The role of conversational involvement in deceptive interpersonal interactions

Interpersonal Deception Theory (IDT) postulates that interactive deception differs from noninteractive deception due to combined influences of deceive r goals and social skills, mutual influence processes between sender and re ceiver, feedback, and interaction dynamics. An experiment tested hypotheses that (a) interactive deception displays differ from truthful ones only at the outset of interaction and approximate truthful displays over time, (b) displays are moderated by deceiver social skills, (c) deceivers adapt to re ceiver communication with reciprocal or compensatory displays, (d) low invo lvement by receivers conveys negative feedback that instigates more behavio ral adjustments by deceivers than does high involvement, and (e) receivers' postinteraction judgments of deceivers are directly related to deceiver be havioral displays. An experiment in which senders alternated between tellin g the truth and deceiving, and partners varied their own level of involveme nt, produced supportive results that have implications for the stability of , and causal mechanisms underlying, deception displays and interpersonal Co mmunication generally.