Interoceptive Accuracy Enhances Deception Detection in Older Adults

Abstract

Difficulties with deception detection may leave older adults especially vulnerable to fraud. Interoception, i.e., the awareness of one’s bodily signals, has been shown to influence deception detection, but this relationship has not been examined in aging. The present study investigated effects of interoceptive accuracy (IAcc) on deception detection in 76 young (18-34 years) and 74 older (53-82 years) adults. Participants completed a heartbeat-counting task to determine IAcc. Deception detection was assessed across two distinct and ecologically valid task: i) a lie detection task in which they made veracity judgments of genuine and deceptive individuals pleading for the safe return of a loved one, and ii) phishing email detection to capture accuracy in online deception detection. Multilevel logistic regression models showed lower IAcc in older than young participants. Among both young and older adults, greater IAcc was associated with greater lie detection accuracy. Furthermore, with greater chronological age among older adults, greater IAcc was associated with better accuracy in both detecting deceptive people and identifying fraudulent phishing emails. These findings support IAcc as a relevant factor for interventions aimed at enhancing deception detection abilities in aging.

Phishing Vulnerability Compounded by Older Age, APOE4 Genotype, and Lower Cognition

“…For instance, to expand the breadth of investigation, future research could extend our investigation into socioemotional functioning domains by considering variables such as depression and social isolation among older adults can exacerbate deception risk 65,66 . In this context, future work will benefit from integration of neural (e.g., structural and functional markers of brain health) and physiological (e.g., measures of interoceptive awareness 47 ) data that lend themselves to develop training interventions (e.g., training of interoceptive awareness 67 ; neurofeedback training 68 ). Also, the current study focused only on email phishing and was, therefore, limited in its coverage of conditions under which deception takes place.…”

“…As part of a larger project on aging and deception (see also Heemskerk et al 47 ), the present study leveraged the newly developed PHishing Internet Task (PHIT; Figure 1A; adapted from Lin et al 43 and Oliveira et al 48 ) to assess behavior-based real-life susceptibility to phishing. This task was conducted out of the participants' homes where they received simulated phishing emails unbeknownst to them (Figure 1B for sample email) over a 30-day period (2 emails per day).…”

Financial Fraud and Deception in Aging

“…With particular relevance to aging, recent evidence supports that with greater chronological age among older adults greater interoceptive accuracy is associated with better deception detection [46]. This effect was present both in lie detection and in phishing email detection [46,47]. These findings support interoceptive accuracy as a relevant factor for interventions aimed at enhancing deception detection abilities among older adults.…”

“…For example, greater interoceptive awareness, reflecting the ability to accurately read internal physiological signals (e.g., "gut feelings" [41,42]), was correlated with greater physiological arousal to liars than truth-tellers and improved subsequent deception detection [43] and more rejection of unfair offers in financial decision making [44,45]. With particular relevance to aging, recent evidence supports that with greater chronological age among older adults greater interoceptive accuracy is associated with better deception detection [46]. This effect was present both in lie detection and in phishing email detection [46,47].…”

Financial Fraud and Deception in Aging

“…For example, greater interoceptive awareness, reflecting the ability to accurately read internal physiological signals (e.g., “gut feelings” [ 41 , 42 ]), was correlated with greater physiological arousal to liars than truth-tellers and improved subsequent deception detection [ 43 ] and more rejection of unfair offers in financial decision making [ 44 , 45 ]. With particular relevance to aging, recent evidence supports that with greater chronological age among older adults greater interoceptive awareness was associated with better deception detection [ 46 ]. This effect was present both in lie detection and in phishing email detection [ 46 , 47 ].…”