The Accuracy-Confidence Correlation in the Detection of Deception
- 1 November 1997
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Personality and Social Psychology Review
- Vol. 1 (4) , 346-357
- https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0104_5
Abstract
A meta-analysis was conducted of research on the relation between judges' accuracy at detecting deception and their confidence in their judgments. A total of 18 independent samples revealed an average weighted accuracy-confidence correlation of .04, a relation not significantly different from zero. However, confidence was positively correlated with judges' tendency to perceive messages as truthful, regardless of the actual truthfulness of the messages. Judges were also more confident when they really were rating truths compared to when they were rating lies. Also, men were more confident than women, and judges who had a closer relationship to the message sender felt more confident in their judgments of truths and lies. Methodological and theoretical explanations for these findings are discussed.Keywords
This publication has 42 references indexed in Scilit:
- Spotting Lies: Can Humans Learn to Do Better?Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1994
- Training students to decode verbal and nonverbal cues: Effects on confidence and performance.Journal of Educational Psychology, 1992
- Lie detection across culturesJournal of Nonverbal Behavior, 1990
- Correlation of eyewitness accuracy and confidence: Optimality hypothesis revisited.Journal of Applied Psychology, 1987
- On‐the‐Job Experience and Skill at Detecting Deception1Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1986
- Age Changes in the Detection of DeceptionChild Development, 1982
- Identification of spontaneous and deliberate behaviorJournal of Nonverbal Behavior, 1981
- Eyewitness accuracy and confidence: Can we infer anything about their relationship?Law and Human Behavior, 1980
- THE TRUTH-DECEPTION ATTRIBUTION: EFFECTS OF FAMILIARITY ON THE ABILITY OF OBSERVERS TO DETECT DECEPTIONHuman Communication Research, 1980
- Telling lies.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1979