Deception And Dating: Knowledge Of Tactics May Improve Detection Accuracy
Abstract
Previous research on deception detection has indicated that a number of factors influence accuracy. It has been hypothesized that deception and the detection of deception is highly influenced by mating context. The current study investigated sex differences in the detection of deception used in typical human mating situations. Sixty-eight females were tested for deception detection using a video paradigm in which the actors either lied or told the truth. An accompanying survey was given that evaluated common deception tactics. Contrary to previous findings, female deception detection was not significantly above chance. However, knowledge of opposite gender tactics increased deception detection such that those females that were aware of common male tactics were superior at detecting deception. The results, which are preliminary, suggest that the evolutionary advantage females have over males may have a top-down cognitive origin such that knowledge of tactics may influence perceptual abilities.