INTERPERSONAL DECEPTION .12. INFORMATION MANAGEMENT DIMENSIONS UNDERLYING DECEPTIVE AND TRUTHFUL MESSAGES

Interpersonal Deception Theory (IDT) proposed that among the strategie s deceivers use to create credible messages is information management. Delineated here are five fundamental dimensions along which verbal co ntent and style can be altered to manage information: (1) completeness (informational and conversational), (2) veridicality (actual and appa rent), (3) directness/relevance (semantic and syntactic/pragmatic), (4 ) clarity (semantic and syntactic/pragmatic), and (5) personalization. Two studies employing encoding and decoding methodologies are present ed that assess the degree to which (1) senders can vary discourse on d emand along these dimensions and (2) receivers (observers) can recogni ze such variations. Participants in the first experiment engaged in se parate truthful and deceptive interviews; during the latter, they enac ted one of three different forms of deception (falsification, equivoca tion, concealment) representing different combinations of the five dim ensions. Participants in the second experiment gave truthful and decep tive answers during a single interview and again enacted different dec eption forms. Participants and observers then rated interviewee respon ses on the five dimensions. Results from both studies confirmed that d eceptive communication is less complete, honest (veridical), direct/re levant, clear, and personalized (attributable to the speaker) than tru thful communication. Falsifications were the least truthful but seen a s most complete. Equivocations were the least clear and direct/relevan t and seen as such. They were also seen as the most personalized. Find ings are discussed in light of IDT, McCormack's Information Manipulati on Theory, and Jacobs, Dawson, and Brashers' replication of McCormack' s work.