Deception and design: the impact of communication technology on lying behavior

ABSTRACT

Social psychology has demonstrated that lying is an important, and frequent, part of everyday social interactions. As communication technologies become more ubiquitous in our daily interactions, an important question for developers is to determine how the design of these technologies affects lying behavior. The present research reports the results of a diary study, in which participants recorded all of their social interactions and lies for seven days. The data reveal that participants lied most on the telephone and least in email, and that lying rates in face-to-face and instant messaging interactions were approximately equal. This pattern of results suggests that the design features of communication technologies (e.g., synchronicity, recordability, and copresence) affect lying behavior in important ways, and that these features must be considered by both designers and users when issues of deception and trust arise. The implications for designing applications that increase, decrease or detect deception are discussed.

References

1. Bos, N., Olson, J., Gergle, D., Olson, G. and Wright, Z. Effect of Four Computer-Mediated Communications Channels on Trust Development. In Proceedings of CHI 2002, pp. 135--140.
2. Burgoon, J.K., Stoner, G.M., Bonito, J.A., and Dunbar, N.E. Trust and deception in mediated communication. Proceedings of HICSS, 2003, pp. 44--56.
3. Burgoon, J.K., Blair, J.P., Qin, T., and Nunamaker, F. Jr. Detecting deception through linguistic analysis. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science, (Vol. 103, pp. 91--101)
4. Camden, C., Motley, M.T., & Wilson, A. White lies in interpersonal communication: A taxonomy and preliminary investigation of social motivations. Western Journal of Speech Communication, 48 (1984), pp. 309--325.
5. Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. Information richness: A new approach to managerial behavior and organization design. In B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 6, pp. 191--233). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1984.
6. Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management Science, 32 (1986), pp. 554--571.
7. DePaulo, B.M., & Kashy, D.A. Everyday lies in close and personal relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74 (1998), pp. 63--79.
8. DePaulo, B.M. Kashy, D.A., Kirkendol, S.E., Wyer, M.M., & Epstein, J.A. Lying in everyday life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70 (1996), pp. 979--995.
9. Feng, J., Lazar, J., and Preece, J. Interpersonal Trust and Empathy Online: A Fragile Relationship. In Proceedings of CHI 2003: Extended Abstracts, pp. 718--719.
10. Hancock, J.T., & Dunham, P.J. Language use in computer-mediated communication: The role of coordination devices. Discourse Processes, 31 (2001), 91--110.
11. Horn, D. Is Seeing Believing? Detecting Deception in Technologically Mediated Communication. In Proceedings of CHI 2001: Extended Abstracts, pp. 297--298.
12. Horn, D., Olson, J. and Karasik, L. The Effects of Spatial and Temporal Video Distortion on Lie Detection Performance. In Proceedings of CHI 2002: Extended Abstracts, pp. 714--715.
13. Horrigan, J.B. New Internet Users: What They Do Online, What They Don't, and Implications for the 'Net's Future. Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2000.
14. Kashy, D.A., & DePaulo, B.M. Who lies? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70 (1996), pp. 1037--1051.
15. Turner, R.E., Edgely, C., & Olmstead, G. Informational control in conversations: Honesty is not always the best policy. Kansas Journal of Sociology, 11 (1975), pp. 69--89.
16. Walther, J.B. Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research, 23 (1996), pp. 3--43.
17. Voida, A., Newstetter, W., & Mynatt, E.D. When conventions collide: The tensions of instant messaging attributed. In Proceedings of CHI 2002, pp. 187--194.
18. Vrij, A. Detecting lies and deceit. Wiley, Chichester, England, 2000.
19. Zheng, J., Veinott, E., Bos, N., Olson, J., and Olson, G. Trust without Touch: Jumpstarting long-distance trust with initial social activities. In Proceedings of CHI 2002, pp. 141--146.

Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Law, social and behavioral sciences

    • Psychology

• Human-centered computing

  • Collaborative and social computing