Truth, Equivocation Concealment, and Lies in Job Applications and Doctor-Patient Communication

Abstract

Our concern was to explore two institutional contexts in which telling the truth, equivocating, and lying could each carry costs: applicants not getting a job and doctors coping with distressed patients. For the job interviews, applicants could be truthful, lie, or equivocate about personal qualities specified as necessary in the job description. The chances of detection were varied. The bias was toward truth telling, but in one condition, its incidence dropped to 52%. Lying and equivocation/concealment were preferred equally. For the medical scenarios, stories were varied to match Bok's suggestions about conditions that could encourage doctors not to be truthful. Truth telling was preferred universally. Lying was seen as wrong, as was equivocation. Within these constraints, however, the variances across kinds of patient and outcome were associated with Bok's expectations.

The relevance of lowered personal control for patients who have stoma surgery to treat cancer

“…This is not to imply that doctors were being deliberately misleading. In fact, a study using carefully selected case scenarios, including different types of patient with different prognoses, established that doctors overwhelming prefer telling patients the truth (Robinson, Shepherd, & Heywood, 1998). However, our participants' perceptions do suggest some communication problems.…”

Equivocation in Political Discourse: How Do We Know When It Is Happening?

“…One further complication is the possible relationship between the usage of equivocation and actually telling untruths (W. P. Robinson, Shepherd, & Heywood, 1998). In one group of experiments, lying was found to be related both to the likelihood of being detected and the importance of the response to the recipient.…”

“…So individuals were more likely to lie about their ability to match key personal criteria on a job application than they were as a doctor telling a patient some bad news. Robinson et al (1998) note that in both instances, for most people, truth telling was by far the most common response and that telling a lie was related to the perceived importance of the truth to the recipient (William Peter Robinson, 1996). However, as with equivocation, lieing requires both the speaker to adopt that strategy and the observer to notice this.…”

Cancer and Patient–Physician Communication

“…C. Levinson, 1983; Tracy, 1991). For example, in general conversation there is the expectation that when one person asks another a question, an answer will follow (although there can be exceptions based on communicative contexts; for details, see Robinson, Shepherd and Heywood, 1998). Cegala and colleagues found that the same principle held during medical interviews.…”