Research on deception in marketing communications: Its relevance to the study of nonverbal behavior

Marketing researchers have used a variety of approaches in studies of deception and related subjects. This literature is selectively reviewed here, with emphasis on findings relevant to the study of nonverbal behavior. Topics covered include: (a) deception-detection experiments involving advertising, bargaining, and selling; (b) ways of deceiving by implication, while avoiding literal falsehoods; (c) cues conveying the impression of truthfulness, as predicted by attribution and economic theories; (d) circumstances under which lower credibility may be associated with stronger persuasion; (e) individual differences in disbelief in marketing communications; and (f) corporate analogies to individual nonverbal behavior.I would like to thank Jacob Jacoby for serving as guest editor for this paper and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.