TRUTH, EQUIVOCATION CONCEALMENT AND LIES IN JOB APPLICATIONS AND DOCTOR-PATIENT COMMUNICATION/

Our concern was to explore two institutional contexts in which telling the truth, equivocating, and lying could each carry costs: applicants not getting a ob and doctors coping with distressed patients. For the job interviews, applicants could be truthful, lie, or equivocate abou t personal qualities specified as necessary in the job description. Th e chances of detection were varied. The bias was toward truth telling, but in one condition, its incidence dropped to 52%. Lying and equivoc ation/concealment were preferred equally. For the medical scenarios, s tories were varied to match Bok's suggestions about conditions that co uld encourage doctors not to be truthful. Truth telling was preferred universally. Lying was seen as wrong, as was equivocation. Within, the se constraints, however, the variances across Kinds of patient and out come were associated with Bok's expectations.