. Compared to our baseline, both reporting systems significantly decrease the rate of deceptive messages chosen by senders. However, we find that computer reports reduce deception to a higher extent than individually written reports. This comparably higher impact can be explained by the senders’ anticipation of a high number of missing or deficient receiver reports that we find. We conclude that the precision of a reporting system has a higher importance for reducing deception than its personal character via individual feedback. Surprisingly, the reliability of computer reports is not correctly anticipated by receivers, who trust individually written reports more in the beginning and hence seem to back the wrong horse initially.     

Kinesic Patterning in Deceptive and Truthful Interactions

A persistent question in the deception literature has been the extent to which nonverbal behaviors can reliably distinguish between truth and deception. It has been argued that deception instigates cognitive load and arousal that are betrayed through visible nonverbal indicators. Yet, empirical evidence has often failed to find statistically significant or strong relationships. Given that interpersonal message production is characterized by a high degree of simultaneous and serial patterning among multiple behaviors, it may be that patterns of behaviors are more diagnostic of veracity. Or it may be that the theorized linkage between internal states of arousal, cognitive taxation, and efforts to control behavior and nonverbal behaviors are wrong. The current investigation addressed these possibilities by applying a software program called THEME to analyze the patterns of kinesic movements (adaptor gestures, illustrator gestures, and speaker and listener head movements) rated by trained coders for participants in a mock crime experiment. Our multifaceted analysis revealed that the quantity and quality of patterns distinguish truths from untruths. Quantitative and qualitative analyses conducted by case and condition revealed high variability in the types and complexities of patterns that were produced and differences between truthful and deceptive respondents questioned about a theft. Patterns incorporating adaptors and illustrator gestures were correlated in counterintuitive ways with arousal, cognitive load, and behavioral control, and qualitative analyses produced unique insights into truthful and untruthful communication.     

Tackling Diving: The Perception of Deceptive Intentions in Association Football (Soccer)

The three studies reported examine judgment about the attempts of footballers (soccer players) to deceptively exaggerate the effect of a tackle. Study one reveals that non-professional participants agree about which players were attempting deception and those that were not; there was also agreement about the tackles in which the intentions were ambiguous. Study two demonstrates that the intentions of tackled players match the judgment of their intentions by observers. Study three provides a taxonomy of behaviors that are associated with deceptive and non deceptive intentions. We conclude that deceptive intentions in this context are to a degree manifest in behavior and are observable.     

Effects of segmentation patterns on the perception of deception

Subjects viewed videotapes of truthful and deceptive messages. Channels presented were either face or body with or without speech. Subjects were instructed to segment each message into either large, medium, or small units; following the segmentation of a message, subjects rated its truthfulness. Results showed that subjects who organized the behavior into small units perceived the messages as more truthful than those who organized the behavior into either medium or large units. In addition, when speech was available, accuracy of lie detection was highest when the behavior was segmented into medium units; when speech was not available, accuracy of lie detection was highest when the behavior was segmented into small units. The effects of observation set on the perception of deception were discussed.     

Learning to detect deception from three communication channels

A Lie Detection Test—a videotape of senders delivering truthful and deceptive messages—was administered to subjects via one of three channels: Face only, speech only, or face plus speech. Feedback information, identifying the messages as truthful or deceptive, was given to some subjects (learning condition) but not to others (control). It was found that subjects in the learning condition performed better overall relative to control subjects, regardless of the channel presented to them. In addition, however, accuracy of subjects in the learning condition improved progressively over the course of the test (relative to control), for the speech only and face plus speech channels but not for the face only channel. This effect was interpreted in terms of the limited number of deception cues offered by the face.     

Decoding deception: A look at the process

This study examined the effects of sex and response format on the process of decoding deceptive messages. A videotape was made containing 32 items (16 honest and 16 dishonest) in which encoders described a person they liked and a person they disliked both honestly and deceptively. Two response formats were used: (1) the rating of items on a six-point liking scale and a six-point deception scale and (2) a forced choice format whereby subjects had to choose between the four types of items. Decoders were given five sets of scores: (a) accuracy scores, (b) awareness of deception scores, (c) confidence scores, (d) cues scores, which were the number of items on which they mentioned using a particular type of cue (verbal, nonverbal, or both combined), and (e) a measure of response time for each item. In the accuracy analyses, there were so significant main effects for sex for either format. However, when decoding males, females (relative to males) tended to read the overt rather than the covert, affect. Females, however, were more aware of the possibility of deception but did not differentiate between honest and dishonest items. Males were more confident and took less time than females to make a decision. Females mentioned the use of cues more than males did. There were no significant correlations between accuracy and the process variables although for males, but not females, there were significant correlations among the process variables for both honest items and dishonest items.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the International Applied Psychology Congress (IAAP), Jerusalem, Israel, July, 1986.     

Lie detection across cultures

Can people detect deception by watching a liar's nonverbal behavior? Can lies be detected across cultures? In the current paper, we report the first cross-cultural study to date of the detection of deception from nonverbal behavior. Americans and Jordanians were videotaped while telling lies and truths; other Americans and Jordanians watched the resulting videotapes and made lie detection judgments. Results showed similar patterns of lie detection within each of the two culture but no lie detection across cultures. In both the U.S. and Jordan, people who avoided eye contact and paused in the middle of speaking were judged to be deceptive. The findings are discussed within an adaptive perspective.     

Lesbian,gay, bisexual,and transgender families and health

Research consistently demonstrates that family relationships are key determinants of health, but most research on health and families focuses on a heterosexual and cisgender context. Sexual and gender identities often are overlooked or erased in family and health research. We present an overview of the current state of research on LGBT families and health, using a life course approach and pointing to the ways that LGBT people's experiences of families occur within a broader social structural context, with implications for their health and the health of their family members. We focus on parenthood, parent–child ties, intimate relationships, and caregiving. We also identify two theoretical obstacles for studies of LGBT families and health as well as important research areas for moving forward, such as the inclusion of non‐binary and queer identities in our studies of family and health. Incorporation of LGBT and other queer families and family forms into our health research interrogates assumptions within family and health research and offers insight into how to move the field forward.     

Verbal and nonverbal cues as mediators of deception ability

In an extension of previous research on individual differences in deception ability, 35 undergraduate subjects were administered standardized measures of social skills and public self-consciousness and their attitudes on a variety of sociopolitical attitudes were measured. Later, subjects were videotaped while giving pro-attitudinal (truthful) and counter-attitudinal (deceptive) presentations to a videocamera. Videotaped presentations were content analyzed for various verbal and nonverbal cues, and were shown to untrained judges who rated each on a scale of truthfulness/believability. Results of structural modeling analyses indicated that socially skilled subjects were judged as believable regardless of whether they were truth-telling or deceiving. Individuals high in public self-consciousness were less successful deceivers. Most importantly, these relationships were mediated by certain behavioral cues, particularly cues of verbal fluency, which were consistently associated with judgments of truthfulness. These results have both theoretical and methodological implications for future deception research.This research was supported by intramural grants from California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) Foundation to the first author. The authors would like to thank Barbara Throckmorton, Maria Hale, Barbara Choco, Scott Johnson, Lee Salinas, and Monica Turner for assistance in data collection and coding. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Ronald E. Riggio, Department of Psychology, California State University, Fullerton, CA 92634.Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Psychology at California State University, Fullerton. His research interests include the study of individual differences in communication skills and research on deception. Requests for reprints should be sent to Dr. Riggio at: Department of Psychology, Calif. State University, Fullerton, CA 92634. Joan Tucker, M.A. received her Masters degree at California State University, Fullerton. She is currently a graduate student at the University of California, Riverside, conducting research on nonverbal communication. Keith F. Widaman, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside and has contributed to research on the development of human abilities and on a range of quantitative topics.