THE RELUCTANCE TO EXPOSE DANGEROUS LIES

Three studies examined a hypothesized inhibition against exposing a li e. In Experimcnt 1, 21 men and 27 women were placed in conditions in w hich their nonexposure of another's lie resulted either in the risk of an experimenter's data being contaminated (impersonal consequence), o r in the risk of the subject contracting pinkeye (personal consequence ). Each person was given the opportunity to expose the lie, first in a group setting, and later in a private setting. Eighty-three percent o f the subjects in the impersonal condition and 77% of the subjects in the personal condition failed to expose the lie. Experiment 2 explored the phenomenon further by assessing whether subjects not in the prese nce of individuals other than the liar would be more likely to confron t the lie. As in Experiment 1, it was found that most subjects did not reveal the lie, regardless of consequence condition of setting. In Ex periment 3, it was anticipated that objective self-awareness would int eract with consequence information to produce more exposing behavior i n the personal-consequence condition, but not in the impersonal condit ion. Results generally confirmed the hypothesis; a significant interac tion of Consequence x Self-Awareness Condition was found.