| Abstract: | 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. |
