This study addresses the frequency and the distribution of reported lying in the adult population. A national survey asked 1,000 U.S. adults to report the number of lies told in a 24-hour period. Sixty percent of subjects report telling no lies at all, and almost half of all lies are told by only 5% of subjects; thus, prevalence varies widely and most reported lies are told by a few prolific liars. The pattern is replicated in a reanalysis of previously published research and with a student sample. Substantial individual differences in lying behavior have implications for the generality of truth-lie base rates in deception detection experiments. Explanations concerning the nature of lying and methods for detecting lies need to account for this variation.Humans are ambivalent about deception. On one hand, virtually all human cultures have some prohibition against lying. On the other hand, the ability to deceive well may be essential for polite interaction and, at times, self-preservation. Considerable research exists on the topic of deception, yet surprisingly little is known about the base prevalence of deception. Instead, much of this research has relied on untested assumptions and anecdotal evidence or on a few studies with small and nonrepresentative samples.The dearth of deception prevalence research is a symptom of a broader systemic concern regarding research in the social sciences. Asch (1952, reprinted 1987) observed that ''before we inquire into origins and functional relations, it is necessary to know the thing we are trying to explain.'' Influenced by Asch, Rozin (2001) argued that social scientific research often emphasizes experimental studies and formal hypothesis testing to the exclusion of more basic descriptive work. In line with Rozin's critique, more than 30 years of experimental detection research has proceeded without much attention to the basic nature of the phenomena itself. We believe that inquiry into deception and related behaviors associated with deception detection requires basic descriptive research examining the extent and distribution of deceptive communication in the population. In the extensive literature on deception,
Despite scholarly consensus that there is more than one type of involvement, investigators have not developed measures that assess the various types across diverse contexts. The goal of this study was to develop and validate measures of value-, outcome-, and impression-relevant involvement. Items were developed for three social issues (abortion, death penalty, marijuana) and two consumer products (jeans, toothpaste). The results indicate that these items effectively distinguish the three types of involvement. In addition, evidence of construct validity was obtained. Specifically, impression-relevant involvement was associated with other-directedness, outcome-relevant involvement was more strongly associated with information seeking than either value-or impression-relevant involvement, and value-relevant involvement (but also outcome-relevant involvement) was related to attitude extremity.
Christie and Geis implicitly assume that the component beliefs of Machiavelli's philosophy are linked to other personality traits only as mediated by a central dimension of Machiavellianism. This assertion was cast in the form of a causal model and shown to be false. Confirmatory factor analysis identified four component beliefs: flattery, rejection of honesty, rejection of the belief that people are moral, and the belief that people are vicious and untrustworthy. These beliefs differentially relate to personality traits including dogmatism, self-esteem, and locus of control. For example, dogmatism correlates almost perfectly with cynicism but does not correlate with rejection of honesty. A path analysis supports a developmental theory in which the key events are the development of cynicism and the consequent adoption of a competitive stance toward others. The path analysis shows that some of the component beliefs are causally antecedent to variables such as competitiveness, whereas other component beliefs are causally dependent on the same variables. Thus, the Machiavellianism total score cannot enter into a logically consistent causal relation with these variables.
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