Lies | Deception

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between response latency, speech rate accommodation, and judgments of deception. Participants listened to a recorded conversation between Jim and Claire, a dating couple. The conversation contained 32 question/answer pairs, with each speaker responding to 16 questions. Half of the responses were self-oriented (benefiting the self), and half were other-oriented (benefiting someone else). Each response was manipulated in terms of response latency and speech rate accommodation. Participants rated each response as either honest or deceitful, as well as confidence in their judgments and seriousness of each lie. Results showed that response latency was generally weighted more heavily than speech rate accommodation as a cue to deception. Early and on-time latencies were viewed as truthful, while late latencies were viewed as deceitful. In addition, several significant differences emerged as a function of type of lie (self- vs. other-oriented), gender of speaker, and gender of participants. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive models, /stereotypes.